Few political earthquakes come as big as this one. Boris Johnson has defied his critics and skeptics, including many in his own Party, and redrawn the political map of the UK. It is no small triumph that will become part of British folklore. It takes the Conservative electoral support back to the Thatcher years whilst wrenching seats from Labour that had, in many cases, been regarded as untouchable since the 1930s.

U.S. economic data surprised to the upside in December with strong employment and growth results and the Fed remained on hold as expected. Progress on tariffs and U.K. election results lowered geopolitical noise for the time being. These developments led to continued improvement in risk sentiment.

Uncovering relative value across high yield in 2020 may require looking in less obvious places.

Against the backdrop of a continuing bull market in equities, investor uncertainty has increased with a number of key economic and geopolitical risks, resulting in rising market volatility.

Investors have logically sought to de-risk* portfolios, and given the low interest rate environment, they have rotated significant amounts of money into defensive equities, resulting in stretched valuations for certain pockets of these stocks. At the same time, equity upside remains attractive as accommodative policy and the potential for trade resolution between the U.S. and China could support future gains. As a result, investors now face three competing objectives: how to de-risk portfolios, without overpaying for defensive equities, while maintaining equity upside.

Investment grade credit markets posted a banner year in 2019; can the good times continue to roll?