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JANUARY 2016 Selection Effect: Taking the Measure of Turbulent Markets, Focusing on Value Constrained global growth and volatile markets may be on tap again this year, but sharp security-level analysis and a sound investment process can generate real returns. Beware the effects of financial engineering and index composition. Return of capital is good, if sustainable. Explore where optionality is long, and tread carefully where it’s short. “Do we want to put money in this stock or bond?” Talking with Jason Brady, cfa, CEO and Global Fixed Income Portfolio Manager Jason Brady is president and CEO of Thornburg Investment Management. He is responsible for the company’s overall strategy and direction. He is also the head of the firm’s global fixed income investment team and a portfolio manager on several strategies, including Thornburg Investment Income Builder and Multisector Opportunistic strategies. Jason was named president and CEO effective January 1, 2016. He joined the firm in 2006 and was made portfolio manager and managing director in 2007. Q: Since the 2010 peak in the recovery from the global financial crisis, global growth has generally been slowing, despite recurrent official sector projections of reacceleration. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates global growth in 2015 at 3.1%, down from previous forecasts. For 2016, it sees growth advancing modestly to a downwardly revised 3.4%. Do you see 2016 as the year when global growth finally turns the corner and starts to accelerate? JB: I’m not optimistic global growth will advance the way the IMF sees. It continues to downgrade its growth expectations. Looking at the big drivers of global growth—the two biggest economies, the U.S. and China—doesn’t provide an optimistic view. Expectations for the U.S. ran around 2.5%. But people were downgrading the fourth quarter, which fell short of expectations and came in at a preliminary 0.7%. So the yearly figure looks like it was slightly lower at 2.4%. Then there’s manufacturing. Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) readings in China were running below 50, indicating contraction, in most of the second half of 2015, and again in January of this year. And in the U.S. we saw PMI reports below 50 in the last quarter of 2015 and into January. While the manufacturing economy in the U.S. isn’t tremendously important, its volatility can be indicative of some challenges. Probably the correlation For professional investors and eligible counterparties only. thornburg.com | +1.855.732.9301 2 | Selection Effect there is a strong dollar, and that’s certainly a headwind. We’ve had extremely accommodative monetary policy and low growth in the U.S. That’s been accompanied by low labor productivity, which has been a surprise to many observers. If that continues, it’s going to be tough because labor force participation also remains low, as does unemployment. Put it all together and the challenging growth picture becomes clear. In China, it’s some of the same story, although the manufacturing economy is much more important, and the recent readings suggest a manufacturing recession. To me, the tail risk of much lower Chinese growth is real. Why are Blue Chips Up While High-Yield is Down? Index Total Returns for 2015 35% 30% 32.3% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 8.6% 1.4% 0.6% 0% -4.5% -5% -10% -14.9% -15% -20% S&P 500 Index MSCI Emerging Markets Index (USD) Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index Barclays U.S. Corporate High Yield Index Barclays EM Local Currency Russia Index MICEX Index (RUB) Source: Bloomberg I don’t think Japan, the world’s Past performance does not guarantee future results. third-largest economy, has solved its growth problems, either. They may be expect it to repeat that performance Russia are in recessions and China is making different cultural choices now, again this year. But I think we need to slowing markedly. Do Brazil and Russia, promoting more women in the labor be careful about focusing just on GDP like China, represent threats to a rebound force and corporate governance reforms, as opposed to asset prices broadly. Our in global growth? but they’ve mostly chosen a good, high investment process focuses largely on standard of living without much JB: They’re both a drag on global valuations of individual assets. disruption. growth and will continue to be. Both are affected by the collapse in commodities All in, it doesn’t mean a global recession Q: The S&P 500 Index was up about prices, and political uncertainty in both is dawning. But if you just start with the 1.4% in 2015, while the Barclays U.S. doesn’t help. Ultimately, though, our job biggest contributors, global growth Aggregate Bond Index gained just 0.6% at Thornburg isn’t necessarily to predict looks challenged. Europe is a bright and the Barclays U.S. Corporate High economic growth, although that’s an spot, but from relatively low levels. Yield Index dropped 4.5%. Is the U.S. input. It’s really to analyze asset prices. blue chip stock market missing something Russia is a great, backward-looking that the credit market is flagging? example of this: There was a lot of very Q: If Europe is the bright spot among reasonable negativity around Russia a advanced economies, India would seem to JB: Any time the high yield market gets year ago. Yet it was one of the best be the same among the big emerging pressured, that’s representative of performing markets in 2015, both in market economies, given that Brazil and struggles in the rest of the market. But I equity and fixed income. I wouldn’t think there’s some reasonable basis for the stock market performance, given degrees of financial engineering that “ … our job at Thornburg isn’t necessarily to predict have gone on around earnings for many economic growth, although that’s an input. It’s really corporations in the U.S. So it’s important to differentiate the composition of to analyze asset prices. … There was a lot of very the high yield market from a sector reasonable negativity around Russia a year ago. Yet perspective versus U.S. equities. There’s a higher weighting, for example, of it was one of the best performing markets in 2015, energy in U.S. high yield. Correct for both in equity and fixed income.” that, and the performance of the two asset classes is more consistent. For professional investors and eligible counterparties only. Interview with Jason Brady, What that also highlights are some of the bright spots in the S&P 500 and equities generally that tend not to be debt-focused companies—in particular, the big technology companies. But that begs the question on breadth of the market. I do worry about the funding pressures from much higher financing costs in a market that has relied on balance sheet manipulation across an array of sectors. Q: In December, for the first time in nine years, the U.S. Federal Reserve hiked its benchmark interest rate. The quarterpoint increase still leaves the Federal funds rate at a highly accommodative level. Do you expect more rate hikes ahead, steady rate “normalization” or a path marked by pauses in tightening, or even potentially a reversal in the tightening, following the January 2016 market rout? JB: I think the Fed might have started to tighten much earlier, although it was wary of raising rates only to turn around and loosen them, as Jean-Claude Trichet did when he was president of the European Central Bank. It’s happened in a lot of places, frankly, over the last five years. They signaled four rate hikes in 2016. But I suspect, given how halting progress toward their first rate rise was, the number will be fewer. The market says two. The difference represents divergent views of growth, and the challenges in generating it. Normalization for the Fed these days is probably going to look different now given different global labor force dynamics. So if 2.4% real GDP growth in the U.S. is the best we can do with very accommodative monetary policy, perhaps the neutral rate is now lower, and therefore, the Fed’s moves toward normalization will be slower. I also think the Fed would like to see some wage inflation. They would say there’s too little of that lately. To the extent that we actually get some wage cfa , CEO and Portfolio Manager | 3 “ … if 2.4% real GDP growth in the U.S. is the best we can do with very accommodative monetary policy, perhaps the neutral rate is now lower, and therefore, your moves toward normalization will be slower.” inflation, it may be okay for GDP and consumption, but not perhaps for equity prices, as labor’s share of profits would be higher than it has been. Q: Wages have been quite stagnant for several years running, a theme animating candidates for the White House. Do you expect the U.S. elections to have more market impact than in the past, given some of the tax proposals among candidates from both parties? JB: Probably not. For us as investors and shareholders, there seems to be a small potential for real change in the tax regime. More generally, I’m concerned about the rise in populism without a lot of basis in economic reality or empiricism. But that’s not a new problem in politics. Q: Are activist shareholders a net positive or negative for the U.S. market and economy? Investment, including R&D, has come down in recent years as return of capital has gone up among U.S. large-caps. Does this ultimately represent a better allocation of resources, or undercut the degree of innovation taking place in the economy? JB: You can make a chicken and egg argument about where growth comes from. Do people see growth opportunities and then invest, or does the investment drive the growth? That’s a good question, and I don’t have the answer to that. What I will say is that financial engineers across cycles tend to have degrees of success at certain points. So were private equity firms doing leveraged buy outs in 2006 and ‘07 driving a lot of value? Well, they drove value for themselves. At some level over a cycle, they did drive some value. I think it’s basically levered equity returns. There’s not a lot of real improvement going on. I would argue activist shareholders are using the same kind of playbook. Not many operational improvements happen. It seems mostly about borrowing more for shareholder returns. While I’m in favor of returning money to shareholders, it has to come from the base business in a sustainable way. Financial engineering is always a part of the investment landscape, and I’m not sure that it’s any different this time. We’ve seen this over and over again: financial engineering driving short-term value. I don’t find it more imaginative this time around, nor do I imagine that it will provide lasting value more than it has in the past. Q: Overseas, Greece has somewhat faded from the headlines, but does the threat to the euro zone’s architecture still exist, whether from Greece, Portugal or some other country in the currency block? JB: There’s been a lot of adjustment, but maybe not enough. As we talked about, the labor force dynamics globally are challenging, and that’s certainly true in Europe, too. How they manage the current immigration crisis will be interestingly determinant over a much longer period of time. I don’t know how For professional investors and eligible counterparties only. 4 | Selection Effect that will play out. But clearly one of the strengths of the U.S. labor force has been immigration. Greece remains extremely problematic, but we’ve already seen enough writedowns there that I’m not sure additional write-downs are really going to sink the euro zone. It also seems like Germany is okay with a “transfer union,” which is to say supporting the rest of Europe as long as it’s a little less explicit. And countries like Spain and Italy, which were large problem children, have certainly seen significant recovery from the bottom. Although both, particularly Italy, still have high debt loads, fiscal deficits and unemployment rates. One thing I worry more about around the euro zone, something that could become a global phenomenon, is the change in regulation around banking. Banks in Europe are very central to credit creation. So the news about an arbitrary regulatory reassignment of senior debt securities issued by the largest Portuguese bank caused a massive write-down of those bonds. They declined in price some 75% overnight. Again, from an arbitrary regulatory action. The bail-in of debt securities is happening concurrently with a massive amount of issuance of subordinated securities. If you believe, as I do, that some of the real impetus behind the challenges of 2008 was that highly rated securities suddenly didn’t perform like that anymore, then you’re Global Growth: Upshifting, Downshifting, and then Reverse Estimated GDP Growth for 2015 8% 7% 7.3% 6% 6.9% 5% 4% 3% 2% 2.4% 1.5% 1% 0.6% 0% -1% -2% -3% -4% United States Euro Area Japan India China -3.7% -3.8% Russia Brazil Sources: International Monetary Fund, January 2016 U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis, January 2016 basically setting investors up for that same situation in a regulatory environment that I think is looking more at protecting taxpayers at the expense of investors. So what will happen with credit creation and growth if investors decide the risks of bank-issued bonds are running too high, given regulatory uncertainty? It’s a question of priorities, but that could lead to some real market dislocation on a global basis. Q: Back to China, its economy is slowing, with exports contracting and foreign exchange reserves declining. The renminbi will join the IMF’s SDR basket in 2016, but just how “freely tradable” will “While I’m in favor of returning money to shareholders, it has to come from the base business in a sustainable way.” it really be, given continued depreciation pressures? The capital account remains closed—if intermittently porous over the years—to protect China’s debt-laden financial system. Can China afford to open its capital account amid capital flight? Is China’s economy headed for a hard or a soft landing? JB: Longer term it’s an engine, not a drag. But, clearly, the transition from a command and control to a market-based economy is a long and torturous one, and is happening in fits and starts. The most recent machinations around the renminbi are an example of that. One driver of risk appetite globally now is the renminbi’s exchange rate. To the extent that Chinese authorities feel they need a weaker currency, which would only be weaker against the U.S. dollar relative to China’s new trade-weighted foreign exchange basket, we’d be keeping it even. It’s a very different investment environment nowadays, particularly for commodity producers and China’s trade partners generally. Transitioning to an open economy may not even be the end goal. I suspect the goal is simply an effective economic For professional investors and eligible counterparties only. Interview with Jason Brady, engine for the country itself. Other members of the investsment team probably have better insight into the details. But it strikes me as a very challenging transition. Q: Resilient U.S. shale production, OPEC, warm Northern Hemisphere weather all continue to conspire against oil price support. What’s needed to impact more supply side cuts if demand growth doesn’t pick up meaningfully? Also, debt-heavy oil & gas companies have seen their bond yields hit distressed levels, and given the time lapse since crude prices started to collapse in mid-2014, it appears many price hedges have rolled off. How great are the default risks at this point? JB: Other than the old saw about the cure for high prices being high prices and the cure for low prices is low prices, that energy sector dynamic at the moment looks challenging. It’s hard to see what would change to bring the price of that commodity—or many other commodities—up, especially if one is concerned about global growth and the demand function relative to that. Also, technology advances have helped support shale production, bringing break-even costs per barrel down. But at these prices, we’ll see more challenges. We’ll see defaults among indebted, higher-cost producers that have negative cash flows and no more access to financing. Remember, there’s always a lag between price falls and production declines. The wildcard is geopolitics. I don’t have great insight into what might happen, but many oil supply shocks have come from geopolitical events. Those haven’t gone away by any stretch of the imagination. That could end up being determinant, and would quickly overshadow rig count in the Eagle Ford basin. Q: The collapse in oil prices was expected to give a boost to global GDP, given that some three-quarters of the world imports cfa , CEO and Portfolio Manager | 5 “ … being long optionality is important for many of our equity strategies. We can really think about that upside, the multi-bagger opportunities around those changes.” oil. But consumer spending among the net energy importers, including in the U.S., hasn’t responded as expected. What’s behind that? JB: The effect on global consumer spending is really interesting. You would think that putting more money in people’s pockets, particularly an equal amount in everyone’s pocket, and therefore, a lot of money on a relative basis for people who have a higher propensity to spend, would increase consumer spending in aggregate. But on a global basis, you really haven’t seen that. It’s not as positive at the moment as you would expect. It has shown up in degrees in U.S. retail, housing and car sales data, but not as much as expected, including globally. It’s worth noting the selloff in oil has been concurrent with the selloff in many other commodities: copper, iron ore, etc., which makes me think more about global GDP growth, and manufacturing’s contribution to it. To some considerable extent this goes back to China’s economic rebalancing and its impact on global demand, not to mention the headwind that the strong dollar represents for commodities generally. Q: Forecasts in the growth of solar in the U.S. energy mix appear quite bullish, with some predicting sea changes in the auto and broader transportation industries, not to mention in electricity utilities—with oil, natural gas, coal inputs radically reduced—and even reduced contributions from nuclear. How do you see the energy supply trends evolving? JB: This is where being long optionality is important for many of our equity strategies. We can really think about that upside, the multi-bagger opportunities around those changes. Battery technology seems challenging, but we seem to be incrementally solving it. The revolution in solar is still probably a little more hype than reality. But solar energy’s evolution will probably affect a huge number of different industries down the road. On the fixed income side, we have the utility and the extractive carbon industries that in the future would kind of go the other way; they’re short optionality. So we have to be rather careful there. I think solar power will advance in ways that are different from what the futurists say. TVs are better and cars are worse relative to the Jetsons, so I’m not sure we can imagine exactly what it will be. But being aware that we can have this incredible exposure to positive optionality in a lot of our portfolios is really fascinating and potentially important for us to generate returns for our clients. For professional investors and eligible counterparties only. 6 | Selection Effect “ … away from energy, there’s stuff that’s gotten dragged down, such as telecoms, and that’s now pretty interesting. Even within energy and midstream MLP-type companies, on the debt side, it’s really interesting.” Q: Where do you see opportunities in the fixed income world in 2016? JB: In terms of my day job as portfolio manager and head of the global fixed income team, we are looking at some of the markets that have been the most challenged over the course of the last year and a half. You already mentioned the relative underperformance in high yield credit. I would put emerging market stocks obviously at the head of the list of things that have gotten beaten down, but not too far behind that is emerging market debt and for very similar reasons. I think a lot of babies were thrown out with the bath water in U.S. corporate credit, particularly in cream-of-thecrop-rated junk paper. Spreads have widened a lot. Though I’m not very excited about U.S. growth, there seems to be enough going okay that having near-recession-type spreads on many corporates is probably less reasonable. So some securities have become notably more interesting. Spreads basically went to levels that suggest we’re approaching a recession. Now, again, there’s a lot of composition argument there. But away from energy, there’s stuff that’s gotten dragged down, such as telecoms, and that’s now pretty interesting. Even within energy and midstream MLP-type companies, on the debt side, it’s really interesting. Certainly, there’s commodity exposure there, but these are real assets doing things that are likely to be needed for a long time, and with yields in the double digits. Not very long ago, some of these issuers were considered very solidly investment grade. Some are worth looking at again. Of course, for us, it’s all done on a security-by-security basis. But generally on the fixed income side, we’re feeling a little more cautious about ensuring that we get adequately paid for risks taken. Broadly speaking, we’ve moved up in quality, and are willing to miss any near-term rebounds in some of the really beaten-up stuff. “ … on the fixed income side, we’re feeling a little more cautious about ensuring that we get adequately paid for risks taken. Broadly speaking, we’ve moved up in quality, and are willing to miss any near-term rebounds in some of the really beaten-up stuff.” For professional investors and eligible counterparties only. Q: Everybody likes to look at the macro, although the company-specific stories can be just as fascinating, as you suggest. How does Thornburg integrate individual company stories and their broader operating environments? JB: I think the problem we address with our process is the perennial portfolio problem, which is picking securities while taking context into account. Most portfolio managers use a very specific benchmark for that context and measure themselves solely on a relative basis. The context we gain is broader and deeper than that, given the way in which we do our investment work. We spend a ton of time on individual stories. And within our mandates, we have real flexibility in pursuing relative values across industries and geographies, working on any number of different things all the time. Then we share our results with all our investment teams. This provides valuable context of great benefit to all of them. So there’s a rich, sum of the parts, dynamic picture that’s full of investment ideas, analysis and context that everyone in our investment team contributes to and benefits from at both the security and macro levels. That’s really the core of our process. On the question itself, the micro is indeed extremely interesting. We spend a lot of time deciding, “Do we want to put money in this stock or bond?” We do, of course, study macro data and trends as well, but our macro views are largely generated through constantly examining all sorts of different individual opportunities around the globe, traveling to explore them more deeply and understanding them thoroughly, and then bouncing the analyses off other Thornburg investment teams. Everyone here is able to analyze and compare relative values across industries. That leads us to a large variety of interesting opportunities, while boosting quality control by sharing the ideas and analyses across our teams. Interview with Jason Brady, Energy is a perfect example to illustrate the versatility of our approach against that of sector specialists. If all you do is look at oil companies, then your context is usually the supply side. If you’re blind to how that supply might be overwhelming demand, and don’t look at other kinds of industries, say manufacturing demand, or for that matter solar, or battery technology, or a number of different things, then you probably don’t have the context surrounding the demand side of the equation. And you can really miss the forest for the trees. I would add that we don’t have a top-down macro or strategy view that’s formed via a regimented checklist. Our teams are free to form their own views on individual opportunities and the cfa , CEO and Portfolio Manager | 7 “Our teams are free to form their own views on individual opportunities and the contexts in which those ideas operate, informed by all of us spending lots of time in the weeds in a lot of different places with a lot of different folks.” contexts in which those ideas operate, informed by all of us spending lots of time in the weeds in a lot of different places with a lot of different folks. Our relative value thought process across a number of different sectors and asset classes, and our collaborative culture, are really the keys to our investment process. They’re how we succeed over time. n For professional investors and eligible counterparties only. 8 | Selection Effect Important Information Investments carry risks, including possible loss of principal. Additional risks may be associated with investments in emerging markets, including currency fluctuations, illiquidity, volatility, and political and economic risks. Investments in small- and mid-capitalization companies may increase the risk of greater price fluctuations. Portfolios investing in bonds have the same interest rate, inflation, and credit risks that are associated with the underlying bonds. The value of bonds will fluctuate relative to changes in interest rates, decreasing when interest rates rise. This effect is more pronounced for longer-term bonds. Unlike bonds, bond funds have ongoing fees and expenses. Investments in lower rated and unrated bonds may be more sensitive to default, downgrades, and market volatility; these investments may also be less liquid than higher rated bonds. Investments in derivatives are subject to the risks associated with the securities or other assets underlying the pool of securities, including illiquidity and difficulty in valuation. Investments are not insured, nor are they bank deposits or guaranteed by a bank or any other entity. The views expressed by Jason Brady reflect his professional opinions and are subject to change. Under no circumstances does the information contained within represent a recommendation to buy or sell any security. A Master Limited Partnership (MLP) is a type of limited partnership that is publicly traded. There are two types of partners in this type of partnership: The limited partner is the person or group that provides the capital to the MLP and receives periodic income distributions from the MLP’s cash flow, whereas the general partner is the party responsible for managing the MLP’s affairs and receives compensation that is linked to the performance of the venture. The Special Drawing Right (SDR) is an international reserve asset, created by the IMF in 1969 to supplement its member countries’ official reserves. Its value is currently based on a basket of four major currencies, and the basket will be expanded to include the Chinese Renminbi (RMB) as the fifth currency, effective October 1, 2016. The performance of any index is not indicative of the performance of any particular investment. Unless otherwise noted, index returns reflect the reinvestment of income dividends and capital gains, if any, but do not reflect fees, brokerage commissions or other expenses of investing. Investors may not make direct investments into any index. The Barclays Emerging Markets Local Currency Government Index is a flagship index that measures the performance of local currency emerging markets (EM) debt. Classification as an EM is rules-based and reviewed annually using World Bank income group, International Monetary Fund (IMF) country classification and additional considerations such as market size and investability. The Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index is composed of approximately 8,000 publicly traded bonds including U.S. government, mortgage-backed, corporate and Yankee bonds. The index is weighted by the market value of the bonds included in the index. The Barclays U.S. Corporate High-Yield Index measures the market of USD-denominated, non-investment grade, fixed-rate, taxable corporate bonds. Securities are classified as high yield if the middle rating of Moody’s, Fitch, and S&P is Ba1/BB+/BB+ or below. The index excludes emerging market debt. The MICEX Index is a cap-weighted composite index calculated based on prices of the 50 most liquid Russian stocks of the largest and dynamically developing Russian issuers presented on the Moscow Exchange. MICEX Index was launched on September 22, 1997 at base value 100. The MICEX Index is calculated in real time and denominated by Moscow Exchange in Russian rubles. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization index that is designed to measure equity market performance of emerging markets. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index consists of the following 23 emerging market country indexes: Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Russia, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and United Arab Emirates. The S&P 500 Index is an unmanaged broad measure of the U.S. stock market. In the United Kingdom, this communication is issued by Thornburg Global Advisors LLP (“TGA LLP”) and approved by Robert Quinn Advisory LLP which is authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”). TGA LLP is an appointed representative of Robert Quinn Advisory LLP. This material constitutes a financial promotion for the purposes of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (the “Act”) and the handbook of rules and guidance issued from time to time by the FCA (the “FCA Rules”). This material is for information purposes only and does not constitute an offer to subscribe for or purchase any financial instrument. TGA LLP neither provides investment advice to, nor receives and transmits orders from, persons to whom this material is communicated nor does it carry on any other activities with or for such persons that constitute “MiFID or equivalent third country business” for the purposes of the FCA Rules. All information provided is not warranted as to completeness or accuracy and is subject to change without notice. This communication and any investment or service to which this material may relate is exclusively intended for persons who are Professional Clients or Eligible Counterparties for the purposes of the FCA Rules and other persons should not act or rely on it. This communication is not intended for use by any person or entity in any jurisdiction or country where such distribution or use would be contrary to local law or regulation. For more information, visit www.thornburgglobal.com or email Chris Elsmark ([email protected]) or Karim Elfar ([email protected]). 26/2/16 For professional investors and eligible counterparties only. TH3605