This Summary Prospectus is designed to provide investors with key fund information in a clear and concise format. Before you invest, you may want to review the Fund’s Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information, which contain more information about the Fund and its risks. The Fund’s Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information, both dated March 1, 2014, are incorporated by reference into this Summary Prospectus. For free paper or electronic copies of the Fund’s Prospectus, Statement of Additional Information, and other information about the Fund, go to http://www.eatonvance.com/funddocuments, email a request to contact@eatonvance.com, call 1-800-262-1122, or ask any financial advisor, bank, or broker-dealer who offers shares of the Fund. Unless otherwise noted, page number references refer to the current Prospectus for this Fund.
Principal Investment Strategies
The Fund seeks its investment objective by investing in securities, derivatives and other instruments to establish long and short investment exposures around the world. Total return is defined as income plus capital appreciation. The Fund normally invests in multiple countries and may have significant exposure to foreign currencies. The Fund’s long and short investments primarily are sovereign exposures, including currencies, interest rates and debt instruments issued or guaranteed by sovereign entities. The Fund may also invest in corporate debt and equity securities, both foreign and domestic, including banks, and commodity-related investments. The Fund may have significant investment in a geographic region or country, typically including less-developed countries, characterized as emerging and frontier markets. Normally, not more than 25% of the Fund’s assets are invested in securities or issuers in any one foreign country or denominated in any one currency other than the U.S. dollar or the euro.
In seeking its investment objective, the Fund may invest in fixed income securities and other debt instruments, a wide variety of derivative instruments, commodities-related investments and equity securities. The Fund expects to achieve certain exposures primarily through derivative transactions, including (but not limited to) forward foreign currency exchange contracts; futures on securities, indices, currencies, commodities, swaps and other investments; options; and interest rate swaps, cross-currency swaps, total return swaps and credit default swaps, which may create economic leverage in the Fund. The Fund may engage in derivative transactions to enhance total return, to seek to hedge against fluctuations in securities prices, interest rates or currency exchange rates, to change the effective duration of its portfolio, to manage certain investment risks and/or as a substitute for the purchase or sale of securities, currencies or commodities. The Fund may engage in repurchase agreements, reverse repurchase agreements, forward commitments, short sales and securities lending. The Fund frequently has significant exposure to foreign investments and derivatives.
The Fund employs an absolute return investment approach. Absolute return strategies benchmark their performance primarily against short-term cash instruments, adjusting to compensate for the amount of investment risk assumed. Relative return strategies, by contrast, seek to outperform a designated stock, bond or other market index, and measure their performance primarily in relation to such benchmark. Over time, the investment performance of absolute return strategies typically is substantially independent of longer term movements in the stock and bond market.
In managing the Fund, the investment adviser utilizes macroeconomic and political analysis to identify investment opportunities throughout the world, including both developed and emerging markets. The investment adviser seeks to identify countries and currencies it believes have potential to outperform investments in other countries and currencies, and to anticipate changes in global economies, markets, political conditions and other factors for this purpose.
The Fund primarily invests its assets in the Portfolio, a separate registered investment company with the same investment objective and policies as the Fund, but may also invest directly in securities and other instruments. The Portfolio may gain exposure to commodities by investing up to 25% of it total assets in Eaton Vance GMP Commodity Subsidiary, Ltd. (the “Subsidiary”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Portfolio organized under the laws of the Cayman Islands, which invests primarily in commodity-related investments, as well as securities and other instruments in which the Portfolio is permitted to invest.
Principal Risks
Foreign and Emerging Market Investment Risk.
Because the Fund invests a significant portion of its assets in foreign instruments, the value of Fund shares can be adversely affected by changes in currency exchange rates and political, economic and market developments abroad. In emerging or less developed countries, these risks can be more significant. Investment markets in emerging market countries are typically substantially smaller, less liquid and more volatile than the major markets in developed countries. As a result, Fund share values may be more volatile than if the Fund invested only in developed markets. Emerging market countries may have relatively unstable governments and economies. Emerging market investments often are subject to speculative trading, which typically contributes to volatility. Trading in foreign and emerging markets typically involves higher expense than trading in the United States. The Fund may have difficulties enforcing its legal or contractual rights in a foreign country. The value of investments denominated in foreign currencies can be adversely affected by changes in foreign currency exchange rates.
Economic data as reported by sovereign governments and foreign issuers may be delayed, inaccurate or fraudulent. In the event of a default by a sovereign entity, there are typically no assets to be seized or cash flows to be attached. Furthermore, the willingness or ability of a sovereign entity to renegotiate defaulted debt may be limited. Therefore, losses on sovereign defaults may far exceed the losses from the default of a similarly rated U.S. debt issuer.
Market Risk.
Economic and other events (whether real or perceived) can reduce the demand for investments held by the Fund, which may reduce their market prices and cause the value of Fund shares to fall. The frequency and magnitude of such changes cannot be predicted. Certain securities and other investments held by the Fund can experience downturns in trading activity and, at such times, the supply of such instruments in the market may exceed the demand. At other times, the demand for such instruments may exceed the supply in the market. An imbalance in supply and demand in the market may result in valuation
Eaton Vance Global Macro Absolute Return Fund
2
Summary Prospectus dated March 1, 2014
uncertainties and greater volatility, less liquidity, wider trading spreads and a lack of price transparency in the market. No active trading market may exist for certain investments, which may impair the ability of the Fund to sell or to realize the full value of such investments in the event of the need to liquidate such assets. Adverse market conditions may impair the liquidity of some actively traded investments. Fixed income markets have recently experienced a period of relatively high volatility. If the Federal Reserve continues to taper or reverse its quantitative easing stimulus program and/or increases interest rates, fixed income markets could experience continuing high volatility, which could negatively impact the Fund’s performance.
Derivatives Risk.
The use of derivatives can lead to losses because of adverse movements in the price or value of the asset, index, rate or instrument underlying a derivative, due to failure of a counterparty or due to tax or regulatory constraints. Derivatives may create economic leverage in the Fund, which magnifies the Fund’s exposure to the underlying investment. Derivatives risk may be more significant when derivatives are used to enhance return or as a substitute for a cash investment position, rather than solely to hedge the risk of a position held by the Fund. When derivatives are used to gain or limit exposure to a particular market or market segment, their performance may not correlate as expected to the performance of such market, thereby causing the Fund to fail to achieve its original purpose for using such derivatives. The use of derivatives involves the exercise of specialized skill and judgment, and a transaction may be unsuccessful in whole or in part because of market behavior or unexpected events. Derivative instruments traded in over-the-counter markets may be difficult to value, may be illiquid, and may be subject to wide swings in valuation caused by changes in the value of the underlying instrument. If a derivative’s counterparty is unable to honor its commitments, the value of Fund shares may decline and the Fund could experience delays in the return of collateral or other assets held by the counterparty. The loss on derivative transactions may substantially exceed the initial investment.
Risk of Leveraged Transactions.
Certain Fund transactions may give rise to leverage. Such transactions may include, among others, reverse repurchase agreements, securities lending, forward commitment transactions, short sales and certain derivative transactions. The Fund is required to segregate liquid assets or otherwise cover the Fund’s obligation created by a transaction that may give rise to leverage. The use of leverage may cause the Fund to liquidate portfolio positions when it may not be advantageous to do so to satisfy its obligations or to meet segregation requirements. Leverage may cause the Fund’s share price to be more volatile than if it had not been leveraged, as certain types of leverage may exaggerate the effect of any increase or decrease in the value of the Fund’s portfolio securities. The loss on leveraged investments may substantially exceed the initial investment.
Risks of Commodity-Related Investments.
The value of commodity investments will generally be affected by overall market movements and factors specific to a particular industry or commodity, which may include weather, embargoes, tariffs, and health, political, international and regulatory developments. Economic and other events (whether real or perceived) can reduce the demand for commodities, which may reduce market prices and cause the value of the Fund’s commodity investments to fall. The frequency and magnitude of such changes cannot be predicted. Exposure to commodities and commodity markets may subject the Fund to greater volatility than investments in traditional securities. No active trading market may exist for certain commodity investments, which may impair the ability of the Fund to sell or to realize the full value of such investments in the event of the need to liquidate such investments. In addition, adverse market conditions may impair the liquidity of actively traded commodity investments. Certain types of commodity instruments (such as total return swaps and commodity-linked notes) are subject to the risk that the counterparty to the instrument will not perform or will be unable to perform in accordance with the terms of the instrument. As noted under “Principal Investment Strategies,” the Fund expects to gain a significant portion of its commodity-related exposures by investing in the Subsidiary. See “Subsidiary Risk” and “Tax Risk.”
Subsidiary Risk.
The Fund will be exposed to the risks associated with the Subsidiary’s investments. The Subsidiary invests in commodity-related investments, as well as securities and other instruments in which the Portfolio is permitted to invest. The Subsidiary is subject to the laws of the Cayman Islands and is not subject to U.S. laws, including securities laws and their protections and provisions of the Internal Revenue Code. Because the Subsidiary is not registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940, it may not be able to negotiate terms with its counterparties that are equivalent to those a registered fund may negotiate. As a result, the Subsidiary may have greater exposure to those counterparties than a registered fund. Changes in the laws of the United States and/or the Cayman Islands could result in the inability of the Subsidiary to operate as described in the Fund's Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information, and could adversely affect the Fund’s investment approach.
Tax Risk.
In order for the Fund to qualify as a regulated investment company under Subchapter M of the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”), the Fund must derive at least 90 percent of its gross income each taxable year from certain qualifying sources of income. Commodity-related investments generate income that is not from a qualified source for purposes of meeting this 90 percent test. Numerous mutual funds have obtained private letter rulings from the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) that provide that income produced by certain types of commodity-linked notes or wholly-owned subsidiaries (like the Subsidiary) constitute qualifying income. The Fund received a private letter ruling from the IRS that income from certain commodity-linked notes and income derived from the Subsidiary constitute qualifying income. Should the IRS take action that adversely affects the tax treatment of investing in commodity-linked notes or the Subsidiary, it could limit the Fund’s ability to invest in commodity-related investments, and the Fund may incur transaction and other costs to comply with any new or additional guidance from the IRS.
Eaton Vance Global Macro Absolute Return Fund
3
Summary Prospectus dated March 1, 2014
The tax treatment of commodity-related investments and income from the Subsidiary may be adversely affected by future legislation, Treasury Regulations and/or guidance issued by the IRS that could affect the character, timing and/or amount of the Fund’s taxable income or any gains and distributions made by the Fund.
Credit Risk.
Investments in debt obligations are subject to the risk of non-payment of scheduled principal and interest. Changes in economic conditions or other circumstances may reduce the capacity of the party obligated to make principal and interest payments on such instruments and may lead to defaults. Such non-payments and defaults may reduce the value of Fund shares and income distributions. The value of a debt obligation also may decline because of concerns about the issuer’s ability to make principal and interest payments. In addition, the credit ratings of fixed income securities and other debt instruments may be lowered if the financial condition of the party obligated to make payments with respect to such instruments changes. Credit ratings assigned by rating agencies are based on a number of factors and do not necessarily reflect the issuer’s current financial condition or the volatility or liquidity of the security. In the event of bankruptcy of the issuer of fixed income securities and other debt instruments, the Fund could experience delays or limitations with respect to its ability to realize the benefits of any collateral securing the instrument. In order to enforce its rights in the event of a default, bankruptcy or similar situation, the Fund may be required to retain legal or similar counsel. This may increase the Fund’s operating expenses and adversely affect net asset value.
Risk of Lower Rated Investments.
Investments rated below investment grade and comparable unrated investments (“junk bonds”) have speculative characteristics because of the credit risk associated with their issuers. Changes in economic conditions or other circumstances typically have a greater effect on the ability of issuers of lower rated investments to make principal and interest payments than they do on issuers of higher rated investments. An economic downturn generally leads to a higher non-payment rate, and a lower rated investment may lose significant value before a default occurs. Lower rated investments typically are subject to greater price volatility and illiquidity than higher rated investments.
Geographic Risk.
Because the Fund may invest significantly in a particular geographic region or country, the value of Fund shares may be affected by events that adversely affect that region or country and may fluctuate more than that of a fund that has less exposure to such region or country.
Short Sale Risk.
Short sale risks include, among others, the potential loss of more money than the actual cost of the investment, and the risk that the third party to the short sale may fail to honor its contract terms, causing a loss to the Fund.
Interest Rate Risk.
In general, the value of income securities will fluctuate based on changes in interest rates. The value of these securities is likely to increase when interest rates fall and decline when interest rates rise. Generally, securities with longer durations are more sensitive to changes in interest rates than shorter duration securities. In a rising interest rate environment, the duration of income securities that have the ability to be prepaid or called by the issuer may extend. In a declining interest rate environment, the proceeds from prepaid or maturing instruments may have to be reinvested at a lower interest rate.
Risks of Repurchase Agreements and Reverse Repurchase Agreements.
In the event of the insolvency of the counterparty to a repurchase agreement or reverse repurchase agreement, recovery of the repurchase price owed to the Fund or, in the case of a reverse repurchase agreement, the securities sold by the Fund, may be delayed. In a repurchase agreement, such an insolvency may result in a loss to the extent that the value of the purchased securities decreases during the delay or that value has otherwise not been maintained at an amount equal to the repurchase price. In a reverse repurchase agreement, the counterparty’s insolvency may result in a loss equal to the amount by which the value of the securities sold by the Fund exceeds the repurchase price payable by the Fund; if the value of the purchased securities increases during such a delay, that loss may also be increased. When the Fund enters into a reverse repurchase agreement, any fluctuations in the market value of either the securities transferred to another party or the securities in which the proceeds may be invested would affect the market value of the Fund’s assets. As a result, such transactions may increase fluctuations in the net asset value of the Fund’s shares. Because reverse repurchase agreements may be considered to be the practical equivalent of the Fund borrowing funds (and the counterparty making a loan), they constitute a form of leverage. If the Fund reinvests the proceeds of a reverse repurchase agreement at a rate lower than the cost of the agreement, entering into the agreement will lower the Fund’s yield.
Equity Investing Risk.
The Fund’s shares may be sensitive to stock market volatility. The value of equity investments and related instruments may decline in response to conditions affecting the general economy; overall market changes; local, regional or global political, social or economic instability; and currency, interest rate and commodity price fluctuations, as well as issuer or sector specific events. Although values can rebound, there is no assurance they will return to previous levels.
Securities Lending Risk.
Securities lending involves possible delay in recovery of the securities or possible loss of rights in the collateral should the borrower fail financially. As a result, the value of Fund shares may fall and there may be a delay in recovering the loaned securities. The value of Fund shares could also fall if a loan is called and the Fund is required to liquidate reinvested collateral at a loss or if the investment adviser is unable to reinvest cash collateral at rates that exceed the costs involved.
Issuer Diversification Risk.
The Fund is “non-diversified,” which means it may invest a greater percentage of its assets in the securities of a single issuer than funds that are “diversified.” Non-diversified funds face the risk of focusing investments in a small number of issuers, making them more susceptible to risks affecting such issuers than a more diversified fund might be.
Eaton Vance Global Macro Absolute Return Fund
4
Summary Prospectus dated March 1, 2014
Risks Associated with Active Management.
The Fund is an actively managed portfolio and its success depends upon the investment skills and analytical abilities of the investment adviser to develop and effectively implement strategies to achieve the Fund’s investment objective. Subjective decisions made by the investment adviser may cause the Fund to incur losses or to miss profit opportunities on which it may otherwise have capitalized.
General Fund Investing Risks.
The Fund is not a complete investment program and you may lose money by investing in the Fund. All investments carry a certain amount of risk and there is no guarantee that the Fund will be able to achieve its investment objective. Annual Fund Operating Expenses expressed as a percentage of the Fund’s average daily net assets may change as Fund assets increase and decrease, and Annual Fund Operating Expenses may differ in the future. Purchase and redemption activities by Fund shareholders may impact the management of the Fund and its ability to achieve its investment objective. In addition, the redemption by one or more large shareholders or groups of shareholders of their holdings in the Fund could have an adverse impact on the remaining shareholders in the Fund. Investors in the Fund should have a long-term investment perspective and be able to tolerate potentially sharp declines in value. An investment in the Fund is not a deposit in a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency, entity or person. Mutual funds, investment advisers, other market participants and many securities markets are subject to rules and regulations and the jurisdiction of one or more regulators. Changes to applicable rules and regulations could have an adverse affect on securities markets and market participants, as well as on the Fund’s ability to execute its investment strategy.