Yesterday we most likely witnessed Mario Draghi’s last monetary policy package. The European Central’s next meeting on October 24 will be the president’s last, and given the extent of the measures unveiled on Thursday it is looking like a non-event.

After Mario Draghi’s final liquidity shot into the European economy’s arm, the European Central Bank (ECB) is passing the baton to governments – in other words, fiscal policy.

Alongside the usual unveilings at the Frankfurt Motor Show this week, one bit of automotive news that piqued our interest yesterday was Moody’s downgrading Ford to “junk” status, assigning a Ba1 rating to the company’s debt with a stable outlook.

We are approaching the last quarter of this year with plenty of risks on the horizon. Ludovic Colin, Head of Global Flexible Bonds and Senior Portfolio Manager, Yann Lepape PhD, reveal those risks and provide you with solutions.

Right now, all German government bonds and a third of all bonds globally are in negative yielding territory. But help is at hand, Senior Portfolio Manager Christian Hantel explains how you can still find returns in a negative yielding environment.

What is the purpose of your company? Not what it does, but its purpose. Its goals. Its compass. A meaningful answer is usually pretty short, understood by a layman, and can provide a light to follow through tough decisions. The pressure for companies to rethink their purpose, and the sharing of rewards across a company’s stakeholders, has risen sharply.

The market environment is defined by political upset and tensions. Meanwhile, fundamental/economic asset pricing is still intact.

September new issuance has opened with a bang as we expected. Volumes are high and the issuer types are diverse, with a slant towards more frequent borrowers who tend to have their ducks permanently lined up in order to jump on favourable conditions. We expect this trend to continue throughout September as bankers push borrowers to take advantage of what could be one of the best opportunities they might see this cycle.

With Brexit uncertainty having ratcheted up a number of notches since Prime Minister Boris Johnson sought to prorogue parliament, yet again investor attention is focused on what impact a hard Brexit could have on sterling assets, and how to best protect themselves from associated volatility. Since the Brexit referendum in 2016, our view has been that safely capturing the ‘Brexit premium’ priced into many sterling assets was a way to enhance value for investors. However, we have always had a cautious view on what Brexit could ultimately look like, and currently it seems clear that the chance of a hard Brexit has increased significantly.

This year’s New York triathlon was cancelled due to a heatwave. The global economy is also battling with exhaustion: the energy drinks provided by central banks will only have their desired effect toward the latter half of 2019.

The latest view from Luc D’hooge, Head of Emerging Market Bonds, on this week’s failed treasury bill auction and what it means for Argentina’s liquidity issues.

Yesterday, the Queen approved a request from the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson (‘Bojo’), to suspend Parliament from 10th September to 14th October. This means that when MPs return from summer recess next Tuesday, they could have as few as four days sitting in Parliament before it is suspended again. The Government have argued that this is following procedure – on average a Parliamentary session lasts a year and then is suspended before a Queen’s speech begins a new session – the current parliamentary session has lasted two years. A new session allows the Government to outline its agenda, as well as resetting quotas for certain mechanisms such as Private Members’ Bills.