Principal Investment
Strategies
Under normal circumstances, the Fund invests at least 80% of its net
assets in different types of fixed-income 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 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 fixed-income 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’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 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 and social unrest) 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 fixed-income 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 fixed-income 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. Recently, the Federal Reserve Board has raised interest rates after a period of historic lows, and may increase rates further. The interest earned on the Fund's investments in fixed-income 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 fixed-income 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 fixed-income securities may not keep pace with inflation. Recent and potential future
changes in government policy may affect interest rates.
The interest rate of fixed-rate securities is fixed at the time of purchase and does not fluctuate with general market conditions. Floating-rate securities have interest rates that vary with changes to a specific measure, such as the Treasury bill rate. Variable-rate securities have interest rates that change at preset times based on changes on the specific measure.