Monthly commentary: Total Return Fund

Diversification at the core

A diversified core bond strategy can help your portfolio deliver more consistent performance through market cycles. BlackRock Total Return Fund seeks returns in a variety of fixed income sectors.

Performance and positioning update

• The fund posted a negative return in October as rates experienced significant volatility due to strong economic data releases and uncertainty around the US election.
• Over the month, we increased our top-line duration to a meaningful overweight position versus the benchmark. We increased our position in the front-end of the curve to a modest overweight position as markets started repricing the amount of rate cuts in line with our view. Additionally, we added to our overweight in the belly of the curve. We increased our positions in Agency Mortgages, US High Yield Credit, and Structured Products.

View fund commentary

Diversified sources of return

Performance data quoted represents past performance and is no guarantee of future results. Investment returns and principal values may fluctuate so that an investor’s shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. All returns assume reinvestment of dividends and capital gains. Current performance may be lower or higher than that shown. Refer to blackrock.com for most recent month-end performance.

To obtain more information on the fund, including the Morningstar time period ratings and standardized average annual total returns as of the most recent calendar quarter and current month-end, please visit Total Return Fund.

The Morningstar Rating^TM for funds, or "star rating," is calculated for managed products (including mutual funds, variable annuity and variable life subaccounts, exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, and separate accounts) with at least a three-year history. Exchange-traded funds and open-ended mutual funds are considered a single population for comparative purposes. It is calculated based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a managed product's monthly excess performance, placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The top 10% of products in each product category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars, and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. The Overall Morningstar Rating for a managed product is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its three-, five-, and 10-year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics. The weights are: 100% three-year rating for 36-59 months of total returns, 60% five-year rating/40% three-year rating for 60-119 months of total returns, and 50% 10-year rating/30% five-year rating/20% three-year rating for 120 or more months of total returns. While the 10-year overall star rating formula seems to give the most weight to the 10-year period, the most recent three-year period actually has the greatest impact because it is included in all three rating periods.