DoubleLine Portfolio Manager Samuel Lau and Analyst Mark Kimbrough review a benign Aug. 26-30 week for stocks (1:04); bonds (3:26), taking note of a flattening Treasury yield curve; and commodities (7:34), with gold nearing $2500 per Troy ounce as markets anticipate easing monetary policy at the Federal Reserve. On the week’s macro front (9:21), there was little in the way of market-moving news. With positive readings on the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller home price indices, Mark Kimbrough takes note of “faster growth still in the major metro areas as well as the rest of the country.” Among macro prints to watch for Sept. 3-6 (18:23), Sam and Mark single out the ISM manufacturing report (Tuesday), JOLTS job openings (Wednesday), ISM services (Thursday) and nonfarm payrolls and unemployment (Friday).
Mr. Lau joined DoubleLine in 2009. He is a Strategist on the Fixed Income Asset Allocation (FIAA) Committee and a contributing member on the Global Asset Allocation and Macro Committees. Mr. Lau is a Portfolio Manager on DoubleLine’s strategic commodity strategy while working in portfolio management and trading for derivatives-based and multi-asset strategies, including DoubleLine's Shiller Enhanced CAPE®, Shiller Enhanced International CAPE®, Real Estate and Income, and Multi-Asset Trend strategies. He also co-hosts the Sherman Show (Twitter @ShermanShowPod, ShermanShow@Doubleline.com) and Monday Morning Minutes (Twitter @DLineMinutes, Minutes@Doubleline.com) podcasts. Prior to DoubleLine, Mr. Lau was a Vice President at TCW where he worked under Jeffrey Gundlach as a Research Analyst in the Mortgage Group. He holds a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and an MBA from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.
Mr. Kimbrough joined DoubleLine in 2012, where he worked primarily on Agency Mortgage Backed Securities and the Fixed Income Asset Allocation process as a member of the Risk Analyst team. He transitioned to his current role in 2019 where he serves as an Analyst on the Macro Asset Allocation team. Prior to DoubleLine, Mr. Kimbrough was at Western Asset Management working on systems monitoring and development within the Risk Department. He holds a BS in Business Administration with a concentration in Real Estate Finance and a minor in Economics from the University of Southern California. Mr. Kimbrough is a CFA® charterholder.