BNY Mellon Investment Manager Sees Temporary Mid-Year Slowdown

NEW YORK and LONDON, April 23, 2013 — Treasury yields are expected to hold steady through the second and third quarters before rising toward year-end, according to the April Bond Market Observations from Standish, the Boston-based fixed income specialist for BNY Mellon.

Standish also remains bullish on the U.S. dollar as the currency is expected to benefit from political uncertainty in Europe and the Bank of Japan's aggressive policy stance.  Standish also notes in the report that the easing policies of major central banks have been the primary reason for the resilience of the global economy to shocks, and have helped to drive the rally in global capital markets so far in 2013.

"In the past, shocks such as the Cypriot banking crisis and the lack of a clear winner in the Italian parliamentary elections would have sent capital markets reeling," said Thomas Higgins, Standish's chief economist.  "Now, the flood of liquidity from global central banks has dampened investor reactions to these types of issues."

Standish still sees threats to the global economic recovery including the fiscal drag in the United States. As a result, Standish expects the Federal Reserve to stay the course with its asset purchase program until economic activity picks up toward year end, according to the report.

Standish said that even when Treasury yields begin to rise, the increase is likely to be gradual similar to the one that accompanied the Fed tightening cycle in 2004 rather than the sudden increase which occurred in 1994. The Fed's transparent communication with the market should alert investors well in advance of any change in policy, moderating the rise in yields, according to Standish.

Standish Mellon Asset Management Company LLC, with approximately $167 billion of assets under management, provides investment management services across a broad spectrum of fixed income asset classes. These include corporate credit, emerging markets debt (dollar-denominated and local currency), core / core plus, tax–sensitive, short duration, stable value and opportunistic (U.S. and global) strategies.  Standish also offers full service capabilities in insurance client strategies and liability driven investing. The firm includes assets managed by Standish personnel acting as dual officers of The Dreyfus Corporation and The Bank of New York Mellon and Alcentra NY, LLC personnel acting as dual officers of Standish.

BNY Mellon Investment Management is one of the world's leading investment management organizations and one of the top U.S. wealth managers, with $1.4 trillion in assets under management. It encompasses BNY Mellon's affiliated investment management firms, wealth management services and global distribution companies. More information can be found at http://www.bnymellon.com/.

BNY Mellon is a global investments company dedicated to helping its clients manage and service their financial assets throughout the investment lifecycle. Whether providing financial services for institutions, corporations or individual investors, BNY Mellon delivers informed investment management and investment services in 36 countries and more than 100 markets. As of March 31, 2013, BNY Mellon had $26.3 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration, and $1.4 trillion in assets under management. BNY Mellon can act as a single point of contact for clients looking to create, trade, hold, manage, service, distribute or restructure investments. BNY Mellon is the corporate brand of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE: BK). Additional information is available on http://www.bnymellon.com/, or follow us on Twitter @BNYMellon.

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