Our base case outlook is calling for a relatively stable fixed income environment looking ahead. We're not necessarily seeing anything flashing red, but we do think that we'll continue to see some trend down lower with US growth. The labor market data that we've seen come out has become front and center for both the Fed and the market as a whole. So we do think that that could cause some volatility.
So we do think that the Fed will likely continue to cut through the end of 2026, potentially around four or five cuts. therefore we would see some downward pressure on the front and intermediate parts of the interest rate curve, As far as credit markets are concerned, we still think that fundamentals remain quite strong
We think it's really important for investors to remember that from a yield perspective, we're at much more attractive entry points than we have been for the previous decade. Not only does that additional income help absorb some volatility, but it also offers much more attractive total return opportunities moving forward. I also say remember because there are over $7.5 billion in assets sitting in money market funds today. So with the Fed likely moving forward with their cutting of interest rates, you're only going to see diminishing returns with the front end yields coming down. We think given how tight spreads are across the fixed income market, it's important for investors to look for active fixed income managers.
And at Natixis, we have exceptional managers via our affiliates at Loomis Sayles, Harris, Oakmark, and via the Natixis solutions platform. We also offer analytics for you to use with your clients to better understand their models, how they're positioned, and which would fit best within them.
In addition to our general investment commentary, Natixis offers one-on-one customized consultative portfolio solutions where we'll actually examine what you're doing in your fixed income portfolio. We've seen thousands of fixed income sleeves, and we can contextualize your performance and your exposures, not just against what we're doing in our own portfolio, but against a very robust peer group of other advisor portfolios that we've evaluated recently.
With Natixis, you're not just talking to people who review portfolios all day and provide an academic view of the market. We are actual practitioners here.
All of the consultants that you'd speak to at Natixis sit on our investment committee, and we are actually managing real tactical multi-asset portfolios where we're basically trying to outperform all the same benchmarks that you are trying to outperform in real time. We actually have skin in the game. I always tell my clients, if you ask your core bond manager, where's the best value in the marketplace right now, you're going to get an answer about core bonds. If you ask your high yield manager, guess what, they're going to talk about high yield. You ask that same question to a multi-asset allocator who can buy anything in public markets, you're going to get a much more candid answer about where there's value in the marketplace.
