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.
Bear with us as (no pun intended) you read this longer-than-usual outlook!
Vast sums are now pointed in the direction of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. That’s good news: We require somewhere between $100 to $150 trillion in climate investment over the next three decades, and ignoring global warming would prove a costly and potentially irreversible cataclysm.
Research shows that funds with positive Morningstar sustainability ratings deliver inferior performance. Nonetheless, funds have sought to increase their holdings of “green” stocks to improve those ratings and have benefited from additional asset flows.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of family, love and laughter! Even if that wasn’t your experience, there’s still much to be grateful for.
A high tide of growth, aided by a sea change in fiscal policy, is likely to help float the global economy safely over the rocks of risks in 2022, despite waves of worries emanating from COVID, inflation, shortages, and rate hikes.
The revolutionary technology of synthetic biology is poised to make a profound impact on the way a vast array of products are manufactured, from lab-grown meat to cosmetics to biodegradable packaging. Yet investors are paying relatively little attention to the huge business potential.
In this latest survey, 53 leading bond and currency managers considered valuations, expectations and outlooks for the coming months. With the economic recovery undeniably ramping up, we asked managers for their thoughts on valuations in the markets.
Supply chain issues, slower growth in China and the lingering impact of COVID-19 have created a bumpier path for global growth than we had expected. We anticipate solid but less synchronized global growth ahead. Many central banks have stated their intent to remove accommodation slowly, which is a silver lining to our less-robust growth outlook. Read on for a visual snapshot of our GDP growth expectations around the globe.
This Thanksgiving, crypto hedge-fund manager David Tawil is bracing for a much more lively conversation about his line of work.
Global initial public offerings have smashed their previous record this year, propelled by a blank-check boom and companies cashing in on high valuations.
The pandemic is over. The pandemic is not over. The transition from the pandemic to the endemic phase of Covid-19 is rife with uncertainty and confusion. This is why the world economy, and particularly the U.S. labor market, look so weird right now.
Hype is never far away from cryptocurrencies. Punters taking public transport or navigating social media are bombarded daily with enticing advertising and billboards dangling the next big coin, while self-proclaimed experts and gurus offer hot investing tips before the inevitable tired disclaimer: “Please do your own research.”
Despite the strong recovery for value stocks since late 2020, they are still priced at historically cheap levels – comparable to their level at the peak of the tech bubble. That is especially true for small-value stocks.
Bill Zox and John McClain, portfolio managers with Brandywine Global, join Amer Hasan to discuss how current market and economic conditions could benefit high yield investors, the opportunities and risks right now, and why the asset class is often overlooked or misunderstood.
On Nov. 17, I led a TOPLive discussion with Benjamin Ho, Vassar College professor and author of “Why Trust Matters: An Economist’s Guide to the Ties That Bind Us,” which explores how relationships, expectations and human interaction shape the world around us — be it in trade, employment or democracy.
When your largest position, Viasat Inc. (Ticker: VSAT), enters into a transformational merger involving regulatory complexity, interesting technology, enough equity issuance to require a shareholder vote, and a conceptual doubling down against what might be called the “Elon Musk-generated low-earth-orbit satellites (LEO) space craze...
While the recent energy crisis has disrupted China’s economy, we do not expect a significant drag on growth.
This year marks our seventh annual ESG manager survey. Our survey of active managers assesses the integration of ESG considerations in investment processes among equity, fixed income and private market managers and spotlights firmwide policies, use of data, engagement and integration.
At Smead Capital Management, we practice our discipline of picking and owning stocks which meet our eight criteria in both favorable and unfavorable environments. The current “blithe spirits” were brought to mind in a movie of the same name.
The benefits associated with exclusion-ratio taxation can be significant and should be considered when selecting the appropriate GLWB annuity for a non-qualified account.
Retirement planning is complex and risk in retirement is real. To improve the confidence clients have in working with an advisor, you need to prepare them for changes in retirement and avoid the talk of probability of failure and success. Ongoing adjustment-based planning aligns clients’ perceptions of risk in retirement with reality. This often results in small course corrections with many retirees finding they can spend more than originally planned. My guest, Justin Fitzpatrick, is here to discuss new research and technology that helps advisors paint a more realistic picture of what retirement could look like and guides clients through retirement more successfully.
After a year of supply shortages, the global economy may be closer to the end of the supply chain problems than the beginning.
There are at least three approaches that have been demonstrated effective in identifying skill in asset managers, offering investors the likelihood of superior future performance.
This month marks 30 years since the release of the Disney Classic, Beauty and the Beast! Those fondly recalling the film probably remember the iconic songs and cast of household objects that came to life; but the moral of the story is to not be deceived by appearances. Ironically, this same message is quite applicable for investors.
How annuities can help shoulder RMD burdens in a market drawdown.
In March 2020 the Federal Reserve was able to use old and new tools to manage the unimaginable – a Pandemic. The Fed stabilized the Treasury bond market and the municipal bond market through its purchases and back stopped government loans to small and medium sized businesses to keep them from going under.
Last year the global economy came juddering to a halt. This year it got moving again, only to become stuck in one of history’s biggest traffic jams.
This Halloween season, Rick Rieder and team shed light on today's market ghosts, ghouls and goblins and how to build a resilient investment portfolio around them.
We communicate better with our clients when we stay away from industry jargon. Explain things the way you would talk with a child.
These “perfect storm” disruptions have created numerous headaches for shipping and logistics companies. But as is often the case, bad news is good news, especially for investors who have seen shares of container lines surge in the 18 months since the pandemic began.
Today, I’ll describe what I think will happen over the next year or so. I rarely make short-term forecasts because I’m usually early. Reaching the major turning points takes longer than we think.
Oil eked out a gain with OPEC and its allies expecting a tighter global oil market in the fourth quarter.
Performance highlights from the third quarter of 2021, plus manager expectations for the final months of the year.
Tom Giachetti counsels a confused and befuddled advisor (played by me, Bob Veres) who is seeking advice on common but complicated issues that have come up recently around the profession.
Combining PIMCO’s innovative ESG (environmental, social, governance) investing approach with its expertise in income investing, this flexible strategy targets a multi-sector, global opportunity set.
To show how exclusive you are, there’s nothing like turning away a billionaire. Two members of the three comma club were among those nominated to join R360, a new, invitation-only investment and networking group for people with net worth of $100 million or more.
