Interest rates

Of all the end-of-year financial faults affecting workers, this one could cause them to end up working longer than they had intended.

Macro products that trade everything from euros to oil have struggled amid soaring stock valuations and ultra-low interest rates.

After a recent policy switch, many clients at the wirehouse can no longer use balances from their deposit accounts to purchase shares in these funds.

Self-directed brokerage accounts at the firm hold about 20% of their portfolios in cash.

Those that shorted the market suffered “steep losses,” while market-neutral products posted “modest gains.”

Appetite for cyclical plays like financials has picked up as trade negotiations between the U.S. and China show signs of progress.

Given that almost one-third of leveraged loans are just a downgrade away from triple-C, even a modest slowdown could create a snowball effect of sorts.

Can more education boost the popularity of these funds?

“Impacted positions span all staffing grades, as well as organizations and locations across the company," the company says.

The fund’s losses stem from bearish wagers on global interest rates, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Angst over the Fed’s decision to lower borrowing costs has seeped into the $3.8 trillion market for municipal bonds.

Some managers have taken on more risk amid a decades-long decline in interest rates and slow global economic growth to meet long term targets.

The firm's global economic adviser laid out perhaps the most concise and straightforward case I’ve seen yet for what structural changes are behind this phenomenon of paying for the privilege of purchasing debt.

The bank, which has made wealth management its central focus, plans to charge its Swiss clients an annual fee of 0.6% on deposits of more than 500,000 euros.

With markets near certain that the Fed will lower rates this month, debate has shifted to the size of the cut and its impact.

Home prices are outpacing wages in about 40% of markets, while 61% were less affordable than the historic average, data shows.

The firm is snapping up five- and 10-year notes as it predicts slowing inflation and trade tensions will push the Fed to lower its benchmark 75 basis points.

Many relatively straightforward products have boosted their holdings of lower-rated bonds and emerging markets to juice returns.

Investors plowed into bullion-backed funds after the U.S. and China reached a truce in their trade war.

There is growing disquiet among those who run and invest in the products about potential problems that might be caused by rate cuts from the Fed.