After significant monetary tightening over the last year, the Federal Reserve has now hiked rates all the way up to a range of 5-5.25%, but this tightening cycle may finally be at a close. With elevated risk of a near-term recession, markets are now expecting the Fed to pivot to rate cuts before the end of the year. For investors, an environment where economic conditions are looking precarious, and rates may soon be headed downwards, an active approach towards fixed income exposure is particularly important. On today's episode, we're going to focus on municipal bonds, which may be an effective way for investors to access high-quality and attractive tax-exempt yields in portfolios, particularly when heading into a downturn. To discuss this, Dr. David Kelly is joined by Richard Taormina, a portfolio manager for several municipal bond strategies here at JP Morgan Asset Management.
For more insights on the Guide to the Markets, visit the link here. ​

The muni landscape heading into a downturn

Listen to the latest insights from Dr. David Kelly, Chief Global Strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, where he sits down with a variety of thought leaders for a conversational breakdown of big ideas, future trends, emerging topics and their investment implications to help inform building stronger investment plans for the long-term.

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For our next season, we want to hear from you as we will be counting down the top 10 questions investors have concerning the economy, the markets and investing. Please provide suggestions here.
This episode concludes the ninth season of Insights Now and marks the end of our deep dive into the world of alternatives. As investors continue to face elevated valuations across equities and abnormal interest rate volatility, the case for investing outside of traditional markets is as strong as ever. Whether investors are searching for outsized returns, stable income or diversification, alternatives offer a solution that can achieve these outcomes, and we hope this season helped bring those opportunities to life.
For our final conversation this season, Dr. David Kelly is joined by Anton Pil, the Global Head of Alternatives at J.P. Morgan Asset Management. Anton sits in a very unique seat given he oversees our entire alternatives platform, so tune in to hear how he views the balance of risks and opportunities across the asset class.
For additional insights on alternatives visit our website here.

The alternative advantage

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Over the past year, investors have been inundated with negative reports of elevated mortgage rates and empty office buildings, weighing on their sentiment toward real estate investing. However, real estate comes in many shapes and sizes, and each sector has its own fundamentals and use cases in the portfolio construction process. In fact, while some segments may look more attractive than others, valuations across the asset class have reset as rates have climbed higher, and investors searching for diversification, steady income and inflation protection have an entirely new menu of opportunities to choose from. That said, after nearly a decade of suppressed interest rates, real estate investors may have to re-calibrate their approach for the return of a structurally higher cost of capital.
To share how he is approaching the market against the backdrop of higher rates, Dr. David Kelly is joined by Doug Schwartz, a Co-President and Portfolio Manager within our Real Estate Americas Platform. Doug has been with the firm since 2004 and has almost 30 years of industry experience across a range of functions, including transactions, asset management and risk management.

Real estate in the “new” old normal

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Over the last decade, extraordinarily low interest rates have made it difficult for investors to generate income within portfolios. While rates have risen over the past two years, so has bond market volatility and a higher correlation between stocks and bonds has made the search for uncorrelated sources of income even more difficult. However, at the same time, infrastructure has built a strong track record of generating steady income while exhibiting low correlation to a traditional portfolio and less sensitivity to economic and market risks given the essential nature of the assets.
Against a backdrop of stretched valuations across risk assets and some uncertainty towards the outlook for monetary policy and inflation, there's no better time to discuss how investing in infrastructure can help build better portfolios. To share his views on the asset class, I'm joined by Nick Moller, an investment specialist and managing director within our Infrastructure investment group.

Finding income and fighting inflation with Infrastructure

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Coming out of the pandemic. Fiscal and monetary stimulus provided support for fundraising deals and exit activity within the private equity market. Even as fiscal stimulus has waned and the Federal Reserve has tightened policy. Better than expected economic activity and earnings have supported recent performance. For investors looking to supplement their public equity allocations, private equity can help enhance portfolio returns, as it has done for multiple decades and provide exposure to rapidly growing companies at the forefront of key market trends and themes. That being said, private equity does have the drawback of lower liquidity, and higher interest may pose a threat to future returns.
For today's episode, Dr. David Kelly is joined by Stephen Catherwood, Co-head of our Private Equity Group with over 20 years of experience on the team. They dive deeper into the current balance of risks and opportunities in the private equity market.

Beyond the public markets a path to premium returns

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Portfolio Managers from across J.P. Morgan Asset Management to help shed some light on the rapidly growing and increasingly important world of alternatives. These conversations will range from broad overviews of the entire opportunity set, to asset class-specific deep dives across private equities, private credit, real estate and more.
Since 1950, the classic 60/40 stock-bond portfolio has delivered a strong annualized return of 9.3%. However, with elevated valuations across U.S. equities and low bond yields relative to history, returns from public markets may be less impressive moving forward. That said, for those willing to venture outside of the classic 60/40, adding a sea of alternatives to a portfolio can meaningfully improve outcomes and enhance returns. Of course, there are many different types of alternative assets, each with their own distinct characteristics.
For investors, understanding how to leverage these alternative strategies can make the difference between falling short of your long-term goals and surpassing them. For today’s episode, Dr. David Kelly is joined by Pulkit Sharma, Head of Alternative Investment Strategy and Solutions here at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, to discuss the benefits of allocating to alternatives and the opportunities that he’s seeing across alternative asset classes.
For more resources, please visit the Guide to Alternatives.

The muni landscape heading into a downturn

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