Factors have long had a place in constructing equity portfolios, but investors increasingly use factors in sovereign and corporate bonds, commodities and currencies. Which non-equity factors have been the best performers coming out of recent crises, and why?

Telehealth has the potential to reduce inequalities in access to care as well as relieve strain on health systems. We tested an approach that combines natural-language processing and MSCI ESG Ratings screens.

We look at the unusual bankruptcy of Hertz Global Holdings Inc. — whose equity rallied in early June, when holders of Hertz bonds were expecting losses as high as 90% in default — to discuss the importance and subtleties of firms’ capital structures.

It’s clear that some companies were better positioned to take advantage of a remote work environment than others. We built a hypothetical “remote-operation capacity” factor to seek to measure the effect on different firms.

China’s stock market has drawn huge attention from global investors, especially as China A shares have been added to leading equity indexes. But the same cannot be said for the country’s 38 trillion CNY (USD 5.5 trillion) credit market, now the second-largest in the world. Despite the market’s overall size, foreign investor participation remains miniscule, with overseas bondholders accounting for less than 1% of the total holdings.

Venezuela unfortunately finds itself on the verge of political and economic collapse. From the perspective of investors in the country’s sovereign and corporate bonds, recovery risk is now likely a bigger consideration than default risk.