BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fidelity Financial Advisor Solutions, the unit of Fidelity Investments® that provides Fidelity mutual funds and other products to financial advisors, today introduced the Fidelity® Advisor Investment Pulse, a first-of-its-kind survey that captures the investment topics on the minds of advisors, based on an ongoing, open-ended survey of more than 200 advisors per quarter.
The survey found advisors were increasingly focused on portfolio management in the first quarter of 2014, while fixed income also remained top-of-mind. Advisors indicated a rise in concern about market volatility, with the topic spiking in January 2014, a period of time in which the S&P 500 experienced its worst monthly percentage decline since May 2012.1 Additional themes -- including interest rates and finding yield -- maintained top spots, while inflation remained low on advisors’ list of concerns.
Top Five Q1 2014 Topics
- Portfolio Management / Investment Allocation
- Bonds / Fixed Income
- Market Volatility / Downside Risk / Avoiding Meltdown
- Interest Rates
- Finding Yield / Generating Income
“We have been tracking advisor sentiment about investing concerns and opportunities for years and seen dramatic shifts in focus, based on the market cycles,” said Scott E. Couto, president, Fidelity Financial Advisor Solutions. “Our goal in sharing this proprietary research is to provide advisors with timely perspectives from their peers, and offer some tools to take advantage of the investment opportunities that exist today.”
“In the first quarter of 2014, many financial advisors and their clients were thinking about what to do with their portfolios if interest rates rise,” said Couto. “Interestingly, they have been less focused on what many consider the ‘flip side’ of rising rates: inflation. Fidelity offers a range of insights that can help advisors navigate through a new era in portfolio management -- both focusing on the near- and long-term environment.”
For access to the insights and resources that Fidelity offers, advisors can visit: advisor.fidelity.com/investmentpulse. They include:
- Four Reasons Why Earnings Could Grow -- Fidelity equities experts outline four reasons why U.S companies could maintain a healthy rate of growth in the near-to-intermediate term: corporate profitability, overseas revenue, capital allocation and good-looking valuations.
- A Way To Help Manage Interest Rate Risk -- The Fidelity Viewpoints team discusses why short-duration bonds may provide limited price volatility and varying levels of income in today’s environment.
- Where to Find Income in 2014 -- Five top Fidelity investment managers discuss tech dividend stocks, floating rates, convertibles and traditional bonds. They share their insights into where investors looking to generate income from their portfolios might find opportunities.
- Why Inflation Matters -- Fidelity experts explain why unexpected inflation is a risk to the performance of traditional portfolio allocations, and why managing that risk should be incorporated into an investment strategy.
About Fidelity Investments
Fidelity Investments is one of the world’s largest providers of financial services, with assets under administration of $4.7 trillion, including managed assets of $1.9 trillion, as of April 30, 2014. Founded in 1946, the firm is a leading provider of investment management, retirement planning, portfolio guidance, brokerage, benefits outsourcing and many other financial products and services to more than 20 million individuals and institutions, as well as through 5,000 financial intermediary firms. For more information about Fidelity Investments, visit www.fidelity.com.
The content provided herein is general in nature and is for informational purposes only. This information is not individualized and is not intended to serve as the primary or sole basis for your decisions as there may be other factors you should consider. Fidelity Investments does not provide advice of any kind. You should conduct your own due diligence and analysis based on you and your firm’s specific needs.
Stock markets are volatile and can decline significantly in response to adverse issuer, political, regulatory, market, or economic developments. In general the bond market is volatile, and fixed-income securities carry interest rate risk. (As interest rates rise, bond prices usually fall, and vice versa. This effect is usually more pronounced for longer-term securities.) Fixed-income securities also carry inflation, credit, and default risks for both issuers and counterparties.
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1 Reuters, “Wall Street suffers worst drop since June after weak data,” February 3, 2014
