Principal Investment
Strategies
Under normal circumstances, the Fund invests at least 80% of its net
assets in different types of bonds and other debt securities, with few limitations as to credit quality, geography, maturity or sector. The Fund may invest in U.S. government
securities and foreign government bonds, as well as U.S. and foreign corporate bonds and debentures, asset-backed securities, mortgage-backed securities (including collateralized mortgage obligations) and convertible bonds. The Fund also may invest in corporate
loans. Securities in which the Fund invests pay interest on either a fixed-rate or a variable-rate basis. The Fund may invest in securities issued by foreign issuers, including those that are located in emerging market countries, although the Fund does not invest more than 65% of its net assets, at the time of purchase, in emerging market securities. Emerging market countries include certain countries located in Latin America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and developing countries of Europe, primarily Eastern Europe. Many foreign securities are denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar.
The Fund may invest without limitation in debt securities of any maturity, duration or
credit quality. Accordingly, the Fund may invest a substantial portion of its portfolio in high-yield bonds (i.e., “junk bonds”) and other securities that are
lower-rated. Some of these debt securities may be in default or at high risk of defaulting, and may have extremely poor prospects for being able to make principal and interest payments.
The Fund may purchase many U.S. agency pass-through mortgage-backed securities on a
when-issued (also known as “to-be-announced”) basis. When entering into such a transaction, the Fund buys securities with payment and delivery scheduled to take place in the future. The Fund’s subadviser may use derivatives, such as futures and forward foreign currency contracts, either to increase returns, to hedge against international currency exposure, or to manage the Fund’s average portfolio duration. The subadviser also may buy or sell credit default swaps either to hedge against investment risks or to increase return.
The Fund’s subadviser does not manage the Fund specific to any index or benchmark,
which provides it with flexibility to allocate to and rotate across any sector in the fixed-income universe. This strategy is designed to provide exposure to those areas of the
fixed-income market that the subadviser anticipates will provide value, while attempting to minimize exposure to those areas it anticipates will not provide value. In managing the Fund, the subadviser considers fundamental market factors such as yield and credit quality differences among bonds, as well as demand and supply trends. The subadviser also makes investment decisions
based on technical factors such as price momentum, market sentiment, and supply or demand imbalances. The Fund may engage in frequent and active trading of portfolio securities.
The Fund cannot guarantee that it will achieve its investment objective.
As with any fund, the value of the Fund’s investments—and therefore, the value of Fund shares—may fluctuate. These changes may occur because of:
Market risk – the risk that one or more markets in which the Fund invests will go
down in value, including the possibility that the markets will go down sharply and unpredictably. This occurs due to numerous factors, including interest rates, the outlook for
corporate profits, the health of the national and world economies, and the fluctuation of other securities markets around the world. These risks may be magnified if certain social, political, economic and other conditions and events (such as natural
disasters, epidemics and pandemics, terrorism, conflicts, trade disputes and social unrest or rapid technological developments such as artificial intelligence) adversely interrupt the global economy.
Selection risk – the risk that the securities selected by the Fund’s
subadviser will underperform the markets, the relevant indexes or the securities selected by other funds with similar investment objectives and investment strategies.
Interest rate risk – generally, when interest rates go up, the value of debt securities goes down. Prices of longer-term securities
generally change more in response to interest rate changes than prices of shorter-term securities. To the extent the Fund invests a substantial portion of its assets in debt securities with longer-term maturities, rising interest rates are more likely to cause periods of increased volatility and redemptions, and will cause the value of the Fund's investments to decline significantly. The Federal Reserve Board continued to lower interest rates following a period of consistent rate increases, though it is unclear if such lowering will continue. The interest earned on the Fund's investments in debt securities may decline when prevailing
interest rates fall. Declines in interest rates increase the likelihood that debt obligations will be pre-paid, which, in turn, increases these risks. Very low or negative interest rates will impact the yield of the Fund's investments in debt securities and increase the risk that, if followed by rising interest rates, the Fund's performance will be negatively impacted. The Fund is subject to the risk that the income generated by its investments in debt securities may not keep pace with inflation. Recent and potential future
changes in government policy may affect interest rates.