Fixed Income Commentary

Interest rates fell precipitously in the third quarter across all developed markets. The US 10– year treasury yield fell from 2.00% at the end of Q2 to a low of 1.45% in early September before closing the quarter at 1.66%. With equity markets largely stable, the drop in interest rates was due less to a flight to quality and more to fears of a global economic slowdown. Credit spreads were volatile but largely unchanged during the quarter. Due to risk free yield falling, we saw record amounts of investment grade corporate debt issued as corporations raced to refinance existing debt and opportunistically issue new debt. Municipal bond yields plunged in concert with treasury yields.