Northfield, IL 3Q 2023 — Bernardi Asset Management’s (BAM) Short Taxable strategy achieved “Top Guns” status within Zephyr’s PSN manager database. PSN Top Guns performance rankings are tabulated for thousands of strategies across 75 peer groups subdivided by increasingly rigorous screens and reported in ascending classes from 1-6 stars. About PSN For nearly four decades, […]
Yields moved up precipitously during the month of September as the AAA rated 10-year municipal has moved from 2.85% on August 31st to 3.52%[1] today. 3.52% is equivalent to a taxable rate of 5.58% calculated at the 37% bracket. This bond selloff (higher yields) has pulled the 10-year treasury to 4.84% as of this morning […]
Municipal bond financing offers a stable and reliable source of low cost funding for communities across our country as they work to improve their local infrastructure base and create jobs. Today, more than ever before, our communities need a healthy and vibrant municipal bond market to help them grow and prosper. On May 16th 2023, […]
Northfield, IL 1Q 2023 — Bernardi Asset Management’s (BAM) High Income (Five Star category) and Intermediate Taxable (One Star category) strategies achieved “Top Guns” status within Zephyr’s PSN manager database. PSN Top Guns performance rankings are tabulated for thousands of strategies across 75 peer groups subdivided by increasingly rigorous screens and reported in ascending classes from […]
Moody’s “Corporate Default Rate to Breach Historical Levels” Three of four of the largest U.S. bank failures have occurred in the past two months Capital One: “Credit Card Delinquencies Test Multi-Year Highs as Job Market Faces ‘Material’ Worsening. Powell: Monetary Policy Trying to Reach and Stay at Sufficiently Restrictive Stance to Bring Inflation Down –WSJ […]
Northfield, IL February 2023 — Bernardi Asset Management’s (BAM) Tactical Ladder and High Income strategies were awarded Manager of the Decade status within the Municipals’ and Intermediate Maturity fixed income universes. The PSN Top Guns Manager of the Decade list includes the top ten performers for the latest 10-year period. These municipal strategies were also […]
The Fed on Wednesday raised its target range for the Fed Funds Rate by 50 basis points (0.50%) to 4.25%-4.50%. The Fed Funds Rate (FFR) most directly impacts short term treasury rates, while bonds 5-years and beyond are primarily priced based on market forces and the expectations for future growth, inflation, and resulting Fed policy. […]
The market rout of 2022 has left few asset classes unscathed. The S&P 500 is down 22.51% through 9/23. While bonds have not been immune given the Fed’s 180 degree policy turn from late 2021 and persistent inflationary pressures. The 2-year treasury’s steep rise is a sharp representation of how quickly the Fed transformed from […]
The first half of 2022 is one of the few market environments in recent history where all major asset classes suffered. The Novel Investor blog’s Asset Class Returns captures this nicely noting “cash” outperformed with a +0.2% return. “HG Bonds” (high-grade bonds) came in an uninspiring second place at negative 10.4%, while the S&P 500 […]
Jerome Powell and his Federal Reserve colleagues have begun taking steps to put the income back in fixed income assets, leading to one of the worst bond market drawdowns in the past forty years. Rates have spiked as the Fed has made a rapid about-face in its monetary policy approach. Concurrently, municipal yields are up […]