Investment Grade

For much of the past year, the AI story in markets has been one of unrestrained optimism. Firms have been racing to spend on chips, infrastructure, and data centres, and equity valuations have generally rewarded those with the boldest capital expenditure plans.

October brought the first serious bout of volatility in corporate bond markets for some time, with two high-profile US bankruptcies raising fears of a more systemic issue in credit.

Earlier this month, we wrote about the high cost of staying in cash in the Euro market. In that note, we argued that a combination of inflation, low front-end rates and steeper curves, favoured a rotation out of cash and cash like instruments into other alternatives that delivered better real returns, including credit. Building on this argument, we wanted to extend this perspective to the US dollar market and highlight a few key points.

As fixed income investors face inflation surprises, tariff rhetoric and growing concerns around central bank independence, Gordon Shannon, Partner and Co-Head of Investment Grade, explains why the focus remains on resilience.

With the Fed’s stance suggesting it is prioritising growth over sticky inflation risks, volatility in longer dated bonds is likely to persist and the case for increasing duration in fixed income is not compelling.

TwentyFour Asset Management’s Gordon Shannon reflects on a volatile but resilient second quarter of 2025 for the Investment Grade team, shaped by shifting tariff policies and evolving central bank actions.

TwentyFour Asset Management’s Chris Bowie reflects on a politically eventful first quarter, its impact on European and US markets and what it could mean for investors going forward.

In what has been a busy start to 2025, TwentyFour Asset Management’s Gordon Shannon looks back on the final quarter of 2024.

With a macro backdrop of falling rates and solid global growth, TwentyFour Asset Management's Eoin Walsh says fixed income investors can expect healthy total returns in 2025.

Chris Bowie at TwentyFour Asset Management describes the third quarter of 2024 as a significant turning point in fixed income markets, marked by the Federal Reserve (Fed) cutting interest rates by 50 basis points (bps) for the first time in many years. This followed an earlier 25bp cut by the Bank of England (BoE), setting the scene for further rate cuts over the coming years.

TwentyFour Asset Management's Chris Bowie discusses the underweight duration across all of our outcome driven strategies, how this phase is now coming to an end, and why we are beginning to increase our interest rate duration in all of our funds.

Back in April we looked in detail at the challenges and potential outcomes facing Thames Water, the debt-laden UK utility company battling to avoid government intervention. On the back of a lacklustre set of financial results and being placed into a “turnaround oversight regime” by the regulator Ofwat, Thames Water’s situation took a further turn for the worse last week.