Given the many forces shaping the economy and markets, 2022 will be a stock picker’s—and a bond picker’s—market. Prices are indeed stretched in pockets of the market, but many areas offer attractive potential supported by compelling fundamentals and exposure to growth themes.
Headquartered in Japan, Sysmex is the No. 1 provider of blood diagnostics equipment in the world.
For China, the year ahead holds special political and economic significance.
There is no shortage of candidates for the title of the most dangerous business idea of the moment. Management-by-algorithm may remove what humanity there is left in the corporate world. The office-less future may dissolve workers into angst-ridden atoms. I want to suggest a less obvious contender for the title: “social purpose.”
Treasuries slid and yield-curve premiums shrank to the lowest in almost two years amid increased speculation the Federal Reserve will deliver more than a quarter-percentage point rate hike in March.
What insights can we glean beyond last year’s impressive 28% return? How did it compare it to global equities? I will show you some of the winners and losers, and finish with a few observations on the VIX.
The flow of excess cash has returned to normal, but the stock is still quite elevated.
Today I’ll continue the annual forecast I began last week. New COVID developments are unfolding rapidly. If we’re lucky, they may carve out a nice bookend for us. But my worry is that rather than bookends it could be economicus interruptus. 2019 was not portending the most robust of economies. What if, in Groundhog Day fashion, we end up back where we were?
Inflation is rising rapidly, not an unexpected outcome given governments’ pandemic policy response of ballooning deficits and soaring government debt.
A 2020 study concluded that 65% of emails are ignored – and I wouldn’t doubt it’s far from the truth (Ozdoruk, 2020). Try these five techniques if you’re getting crickets after you push “send.”
Twenty-two years of tradition dictate I begin the new year by forecasting what lies ahead.
It’s official. For the first time since the unveiling of the Paris climate agreement in 2015, banks earned more fees arranging green-related bond sales and loans than they did helping fossil-fuel companies raise money in the debt markets.
Cryptocurrencies had a breakout moment in 2021, and NFTs were some of the biggest stars. Now, as with any new and hot investing trend, financial pros are hoping to capitalize on the craze with products promising a way to piggyback on the market.
Bond traders are turning into armchair virologists again.
We spent a small fortune in 2020 and 2021 on training for our advisors. We need them to get better at business building and finding new sales opportunities.
Tracy Chen, Portfolio Manager with Brandywine Global, and Tim Wang, Head of Investment Research for Clarion Partners, join Head of the Franklin Templeton Investment Institute, Stephen Dover, to take a closer look at how the pandemic has impacted real estate markets in the United States and China.
The breadth of the stock market is a measure of its health, and the wider the better. So, a narrowing of its focus, as we’ve seen recently, is often a red flag, both for the overall market and the darlings of the moment.
Sales of U.S. leveraged loans are likely to stay strong for at least the next few months thanks to private equity buyout activity that is showing few signs of abating.
Bob Huebscher’s mother passed away on December 23, 2021.
In 2021, readers of the Investor Alert and Frank Talk were most interested in stories on gold mining, precious metals, natural resources and emerging markets (no surprise). But there was also interest in macroeconomic topics (inflation, mostly) as well as Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.
What to expect in 2022.
Senator Elizabeth Warren accused the financial services industry of being a major contributor to climate change and urged U.S. regulators to hold it to account.
I’ll share a story from my good friend Vitaliy Katsenelson. He immigrated to the US with his family from Russia over 30 years ago. I’ve always been fascinated by this story when we get together. All he knew of America came from movies and propaganda, which wasn’t altogether flattering.
Anyone gearing up for bond yields to surge in 2022 should think again. A global glut of saved cash has the potential to restrain an increase in rates, even as central banks dial back their pandemic stimulus.
As Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boss David Solomon chatted at a November dinner for retired partners, he mentioned that the firm will be among the country’s most profitable big public companies this year. But the veteran mergers banker Geoff Boisi was struck by how muted the excitement has been.
The year 2021 will be remembered as one in which markets tumbled down a rabbit hole and entered financial wonderland: A once-elite undertaking became more populist, tribal, anarchic and often downright bizarre.
Despite the strong year for stocks in 2021, markets have confidently priced in some negative trends gathering more momentum in 2022 which may help markets, should trends reverse.
There was a lot of yelling when I was there from 1999 to 2008, but there was a lot of a bank’s own capital being committed and a lot of risk being transferred. I probably did more yelling than anyone, and I got yelled at plenty. But at the end of the day, nobody took anything personally.
We have been reading a book written by David Carey and John Morris called King of Capital. It is the story of the Blackstone company and its key founder, Stephen Schwarzman. An economic history from the 1980s through today is included and lays out some excellent reminders of certain disciplines which can create wealth in picking public companies to invest in.
Investors in the booming ethical bond market are having to swallow short term losses on the road to improving their green credentials.
In this interview, Spencer Logan discusses Harbor Capital’s recent launch of an active transparent ETF that uses a scientific approach to fixed income investing.
The metaverse is part of the next iteration of the internet some are calling Web 3.0—and it promises to upend everything as we know it.
Last week’s What Really Caused Inflation letter generated an unusual number of questions and comments. That tells me I need to go a little deeper. We know inflation by the higher prices it generates, but exactly how it flows through the economy isn’t always obvious.
Betting on flashy names like Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, Shaquille O’Neal and Martha Stewart to boost blank-check companies this year left investors mostly in the red.
Surging gasoline demand may limit the success of the Biden Administration’s efforts to nudge pump prices much lower.
Insights from Franklin Templeton specialist investment managers Brandywine Global, Clarion Partners, ClearBridge Investments and Western Asset
2021 has been a year of notable economic growth after unexpected change caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In our Economic and Market Outlook for 2022, we lay out some of the “known unknowns” we believe could significantly affect the investing landscape...
The inflation wave that’s sweeping through the global economy is playing into an investment niche that a small group of people in finance have spent years developing: farmland.
Fiona Hill’s tour d’horizon of the worldwide populist backlash is an essential, and highly enjoyable, essential reading for anyone who cares about the health of our economy, our society, and our democracy.
There are a number of key investment themes for 2022 I feel most people would agree on. Below are just a handful.
Have the tables turned? The S&P 500 is just shy of its level prior to the World Health Organization declaring Omicron a “variant of concern.
A sea change is happening in the world of work. In fact, it’s a sea, air and wildlife change.
Historically, fourth quarter tax loss selling of closed-end funds (“CEFs”) has been prevalent in the market. CEFs may be more susceptible to tax loss selling given they trade on a stock exchange and market prices (investor return) can deviate from underlying net asset values (“NAVs”) (fund return).
For all the kudos that pension plans and other asset owners get for joining groups that pledge to reduce their carbon footprints, most aren’t directly voting on climate resolutions at annual shareholder meetings.
The share of global wealth held by billionaires surged to a record during the Covid-19 crisis, according to a group founded by French economist Thomas Piketty.
The busy retail season is in full swing, but what can investors make of the longer-term outlook for consumer stocks? Sophie Steel of BlackRock Fundamental Equities looks beyond the seasonalities to three factors that are reshaping the opportunities across consumer sectors.
We mix up logic with emotion, data with information, and information with wisdom. Steven Pinker’s new book, Rationality, is a step-by-step guide to unmixing these and using hard-headed logic to arrive at useful conclusions.
The S&P 500 index is up more than 20% so far this year, but more than 90% of its member stocks have had “correction” level drawdowns—more than 10% from a peak—at some point this year. In short, while overall stock market performance has been strong, there has been a lot of churn beneath the surface.
The market for ESG-focused exchange-traded funds has been among the world’s hottest investment areas for more than two years now.
In the days around Thanksgiving, Wall Street strategists focus on a couple of things: turkey, football and finessing their year-ahead outlooks. This year, all of that was upended.
