Markets don’t sleep over the holidays, but they do slow down. Historical trading patterns show consistent liquidity shifts from late November through early January.

CFOs may not manage an investment program day to day, but they remain accountable for many of the outcomes it can influence. The cost of the program, the performance it delivers and the risks it carries can all have implications for the broader organization.

Our Director and Senior Portfolio Manager Alex Cousley sees last week's sharp equity sell-off as a test of market sentiment, with the U.S. midterm elections raising new questions about the outlook for AI infrastructure investment.

Duration management is a key function of fixed income portfolio management. However, as yields have moved approximately 100 bps in 2026 and the monetary regime has sharply changed from rate cuts to rate hikes, duration management has come into greater focus.

Following U.S. midterm results, Paul Eitelman, Chief Investment Strategist, Russell Investments, shares the potential implications for markets and the data center rollout. Views are as of 10:00 am Eastern Time on November 4, 2026.

Starting December 6, 2026, Nasdaq and NYSE Arca will officially launch extended trading sessions, expanding U.S. stock trading to up to 23 hours a day, five days a week.

Our Director and Head of Canadian Investment Strategy BeiChen Lin sees two main forces behind this week’s more cautious market tone: higher energy prices and renewed questions around artificial intelligence investment.

Our Senior Portfolio Manager and Head of Global Sustainable Investing, Kris Nelson, sees markets balancing several competing forces this week, from renewed oil-price volatility to softer labor data and increasingly demanding expectations around AI earnings.

Softer U.S. inflation and labor data as well as more cautious comments from Federal Reserve officials shifted the rates outlook this week.

Bond markets continue to adjust to a more hawkish policy environment following the Federal Reserve’s recent 25-basis-point rate hike.

The rise in Treasury yields has prompted a familiar set of explanations. Some investors have pointed to government borrowing and persistent inflation, while others have focused on the possibility that artificial intelligence will lift economic growth and interest rates.

Equity markets generally moved lower as rising yields and energy prices created a more challenging backdrop. Higher yields can be particularly difficult for long-duration equities, where a greater share of expected cash flows sits further into the future.

On Friday, the August U.S. employment report surprised to the upside, with 162,000 jobs added during the month. Year to date, the labor market has shown impressive resilience, with hiring also becoming more balanced across sectors than in previous years.

This week, our Portfolio Manager Olga Bezrokov sees tentative signs of improvement emerging in Europe, although she cautions that the recovery remains uneven across countries and sectors.

Trade talks between Canada and the U.S. fell apart on Saturday, resulting in the Section 338 tariffs on a subset of Canadian goods taking effect. In response, Canada has pledged to implement

Today, the backdrop for real assets has reset. Growth is returning, but in different parts of the market than many investors remember. While in the post-pandemic period performance was defined by scale, now it is the result of adaptability and having access to a broad array of organization sizes and business plans.

Global equity markets continued their strong summer run this week, supported by what has been an exceptionally strong second-quarter earnings season.

Fixed income markets continue to adjust to an evolving policy backdrop following last week’s Federal Reserve meeting.

Most conversations about artificial intelligence in wealth management begin with efficiency. The larger opportunity is using AI to build a different kind of advisory business: one that provides “growth alpha”. Harnessed smartly, AI has the potential to create capacity for the activities that actually drive organic growth.

Healthcare systems across the country are facing a difficult reality. Costs are rising faster than revenues, balance sheets are under pressure, the pacing of private market allocations are harder to manage, and liquidity has become an important topic for many organizations.

Healthcare systems across the country are facing a difficult reality. Costs are rising faster than revenues, balance sheets are under pressure, the pacing of private market allocations are harder to manage, and liquidity has become an important topic for many organizations.

Historically, many in the pension industry viewed funding above the "plan termination level" as having little incremental value. Once a plan reached “plan termination level”, thought of as roughly 110% funding, conventional wisdom suggested additional surplus had little economic value because it is effectively "trapped capital."

For much of the last decade, investing felt relatively one dimensional. Falling inflation, near zero interest rates and abundant liquidity rewarded long duration growth assets, compressed dispersion and made passive exposure difficult to challenge.

Fixed income transition costs are increasingly driven by what happens in credit markets. As credit trading becomes more efficient, the cost of transitioning fixed income portfolios is coming down, and how those transitions are executed is changing too.

The dominant theme this week was a tug of war between improving macroeconomic conditions and weakness in parts of the technology sector.

Recent economic data continues to point to a resilient U.S. economy. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.3% in May, while payrolls increased by 172,000 jobs. Hiring remained strongest in leisure and hospitality, though there were also encouraging signs from more cyclical areas of the economy.

For many registered investment advisors (RIAs), success has traditionally been measured in assets under management (AUM). As the industry evolves and consolidation accelerates, a broader question is emerging: are you building a practice or an enterprise?

Trade policy returned to the spotlight this week as the United States announced new tariffs on 60 countries, with rates of either 10% or 12.5% depending on the trading partner.

The IPO market may be entering one of its largest cycles in years, but the next wave may be defined less by breadth than by scale. Instead of hundreds of companies listing, a smaller group of AI and strategic infrastructure leaders could reset the market on their own.

Equities extend gains as earnings and semiconductors lead markets higher. Consumer confidence remains subdued despite economic resilience. Inflation is easing gradually but remains above the Fed’s targey.

The next IPO wave may create a different kind of portfolio challenge for institutions already holding private stakes in companies like SpaceX and OpenAI.

Global equity markets moved modestly higher this week as first-quarter earnings season continued to deliver strong results.

Institutional investors have spent years hearing about the promise of artificial intelligence. That phase is giving way to a more practical question: not whether AI can create more scale, but whether that scale can be governed, validated, and translated into better fiduciary decisions. For OCIO providers, AI without discipline is not an advantage.

U.S. inflation and rates remain elevated. Credit markets continue to show resilience. Opportunities are emerging across securitized and high yield assets

Global equity markets entered 2025 with a familiar narrative. U.S. leadership remained firm, supported by strong earnings, AI-driven optimism, and a market structure increasingly dominated by a narrow group of large-cap companies. For many investors, the path forward seemed clear: stay anchored to what worked.

Last week’s data was a good reminder that we are likely in a “resilient but uncertain” phase of the cycle.

For much of 2025, the U.S. dollar looked vulnerable: expensive, less supported by the exceptionalism narrative and heading toward a weaker regime. Then the war in the Middle East changed the picture. Energy prices rose, risk sentiment shifted and the dollar reclaimed its safe-haven role.

The Iran conflict has turned energy markets into a moving target, with oil prices adjusting as expectations around Strait of Hormuz supply risk shift.

Back-and-forth developments over the weekend around the Strait of Hormuz have added near-term volatility to energy markets. That uncertainty is feeding into oil prices and reinforcing questions about how persistent energy-driven inflation pressures could become, particularly if disruption risks continue to ebb and flow.

For a long time institutions treated tax-aware investing like a retail conversation; helpful for individuals, interesting for private wealth, but not front and center for institutions.

The S&P 500 reached another all-time high this week, supported by easing concerns around geopolitical risk.

As transition activity increases, what was once seen as a step between portfolios is becoming part of the outcome itself. Execution is now more closely tied to how portfolios are reshaped, particularly as restructures grow larger, more frequent, and more complex.

Every March people around the country start talking about their brackets. Most are referring to their basketball tournament bracket, hoping to predict the winners and maybe earn some office bragging rights.

The conflict in the Middle East remained a key driver of market sentiment this week, with rapidly shifting headlines contributing to heightened volatility.

Geopolitical volatility is not only increasing investor demand for infrastructure assets; it is urgently reshaping where and how capital is deployed. As energy security, supply chain resilience, and digital sovereignty rise up policy agendas, infrastructure investments that expand capacity and relieve bottlenecks are becoming critical.

Geopolitical headlines rarely arrive quietly. The recent escalation in the Middle East is a reminder of how quickly tensions can feel destabilizing.

Outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO) relationships have evolved dramatically. What once teed up primarily as a solution for smaller institutions seeking a roadmap to improving their governance, strategy and execution is now being adopted by much larger asset owners.

Market leadership shifted modestly this week, with the performance gap between small cap and large cap stocks narrowing.