We believe the recent market sell-off has been driven by three main factors.

The first, and biggest, factor is that the tone of the Federal Reserve has become more aggressive. Recent comments by Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell that US interest rates were “a long way from neutral,” along with relatively upbeat US economic data — US unemployment at a 49-year low and hourly earnings at 2.8% — has driven US Treasury yields to a 7-year high.