JPMorgan puts sell sign on emerging market government debt

LONDON (Reuters) – Analysts at JPMorgan put an ‘underweight’, or sell sign, on international emerging market sovereign debt on Friday due to the global economic slowdown and ongoing rise in interest rates and the dollar.

The lender, viewed as one of the world’s most influential investment banks, said the premiums investors demand to hold EM debt rather than ultra-safe U.S. Treasuries could soon balloon out again having improved somewhat recently.

“We move underweight EMBIGD (from marketweight)” JPMorgan said referring the bank’s widely-tracked emerging market sovereign debt index.

The “risks are for the next big spread move to be wider than tighter in our view given late cycle financial conditions tightening and growth risks,” the bank’s analysts added.

(Reporting by Marc Jones; editing by Rodrigo Campos)