Donny DBM/iStock via Getty Images The fund posted returns of 0.58% (Institutional shares) and 0.70% (Investor A shares, without sales charge) for the fourth quarter of 2025. Developed market currencies and emerging market spreads and currencies contributed to performance, while U.S. high yield credit and U.S. rates positions detracted. We tactically increased duration (interest rate sensitivity) t...
Donny DBM/iStock via Getty Images The fund posted returns of 0.58% (Institutional shares) and 0.70% (Investor A shares, without sales charge) for the fourth quarter of 2025. Developed market currencies and emerging market spreads and currencies contributed to performance, while U.S. high yield credit and U.S. rates positions detracted. We tactically increased duration (interest rate sensitivity) to an overweight position, notably by raising exposure to emerging market rates. Amid economic resilience, the fund maintained its overweight positions in the U.S. dollar and emerging market currencies. It continued to hold an up-in-quality bias across global credit sectors. Contributors The fund's currency positioning contributed to performance. Within developed market currencies, an underweight allocation to the Japanese yen was beneficial as it depreciated amid the prospect of slower interest rate hikes from the Bank of Japan. The overweight position in the U.S. dollar was additive given economic resilience. The overweight exposure to emerging market currencies contributed as, broadly, these continued to appreciate amid supportive technical conditions and fundamentals. Similarly, emerging market spreads, particularly credit, were helpful due to tighter spreads and attractive all-in yields. Detractors An out-of-benchmark allocation to U.S. credit detracted during the quarter. Additionally, the U.S. rates position weighed on performance, driven by the underweight exposure to the front end of the yield curve. The allocation performed weakly in October as the yield curve rallied following softer Consumer Price Index data and as the Federal Reserve continued to cut interest rates. Further insight During the quarter, we increased top-line duration to an overweight position (6.28 years versus the benchmark's 6.18 years), mainly by raising the overweight exposure to emerging market rates. In emerging market rates, we preferred to own countries with resilient growth and easing mon...
Russia Launches Springtime Offensive On Ukraine, As "That Other War" Drags On Just days after we reported that trilateral peace negotiations between Russia, Ukraine, and the Trump administration had been suspended - likely indefinitely - thanks to Washington's escalating involvement in the Iran war, Reuters is now confirming the inevitable: Moscow is pressing ahead with a fresh springtime offensiv...
Russia Launches Springtime Offensive On Ukraine, As "That Other War" Drags On Just days after we reported that trilateral peace negotiations between Russia, Ukraine, and the Trump administration had been suspended - likely indefinitely - thanks to Washington's escalating involvement in the Iran war, Reuters is now confirming the inevitable: Moscow is pressing ahead with a fresh springtime offensive while Kiev scrambles to hold the line. As we reported before, from the collapse of talks in Geneva and Miami to Putin's envoy shuttling back for what turned out to be fruitless charades, the Iran war has not only sucked up U.S. attention and air-defense munitions Ukraine desperately needs, but has also juiced Russian oil revenues at the worst possible moment for Kremlin planners. According to the latest from Kiev , Ukraine's strategy now boils down to "building on recent tactical successes and battlefield innovations like mid-range strikes" to blunt the assault on the so-called Fortress Belt, the heavily fortified cluster of cities in Donetsk including Sloviansk (northern anchor), Pokrovsk, and Kostiantynivka. Russia, fresh off capturing nearly all of the key logistics hub at Pokrovsk this winter, has already launched a battalion-sized push northeast of Sloviansk and smaller probing attacks around the southern end of the belt. The U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and Finnish analysts at Black Bird Group are calling it exactly what it is: Moscow creating conditions for a broader offensive now that the ground has thawed. Sloviansk authorities just ordered the compulsory evacuation of children as Russian forces sit a mere 20 km away — a grim sign the "deteriorating security situation" is no longer hypothetical. Russian General Staff chief Valery Gerasimov boasted last week that the offensive is "underway in all directions," explicitly naming Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, and Kostiantynivka as targets. Over the past four days alone, Ukrainian General Staff data shows ...