Credit Risk. The Fund’s investments are subject to the risk that issuers, guarantors and/or counterparties will
fail to make payments when due or default completely. Prices of the Fund’s investments may
be adversely affected if any of the issuers or counterparties it is invested in are subject to an actual or perceived deterioration in their credit quality. Credit spreads may increase, which may reduce the market
values of the Fund’s securities. Credit spread risk is the risk that economic and market
conditions or any actual or perceived credit deterioration may lead to an increase in the credit spreads (i.e., the difference in yield between two securities of similar maturity but different credit quality) and a decline in price of
the issuer’s securities.
Government Securities Risk. The Fund invests in securities issued or guaranteed by the U.S. government or its agencies and instrumentalities (such as securities issued by
Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae, or Freddie Mac). U.S. government securities are subject to market risk,
interest rate risk and credit risk. Securities, such as those issued or guaranteed by Ginnie Mae or the U.S. Treasury, that are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States are guaranteed only as to the
timely payment of interest and principal when held to maturity and the market prices for such
securities will fluctuate. The income generated by investments may not keep pace with inflation. Actions by governments and central banking authorities could result in changes in interest rates. Periods of higher
inflation could cause such authorities to raise interest rates, which may adversely affect the
Fund and its investments. Notwithstanding that these securities are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States, circumstances could arise that would prevent the payment of interest or principal. This would
result in losses to the Fund. Securities issued or guaranteed by U.S. government-related
organizations, such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are not backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government and no assurance can be given that the U.S. government will provide financial support. Therefore, U.S.
government-related organizations may not have the funds to meet their payment obligations in the
future.
Asset-Backed, Mortgage-Related and
Mortgage-Backed Securities Risk. The Fund may invest in asset-backed,
mortgage-related and mortgage-backed securities including so called “sub-prime”
mortgages, which may represent interests in pools of mortgages, consumer loans or other assets
held in trust, that are subject to certain other risks including prepayment and call risks. When
mortgages and other obligations are prepaid and when securities are called, the Fund may have to reinvest in securities with a lower yield or fail to recover additional amounts (i.e., premiums) paid for securities with
higher interest rates, resulting in an unexpected capital loss and/or a decrease in the amount of
dividends and yield. In periods of either rising or declining interest rates, the Fund may be subject to extension risk, and may receive principal later than expected. As a result, in periods of rising interest rates, the
Fund may exhibit additional volatility. During periods of difficult or frozen credit markets,
significant changes in interest rates or deteriorating economic conditions, such securities may decline in value, face valuation difficulties, become more volatile and/or become illiquid. Additionally, asset-backed,
mortgage-related and mortgage-backed securities are subject to risks associated with their
structure and the nature of the assets underlying the securities and the servicing of those assets. Certain asset-backed, mortgage-related and mortgage-backed securities may
face valuation difficulties and may be less liquid than other types of asset-backed, mortgage-related and mortgage-backed securities, or debt securities.
Collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs) and stripped mortgage-backed securities, including those structured as IOs and POs, are more volatile and may be more
sensitive to the rate of prepayments than other mortgage-related securities.
The risk of default, as described under “Credit Risk,” for “sub-prime” mortgages is generally higher than other types of mortgage-backed securities. The structure of some of these
securities may be complex and there may be less available information than other types of debt
securities.
Prepayment Risk. The issuer of certain securities may repay principal in advance, especially when yields fall. Changes in the
rate at which prepayments or redemptions occur can affect the return on investment of these
securities. When debt obligations are prepaid or when securities are called, the Fund may have to
reinvest in securities with a lower yield. The Fund also may fail to recover additional amounts
(i.e., premiums) paid for securities with higher coupons, resulting in an unexpected capital loss.
Foreign Issuer Risk. U.S. dollar-denominated securities of foreign issuers or U.S. affiliates of foreign issuers may be subject to
additional risks not faced by domestic issuers. These risks include political and economic risks,
civil conflicts and war, greater volatility, expropriation and nationalization risks, sanctions
or other measures by the United States or other governments and regulatory issues facing issuers in such foreign countries. Events and evolving conditions in certain economies or markets may alter the risks associated with
investments tied to countries or regions that historically were perceived as comparatively stable
becoming riskier and more volatile. Foreign issuers may not be subject to uniform accounting, auditing and financial reporting standards and there may be less reliable and publicly available financial and other
information about such issuers as compared to domestic issuers.
Geographic Focus Risk. The Fund may focus its investments
in one or more regions or small groups of countries. As a result, the Fund’s performance
may be subject to greater volatility than a more geographically diversified fund.
Industry and Sector Focus Risk. At times, the Fund may
increase the relative emphasis of its investments in a particular industry or sector. The prices
of securities of issuers in a particular industry or sector may be more susceptible to fluctuations due to changes in economic or business conditions, government regulations, availability of basic resources or
supplies, contagion risk within a particular industry or sector or to other industries or
sectors, or other events that affect that industry or sector more than securities of issuers in other industries and sectors. To the extent that the Fund increases the relative emphasis of its investments in a particular industry or
sector, the value of the Fund’s shares may fluctuate in response to events affecting that
industry or sector.
Transactions Risk. The Fund could experience a loss and its liquidity may be negatively impacted when selling securities or liquidating other investments to meet
redemption requests. The risk of loss increases if the redemption requests are unusually large or
frequent or occur in times of overall market turmoil or declining prices. Similarly, large purchases of Fund shares may