DoubleLine Minutes

DoubleLine Portfolio Manager Jeff Mayberry and Fixed Income Allocation Strategist Ryan Kimmel review February performance during the final market week of the month ended Feb. 27. The S&P 500 finished the month down only 1% despite all the negative headlines and volatility. While tech and financials struggled, equities experienced wide dispersion, with the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index marking its biggest outperformance versus its market-weighted sibling since the GFC era. Also of note, a Cetrini paper on a dark AI future for the economy stoked tech sector concerns. Over in fixed income (6:21), the Agg turned in a nice month while a new bankruptcy continued to mount about private credit. Commodities were up on the week and month (10:55), with oil prices impacted by the Iran situation, and Bitcoin (12:31) may have found a floor. It was a light week in Macro Land (13:19), with updates on consumer sentiment; employment; and inflation, with these numbers not going the Fed’s way. Next week’s releases (18:05) will include ISM PMI prints as well as January retail numbers.

DoubleLine Macro Asset Allocation Strategist Ryan Kimmel and Analyst Mark Kimbrough note a rotation (0:05) in favor of communications services and financials as well as industrials in the stock market for the week ended Feb. 20. The previous week’s winners – Old Economy sectors: utilities, materials, consumer staples and real estate – were down this week. In fixed income (4:09), investment grade sectors faced the headwind of a slight rise in yields across the Treasury curve while high yield and bank loans had positive returns. The long bond led yield-curve steepening Friday on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down President Trump’s tariffs. Commodities (6:41) moved higher with crude oil up 6%. Among the week’s macro news (8:32), Ryan Kimmel sees positive signs for U.S. manufacturing; but headline and core PCE moving higher in December, decelerating wage and salary growth; and more signs of a K-shaped economy in the University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey for February. Mark Kimbrough spies a “hawkish tilt” in the minutes of the Jan. 28 Federal Open Market Committee meeting. Looking ahead (20:41) to the week of Feb. 23-27, Ryan and Mark will be on the lookout for home price appreciation indexes, the Conference Board’s consumer confidence report, jobless claims and the producer price index for January.

Under the hood of broad stock indexes (00:19) for the week ended Feb. 13, Macro Asset Allocation Strategist Ryan Kimmel and Analyst Mark Kimbrough see ongoing rotation from knowledge-economy sectors such as financials, communication services and tech as well as consumer discretionary into old-economy sectors such as utilities, materials, real estate, consumer staples and energy. These money flows largely continued the stock-market leadership of the prior week. Ryan and Mark also note a change of the guard, year-to-date, in investment styles with equal-weighted large caps outperforming market-weighted large caps and value outperforming growth. In fixed income (4:06), bull curve-flattening lifted the Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index, with Agency mortgage-backed securities outperforming investment grade corporates and Treasuries. In risky credits, emerging markets debt kept up with Agency MBS. Commodities (6:54) weakened, while in precious metals, silver stabilized and gold recovered above $5,000 per troy ounce. A heavy week for macro news (8:22), retail goods sales came in somewhat weak. Encouraging news on inflation arrived with the Employment Cost Index for 4Q2025 and the Consumer Price Index for January. Nonfarm payrolls for the month came in unusually strong versus expectations. Mark cautions that the bulk of the new hires were concentrated in healthcare and social assistance, and Ryan is taking a wait-and-see attitude given this data series’ history of downward revisions. Looking ahead to the abbreviated holiday week (22:09) of Feb. 17-20, Ryan and Mark will be on the lookout for the Wednesday release of minutes of the Jan. 28 meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (to see whether there is corroboration for a reprise in U.S. manufacturing) and Friday’s release of the Personal Consumption Expenditure Deflator report for December.

For the week ended Feb. 6, DoubleLine Portfolio Manager Eric Dhall and Analyst Mark Kimbrough survey big industry and investment-style dispersions in the stock market (0:43), including winners and losers within tech; more underlying volatility in bonds than meets the eye (5:26); and commodities roiled by volatility as well as dispersion (8:31). They also take note of a massive ongoing decoupling of gold and the “purported digital gold,” bitcoin, that Eric says is putting both mid-tier bitcoin miners and crypto believers to the test. On the macro front (12:41), the brief government shutdown delayed the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ January payroll and unemployment reports to Feb. 11. Mark finds expansionary signs in the ISM manufacturing and services reports for January, while cautioning not to read too much in one month’s data. Looking ahead (19:01) to the week of Feb. 9-13, Eric and Mark will be on the lookout for the January labor reports and consumer price index.

DoubleLine Fixed Income Asset Allocation Strategist Ryan Kimmel and Analyst Mark Kimbrough review changing industry leadership in the stock market (0:18) for the week ended Jan. 30. The Bloomberg Aggregate squeaked through with gains (3:39) despite higher rates while risky fixed income sectors turned negative. Commodities (6:50) moved higher, driven almost entirely by energy. The forex markets (9:30) witnessed coordinated intervention by the U.S. and Japan to stave off more yen weakness. The week’s macro news (10:58) was dominated by the Federal Open Market Committee, which Wednesday stayed on hold, followed by Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s news conference, and President Trump’s nomination of Kevin Warsh to succeed Powell as head of the Federal Reserve. For next week’s macro calendar (19:09), Ryan and Mark will be especially interested to see forthcoming labor-market benchmark revisions by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, perhaps even an overhaul of the birth-death model.

DoubleLine Portfolio Manager Jeff Mayberry and Fixed Income Allocation Strategist Ryan Kimmel review the week ended Jan. 23. They survey a mixed bag for stocks (0:31), with the S&P 500 lower on tech and energy and materials the winners; fixed income (2:06) slightly negative on spillover effects from the selloff in Japanese government bonds and rates up across the Treasury curve; and commodities (3:40) surging higher on energy and precious metals. The macro front (5:43) brought the shutdown-delayed release of benign readings, to be taken “with a big grain of salt,” on the PCE Deflator for October and November; and a weakening in personal income, resulting in a declining personal savings rate. Topping the week ahead (13:36) will be the Federal Open Market Committee Meeting and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s news conference on Jan. 28. Fed funds futures price in a mere 3% probability of a rate cut at the FOMC meeting, rising to only 33% by the end of Powell’s mandate.

DoubleLine Portfolio Manager Eric Dhall and Analyst Mark Kimbrough survey the market week ended Jan. 16. They observe dispersion among stock-market sectors (0:50), with Real Estate climbing on President Trump pressuring the Government Sponsored Enterprises to buy more mortgage securities in an effort to lower mortgage rates. A mixed bag also prevailed in fixed income (5:00), with Treasury yields in the belly of the curve moving out 5-6 basis points while non-traditional credit sectors still provided positive returns. Commodities (6:52) tacked on gains as crude oil responded to risks of U.S. military strikes and Iranian threats of retaliation. Interestingly, both the dollar (8:46) and gold were up on the week and year-to-date. In the week’s macro news (10:26), the December consumer price index, notes Mark Kimbrough, offered “some clues that core good inflation is moderating.” For the Jan. 19-23 week, topping the billboard will be the November print of the PCE Index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation indicator.

DoubleLine Portfolio Manager Jeff Mayberry and Fixed Income Allocation Strategist Ryan Kimmel review a positive 2025 for stocks, bonds and commodities (1:22), with outperformance in European and emerging market equities. After scanning the first YTD returns for the New Year (5:46), they dive into a data-heavy macro week (9:02) ended Jan. 9. Topping the week’s prints are mixed December labor readings and trade-deficit narrowing that sufficed to raise the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow annualized estimate for 4Q2025 to 5.4% from 2.9%. A review of fed fund futures pricing (17:06) indicates a Fed standing pat until odds for a rate cut reach to a coin flip on April 29, presumably Jerome Powell’s last day to preside over the Federal Open Market Committee. Looking to the week ahead (17:55), topping Jeff and Ryan’s watch list will be the December CPI report (due Tuesday).

DoubleLine Portfolio Manager Eric Dhall and Fixed Income Allocation Strategist Ryan Kimmel review markets for the week ended Dec. 19 and close a year that saw gains across equities and fixed income as well as stellar precious metals. Stocks (0:52) registered a meager return for the week but gained nearly 18% YTD. In fixed income (3:11), Treasury yields fell across the curve on the week. The Bloomberg Aggregate has returned more than 7% YTD. Broad commodities (4:32) are up almost 15% for the year and flattish for the week. Silver and gold continued to surge to new all-time highs and platinum to its highest level since 2008. The week’s macro review (9:06) included somewhat weak labor market readings and a surprisingly weak consumer price index for November. Both reports, Eric and Ryan caution, should be taken with a grain of salt, given effects of the recent government shutdown and seasonality. With the holiday season, the Dec. 22-26 week ahead promises to be a quiet one for data releases. One of the few notable prints will be the updated estimate due Tuesday of 3Q2025 gross domestic product.

DoubleLine Portfolio Manager Jeff Mayberry and cross-asset Analyst Mark Kimbrough review the Dec. 8-12 week, notable for stocks (0:34) erasing the week’s gains after Thursday’s all-time high on the S&P 500. Heavy selling in tech names drove the downside with financials, materials and industrials nonetheless diverging higher. In fixed income (2:03), the Treasury curve steepened as longer yields moved higher, shorter yields lower, in the wake of Wednesday’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting and Fed Chairman Jay Powell’s news conference. Broad commodities (3:10) fell, with crude oil posting the biggest losses. Precious metals continued to rally with silver continuing to gain momentum. For the week’s macro stories (5:45), Mark Kimbrough covers small business optimism, JOLTS, employment-cost and unemployment-claims stories. Then he and Jeff Mayberry turn their attention (11:14) to the Dec. 10 FOMC meeting, its quarter-point fed funds cut and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s news conference amid growing if still-minority policy dissents, signs of weakening labor and a murky outlook on inflation. Looking to the week ahead (20:49), Jeff and Mark will be on the lookout for payroll and unemployment reports, retail sales,  S&P Global manufacturing and services reports (Tuesday); and jobless claims and November CPI (Thursday).

DoubleLine Portfolio Manager Eric Dhall and Fixed Income Allocation Strategist Ryan Kimmel recap a mixed performance for markets in November, with the S&P 500 ticking up slightly despite a rough run for tech stocks. But that same sector experienced a bit of a bounce back amid a risk revival in the first week of December (2:20), which also included a strong rate rally on the front end of the interest rate curve heading into a likely Fed cut next week (3:30), a healthy run for commodities (5:22) and more volatility for Bitcoin (6:05). Over in Macro Land (9:26), the week’s prints included a split picture on ISM PMI manufacturing and services data, a soft ADP labor print (10:38) and a consumer sentiment report that underscores an optimism gap between survey responses and hard data (13:39). Next week (16:50), the FOMC will hold its final meeting of 2025, with futures markets forecasting a 95% chance for another rate cut.

DoubleLine Portfolio Manager Eric Dhall and Analyst Mark Kimbrough review the week ended Nov. 21, with stocks lower on AI speculation skepticism (0:48), positive high-grade bond returns (2:17) and easing commodities (4:36). Their macro review (9:08) includes the resumption of the government statistical mills, idled by the 43-day shutdown, which churned out a mixed bag of overdue labor market data. While fed funds futures are pricing in likelihood of a quarter-point rate cut Dec. 10, Eric Dhall warns weeks of macro prints lie ahead and regards the odds at this point in time as a coin flip. Among the prints due during the Thanksgiving week ahead (19:45), Eric and Mark will be on the lookout for stale-but-we’ll-have-to-take-it September reports of the PPI, retail sales and durable goods; and the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index for November.

DoubleLine Portfolio Manager Eric Dhall and Fixed Income Allocation Strategist Ryan Kimmel recap a mixed market week (Nov. 10-14) that marked the end of the federal government shutdown and production of the penny. Equities were up a bit on the week with some pretty interesting dispersion (00:34); fixed income was flat (2:32); energy pumped up commodities (3:49); and Bitcoin fell below the important structural marker of $100k (6:25), with Eric and Ryan noting that the drop is reflective of broader risk sentiment. Over in Macro Land (11:04), they discuss the timeline for government data releases and the likelihood that there will be some holes in October prints. Among non-U.S. government data sources (14:56), they review small-business optimism, weekly payroll numbers and state jobless claims. Next week (18:22) will deliver the FOMC October minutes and some PMI numbers.

DoubleLine Portfolio Managers Jeff Mayberry and Eric Dhall review a negative week ended Nov. 7, 2025, for stocks (00:48), with the year’s high-flying Tech and Communication Services sectors the worst performers on the week; a mixed bag in fixed income (3:06); and flat commodities (4:00). With government JOLTS, payrolls, factory orders and trade reports sidelined by the federal executive branch shutdown, macro pickings (5:43) were largely limited to private data sources, including contractionary manufacturing and expansionary services reports from the ISM. One notable exception was a Congressional Budget Office quantitative analysis relating projected lengths of the shutdown to hits to fourth quarter GDP growth. “The shutdown is really starting to weigh on the economy,” Eric notes, “as we know that government spending is additive to the GDP equation.” Looking to macro reports for Nov. 10-14 (10:08), Jeff Mayberry notes, “If you think Nov. 3-7 was bare, next week is terrible. There’s nothing. No CPI, no PPI, no retail sales. As for the Small Business Optimism number, that’s it for next week.”  

DoubleLine Cross Asset Analyst Mark Kimbrough and Fixed Income Allocation Strategist Ryan Kimmel review a week ended Oct. 31 with just two sectors, tech and consumer discretionary, holding the S&P 500 above water, and risk sectors of fixed income – high yield, bank debt and emerging markets – showing gains with investment grade sectors lower as yields shifted higher across the curve. On the macro front, the first meeting by U.S. President Trump in his second term with China President Xi, Ryan notes, “removed some of the tail risk of further trade-war escalation.” However, the week’s biggest market-moving event came out of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s news conference Wednesday after the Federal Open Market Committee, as expected, cut the federal funds target rate 25 basis points. Powell’s flat advisory against assuming a further rate cut at the Dec. 10 FOMC meeting lowered market-priced probabilities for such a cut from as high as 95% to 60% and pushing yields up along the curve. Looking ahead to Nov. 3-7, given the idling of government statistical mills during the shutdown, Mark and Ryan have private-sector data releases for October on their menu: ISM Manufacturing (Monday); ADP private employment and ISM Services (Wednesday); University of Michigan consumer expectations survey (Friday).

DoubleLine Portfolio Manager Jeff Mayberry and Analyst Mark Kimbrough analyze the week ended Oct. 24 with stocks with tech leading on a benign September CPI print, fixed income eking out its carry and commodities led higher by WTI on U.S. sanctions against Russian crude oil. Gold, they note, posted its first negative week since mid-August. On the economic front, in the absence of national jobless claims data due to the federal government shutdown, Mark Kimbrough notes state-level stats suggest no undue stress in labor markets. S&P Global PMI data show an expansionary U.S. economy in both manufacturing and services sectors. Turning to the effects of the government shutdown, Mark unearths some research from the 1970s indicating that while delays in data collection probably will have little impact on the quality of the October nonfarm payrolls once that statistical series resumes reporting, biases due to poor memory recall could degrade the fidelity of the household U-3 unemployment survey and especially the CPI for the month of October. Looking ahead to the week of Oct. 27-31, Jeff and Mark will be especially interested Wednesday in guidance coming out of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting (after it is expected to lower the federal funds rate by a quarter point) and from Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s news conference.

DoubleLine Portfolio Jeff Mayberry and Fixed Income Allocation Strategist Ryan Kimmel review the markets and macro news for the week of Oct. 13-17 as the government shutdown reaches Day 17. It was a pretty positive week for stocks (00:29), with the only negative sector, financials, impacted by “a string of one-off credit events”; the Agg was up during a pretty quiet week for fixed income (3:07); and commodities were up (5:13), with precious metals up despite a dip in gold. It was another light week for macro data due to the shutdown (7:12), but Jeff and Ryan look at metrics including small business optimism, state jobless claims and credit card data. Fedspeak (13:05) events included Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell discussing QT policy ahead of the blackout period for the October FOMC meeting. Jeff and Ryan also field a listener question on whether mortgage rates coming in due to mortgage spreads tightening could lead to inflation (14:37), with them noting that rates would have to come in a lot for the current dynamic to change.

 DoubleLine Portfolio Manager Eric Dhall and Analyst Mark Kimbrough review the Oct. 6-10 week, punctuated by a Friday trade-war fright that reversed the week’s gains in stocks (0:27) and spurred a flight to safety into bonds (3:47). Commodities (6:11) followed energy lower, and gold consolidated near $4,000 an ounce. The “debasement trade” (6:25) attributed to gold’s winning streak is a topic for discussion, with Eric and Mark reminding listeners that despite gold’s luster as an asset outside the manipulations of fiat currencies, ultimately central banks’ appetite for bullion, or lack of it, will help decide where gold prices go from here. The week’s macro data (10:00) showed gradual weakening in consumer credit and, via the FOMC minutes, a flock of “scared doves” behind the Sept. 17 fed funds rate cut. Due to the government shutdown, the Oct. 13-17 week (17:41), Eric and Mark note, perhaps will be most notable for the scheduled government indicators that are NOT released: CPI, PPI and import prices on the inflation front and retail sales. Among the few major releases expected are the Federal Reserve’s beige book and industrial production report.

DoubleLine Portfolio Manager Eric Dhall and Fixed Income Allocation Strategist Ryan Kimmel recap the market week of Sept. 29-Oct. 3 against the backdrop of a federal government shutdown. Eric and Ryan discuss the continuing strong run for equities on the back of high-fliers for September, Q3 and year-to-date (00:25) as well as healthy returns across all three time periods for fixed income (3:54) and commodities (5:38). While data delivery was light in Macro Land due to the shutdown, Eric and Ryan do take a look at prints that reflect a softening labor market (14:37), waning consumer confidence (19:00), weakening PMI numbers (19:44) and lower home prices (21:49). Next week could be a light week or very light week for data (24:35), depending on the shutdown, with the University of Michigan consumer survey among the nongovernmental prints on the schedule.

DoubleLine Portfolio Jeff Mayberry and Analyst Mark Kimbrough chart a quiet week ended Sept. 26 for equities (0:36) and fixed income (1:53) while commodities advanced led by energy. The week’s macro prints (4:40) included preliminary expansionary readings for manufacturing and services on the S&P PMI for September; revision of second-quarter GDP to 3.8% annualized; and Core PCE preserving a disinflationary trend, albeit with a recent pick-up in services prices. Looking ahead (12:25) to the week of Sept. 29-Oct. 3, the big question will be whether a budget standoff between congressional Republicans and Democrats leads to a government shutdown on Oct. 1. If the federal bureaucracy goes dark, private data such as the ADP employment report, Jeff Mayberry notes, could become more important than usual, given the absence of Bureau of Labor Statistics data and other reports.