Welcome to Thoughts on the Market.

I am Vishi Tirupathur, Global Director of Fixed Income Research.

Along with my colleagues bringing you a variety of perspectives, I'll be talking about

Fixed Income markets amidst a time of extraordinary policy response.

It's Thursday, April 8th at 10 a.m. in New York.

A little more than a year ago, global equity is bottomed as the pandemic wreaked havoc on

the global economy and caused jobless claims despite to all-time highs.

It was also around this time that massive monetary and fiscal policy intervention began

matching the enormity of the pandemic.

Today, hope is growing for light at the end of the tunnel and we can finally see a path

back towards normalcy.

On the policy front, the 1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan has been more than double our

base case expectations for 2021 fiscal stimulus and another 2-plus trillion of infrastructure

package is in the works.

The vaccine rollout in the US has gathered pace and the timeline for vaccinations has

been brought forward significantly.

Clearly, the progress on the vaccination front has not been uniform globally as parts

of Europe and many emerging economies lack the US.

But even so, growth is tracking the bull case narrative in our 2021 outlook.

However, in the last six to eight weeks, risk assets have seen listless as interest rates

have risen steadily.

The benchmark 10-year US Treasury yields have climbed about 60 basis points over the last

...