Jeffrey Gundlach - Credit performance: again IG negative last year. Triple CCC loans did really. CLOs did well as did CMBS thanks to easing in delinquency data.
Gundlach: @EconguyRosie of Rosenberg Research made a good point during DoubleLine's Round Table Prime on the underappreciated fiscal drag that is coming.
Gundlach: Homes prices are still going up a lot with mortgage rates way below the pace of price gains in housing, it's not surprising people have been anxious to get involved in the housing market, perhaps using government transfer payments to help make downpayments.
Gundlach: Existing home supply very low.
As long as mortgage rates remain low, supportive of housing market.
Gundlach: Fed Funds Rate kind of follows Wage Growth. Until now. Wage growth line is screaming for the Fed to raise Fed Funds. Probably played a role in causing Jay Powell to trash the dovish talk.
Fed's behind the curve. They seem to be waking up to that now.
Gundlach: The economy has broken at an ever-lower terminal Fed Funds rate.
Last time took only 2.5 on the fed funds to break stocks and the economy. Maybe 1.5 might be the breaking point the next time. We might get there in the next 12 to 18 months.
DoubleLine CEO Jeffrey Gundlach discusses the economy, the markets and his outlook for what he believes may be the best investment strategies and sector allocations for 2024.
DoubleLine CEO Jeffrey Gundlach: Outside the commodity and currencies complexes, assets ended up positive, across stock and bond markets, of the latter especially in credit.
Mr. Gundlach: The big winners were in the high yield bond market.
The dollar ended down on the year.
The commodities that did well were gold and copper.
In the latest installment of this monthly series, Product Specialists Phil Gioia, CFA and Sam Nussbaum discuss the Agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS) market.
Taking focus in this episode: the sector's attractive relative value brought about by widening spreads relative to Treasuries. Based on a favorable outlook, the DoubleLine team has been increasing exposure to Agency MBS across portfolios.
Agency MBS current coupon spread, which is the spread for a par-priced bond over Treasuries, is near the widest level since the GFC.
Current levels have historically represented an attractive entry point, as spreads rarely remain elevated at these levels for prolonged periods.
Watch here:
As of June 1, nearly 50% of Agency pass-throughs have been sold from the FDIC’s portfolio and just over 35% of the entire Agency portfolio. At the current pace, sales could be finalized in a few months, instead of the 7 to 10 months that the original guidance suggested.
In webcast “Dust in the Crevices,” Jeffrey Gundlach shares his macro and market views and makes the case for an imminent dust-up, “in the next few years,” in Washington’s decades-long use of debt finance to skirt hard fiscal decisions.
“Here we are in an economy that is supposedly growing, and yet we have 7.3% budget deficit as a % of GDP,” DoubleLine CEO and founder Jeffrey Gundlach says.
That figure is probably headed much higher, especially if the U.S. enters recession.
In the wake of hikes of 525 bps in the fed funds rate and 400 bps along many parts of the Treasury curve, DoubleLine CEO Jeffrey Gundlach notes the burden of federal debt service has surged higher in dollar terms and as a percentage of GDP.
Jeffrey Gundlach: There is dust in the crevices of our financial institutions.
The debt ceiling has been raised 99 times since it started in 1913.
This method of getting along is getting pretty dusty.
Gundlach: U.S. Federal Budget Balance as a percentage of GDP on a rolling 1-year basis: We've been in a trend toward worse and worse budget deficits as a percentage of GDP.