Last week, labor data from Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) were updated for the month of December. ADP Nonfarm Private Payrolls reported a +807,000 jump in the month of December, the largest increase since May 2021. This marks the twelfth consecutive month of positive prints for ADP Payrolls....Read More

Boyd Watterson’s approach to ESG starts with placing the clients’ interests first. For our Real Estate portfolios, putting our clients’ interests first through ESG means careful scrutiny of our ESG initiatives to ensure that these decisions are aligned with our return targets and provide a similar or better risk and return profile than investing capital...Read More

Over the last two years, the record amount of federal spending related to covid relief and stimulating the economy has been a primary news topic. Historical context in the amount of that spending, both implemented and proposed, can provide additional context of the workload ahead for federal, state, and local governments. Data from the Congressional...Read More

The monthly rate of headline inflation increased +0.9% in October, led by rising energy prices. It was the fastest month-over-month acceleration in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) since June 2008. The percent change from a year ago moved up +6.2%. The last time CPI accelerated this quickly on a year-over-year basis was October 1990 at...Read More

When companies refinance debt, they tend to extend the maturities as well. Through October 4th, there has been more than $1.2 trillion of corporate bonds issued year-to-date, which appears to be ahead of the pace seen in 2019, prior to the pandemic. Source: Wells Fargo. In addition to refinancing existing debt, companies come to the...Read More

Despite early recognition as an essential industry or perhaps because of it, contractors have not been immune to the supply chain shortages that have affected large segments of the global economy. Commodities such as steel, copper, plywood, and other raw materials have been in short supply for months due to labor shortages in the manufacturing...Read More

Much has been written about the evolution of financial markets over time.  The flexibility of the system, diverse geographic access to markets, and the variety of investment options all contribute positively to investor choice.  This provides small investors with many tools to effectively manage their portfolios to reach investment objectives.  With all the progress made...Read More

Although both publicly traded REITs and private real estate funds follow the same investment thesis (invest in real estate by pooling investor capital), both fund types have historically provided different risk and return profiles to investors. To examine these differences, we will use the FTSE Nareit All REITs index (FNAR) as a proxy for publicly...Read More

The current risk/reward profile in the bond market is skewed more toward risk than reward.  Since yields are historically low at a time when durations are historically high, benchmark tethered fixed income investors and passive fixed income indexers are being compensated less for taking on more interest rate risk.  This diverging trend of yield versus...Read More

Before the pandemic, the NCREIF Property Index, a real estate index that tracks the unlevered gross returns of over $742B in real estate properties throughout the United States, posted average annual returns of 8.28%(1) from 2015 to 2019.  At the height of the pandemic (March 2020), returns fell to less than 2% for the first...Read More