The global economy is finding new engines of growth in the developed markets. U.K. policy mix has improved In the United Kingdom, we see a balance of fiscal retrenchment and stimulative monetary policy, which is lending support to key sectors such as financials. This has contributed to the momentum of the country’s overall recovery as
U.S. GDP growth during the recovery, underway since the middle of 2009, is among the weakest in recent history. It has averaged a little over 2% for the past four years, well below the previous long-term trends of 3% to 3.5%. Amid this slow recovery, investors have been looking for the economy to shift to
The Fed’s comments in May and June about reducing its asset purchase program generated significant interest-rate volatility in the United States, changing the opportunity set for fixed-income investors. Spread sectors — meaning sectors that trade at a yield premium to U.S. Treasuries — that had been buoyed by the massive liquidity created by the Fed’s
As 2013 begins, we believe the most important question for investment strategy is whether the secular bear market for stocks has ended. Some evidence suggests it might have. Stock market returns in 2012 were very good, marking the fourth successive calendar year of gains in the United States. Three of the four years delivered double-digit
With its meteoric rise to become the world’s second-largest economy, China is an engine of global growth and is currently expanding much faster than developed nations still struggling to recover from the recession. Although today China is facing headwinds such as nagging inflation, Putnam sees investment opportunities in many industry sectors.
Over the next 10 years, some of the greatest growth in health-care spending is projected for emerging markets such as China, India, and Brazil. For many reasons, growth opportunities are abundant in developing economies, but selecting health-care stocks, particularly among the smaller-cap companies based in these regions, is not without its challenges.
With political unrest and natural disasters around the world in recent weeks, investors rushed to gold as a safe haven and sent prices soaring. But while investors choose gold for many reasons, they may find that some gold-mining companies are a more attractive investment than the bullion itself.
One of the key strategies that several Putnam fixed-income funds have successfully employed is the use of non-agency residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS). As the name would imply, these securities are backed by residential mortgages and have been securitized not by a government agency — such as Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac — but by a
While overall consumer spending continues to fluctuate this year between marginal growth and zero growth, luxury spending is experiencing a rebound. Often considered a harbinger for consumer spending in general, global luxury goods sales rose 15% in the first quarter of 2010 alone, compared with a year ago. And many individual luxury companies have reported