, Manulife Investment Management's portfolio manager Joseph Bozoyan stated that the interest rate cut in September is a positive signal reflecting the current state of the US economy: inflation is once again moving towards the Federal Reserve's target of 2%, ensuring a strong job market. The company maintains a balanced view on the performance of global credit assets and believes that there are opportunities currently available to invest in securities issued by high-quality companies at lower levels of capital structure to generate competitive returns. In addition, selecting securities from a wide range of credit categories and flexibly allocating them to various fixed income categories and different levels of credit should help investors navigate a potentially weakening economic environment. Manulife Investment Management stated that although the Federal Reserve has removed some uncertainties about the first interest rate cut, its future actions will depend on economic data. In recent months, economic performance has been mixed, with some sectors such as the labor market showing weakness while others are strong. If the pace of economic slowdown exceeds the pace of inflation returning to normal, the company believes that there will be greater pressure on authorities to relax the current monetary policy stance. If it proves difficult to bring inflation back down to the traditional target, the calls to raise the inflation target to lower the threshold for interest rate cuts may increase. Overall, the company believes that credit and yield spread categories still offer attractive return opportunities, with potential for yield spread narrowing and limited risk of permanent capital impairment. The company believes that active management, adopting defensive strategies, and using more credit tools are key to seeking potential excess returns in the new interest rate environment. The company believes that a slowing pace of economic downturn and central bank interest rate cuts could provide a favorable environment for preferred securities investments, especially in the utility and regional bank sectors. The company is more optimistic about these two sectors as there is a large volume of new bond issuances in the utility market and the interest rate cuts bring positive factors.