The bond market isn't dead yet for this JPMorgan fund

SINGAPORE (Jan 16): Don’t count your nails yet for the bond market’s coffin.

That’s the message from a JPMorgan Asset Management fund that’s outperformed in the past year by keeping to shorter-maturity securities. The US$2.4 billion Global Bond Opportunities Fund has reduced its average duration in US securities to three years from more than five in July, and has jumped into the domestic debt of Brazil and Russia, two higher-yielding emerging markets that have avoided the recent exchange-rate depreciation afflicting Turkey and Mexico.

“There’s still life in fixed income -- but it’s a question of what sort of fixed income we invest in,” said Iain Stealey, a London-based managing director who helps oversee US$1.77 trillion globally at the firm. “Over the course of this year, we do feel we’re going to see higher core government rates whether it’s the US or Europe," he said in an interview in Singapore last week.

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