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Where BlackRock's Rieder Is Finding Value

Where BlackRock's Rieder Is Finding Value

Eric Jacobson: Maybe we could wrap up with some thoughts about where you're seeing value. I won't even ask you where you're not seeing it, because we know that there are a lot of places like that. But there's been talk a little bit about agency mortgages. At one point, you're at positive and then maybe not so much. Give me a feel for some of the highlights of where you think there is value.

Rick Rieder: I mean, I think agency mortgages now are--I think that where there's value in the world generally is where the media tends to overstate the influence. So, for example, I think in agency mortgages people are talking about the Fed reducing their balance sheet. Fed is going to be unbelievably deliberate about that and of their liquid assets. So, we think agency mortgages are one of the more attractive investments today.

Now, the other one being, there's been a lot of time talked about building walls and trade and trade disruptions. Emerging markets, it's not like the emerging markets of the '90s. These countries are more stable and actually can reduce rates that are bringing down inflation, like Argentina and Brazil. So, we like EM. We think EM is--people have been worried about the dollar and the trade abrogation. We think emerging markets provide some real value.

We talked about earlier, securitized assets. We're trying to buy as many assets that are high cash-flowing and are secured. I think the world is paying a lot for beta today to get yields. And we like some of these assets that are securitized, cash flow heavy, commercial mortgages, nonagency mortgages, some of the CLO market where you think are getting paid for, and some good collateral. Those are the places that--and we don't like European interest rates. We think the ECB is going to be able to move. So, we like owning EM, some of the high cash-flowing assets, bit of mortgages, keep some liquidity. We've actually been buying some long Treasuries recently. We don't have a lot of interest-rate exposure, but we like the long end of the Treasury curve as some protection against things being going wrong.

Jacobson: That's great. Thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it.

Rieder: Thanks for having me here. My pleasure.

Jacobson: For Morningstar, I'm Eric Jacobson. Thank you for joining us.

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About the Author

Eric Jacobson

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Eric Jacobson is director of manager research, U.S. fixed-income strategies, for Morningstar Research Services LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc. He is a voting member of the Morningstar Medalist Ratings Committee for U.S. and international fixed-income strategies and shares responsibility for determining coverage and research priorities. Jacobson has focused on a variety of taxable, tax-exempt, and nontraditional fixed-income strategies, including several from asset managers such as Pimco, BlackRock, PGIM, and Guggenheim. He has also covered strategies from J.P. Morgan, Fidelity, Goldman Sachs, TCW, Vanguard, Loomis Sayles, Putnam, T. Rowe Price, American Century, Eaton Vance, FPA, and American Funds. He is the team's lead analyst on Pimco.

From 2006 through mid-2008, Jacobson was director of fixed-income strategies for Morningstar Indexes and was responsible for the design and launch of Morningstar's original suite of U.S., global, and emerging-markets bond indexes. Before assuming that role, he was a senior analyst, associate director, and fixed-income editorial director for the fund research team. Before joining the company in 1995 as a closed-end fund analyst, he worked for Kemper Financial Services.

Jacobson holds degrees in political science, Hebrew and Semitic studies, and integrated liberal studies from the University of Wisconsin.

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