I am going to divide this letter into three sections: health and human impact (sometimes a tragic one), economic impact and investment strategy.
We have a modest economic calendar. Only two reports will provide any hint about the coronavirus economic impact. The punditry will not be hampered. Without meaningful data, speculation blossoms. There is one idea that could help both your interpretation of data and your investment decisions.
COVID-19 fears continued to drive the financial markets. Share prices were volatile and bond yields dove further into record lows.
Can policymakers minimize economic disruptions from COVID-19?
Warren Buffett boosted his stake in Delta Air Lines by 976,000 shares last week, raising his total holdings to 17.9 million shares. This was enough to bring Buffett’s ownership of Delta up to more than 11 percent.
Emerging markets give many investors cold feet. On our latest podcast, EM equity pro Gordon Fraser discusses whether now may be time to warm up to the elusive asset class.
Chinese manufacturing activity slumped to a record low in February as the coronavirus outbreak temporarily shuttered plants and factories and travel restrictions impacted the supply of labor.
As European Central Bank (ECB) policymakers adjust the budget to reflect lighter eurozone economic activity, moderate economic growth and the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union (EU), David Zahn, our Head of European Fixed Income, shares his macroeconomic outlook for the region. He weighs in on why the ECB could remain accommodative.
Responsible investing has gathered enough momentum in recent years to reach the mainstream. What is less clear is how far along global institutional investors are in the process of integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles into their investment decisions.
Our outlook for interest rates, assessed through our investing framework of cycle, valuation and sentiment.
Sonal Desai, PH.D., is executive vice president and chief investment officer of Franklin Templeton Fixed Income, as well a portfolio manager for a number of strategies. In this interview, she discusses the unique investment strategy she has developed, as well as the key risks – specifically the coronavirus – facing investors.
We spend a lot of time in these pages endeavoring to wax poetically about the world at large and our investment place within it, even though that is not really what we do for a living. We get it. Some people just want to know our thoughts about the investment world…and yes, we do have opinions on that subject.
I’m going to answer two questions: How much do advisors typically spend to market their businesses? and How much should you be spending?
Use “conscious autosuggestion” to overcome negative thinking.
I didn’t know Clayton Christensen and I hadn’t read any of his writings. He was a Harvard professor best known for writing The Innovator’s Dilemma. He died on January 23, 2020 at age 67.
Mike shares how we are updating views on global growth and asset allocation as the coronavirus spreads across the world.
The US equity markets have fallen sharply the past week on concerns of coronavirus diseases 2019. This novel coronavirus affects the respiratory system, was first identified in Wuhan, China more than two months ago, and has now spread to all major economies globally.
We have a big economic calendar featuring employment news and the latest ISM survey. In normal times, observers would be parsing the data to adjust their economic and earnings expectations. Next week few will care. The market ignored last week’s reports and there is no reason to expect a change to “old news.”
Bob Browne is the chief investment officer of Northern Trust Asset Management, which has more than $900 billion in assets. He chairs the firm's investment policy committee, which sets investment policy for all Northern Trust groups. In this interview, he discusses his views on the global economy and markets.
Jan Blakeley Holman is the director of advisor education for Thornburg Investment Management. As a speaker and author, Jan draws on four decades in the business, first as an advisor, then as a financial services industry executive and now as an advisor to advisors. She has unique expertise in working with women clients and often teaches advisors how to speak with women about managing their wealth.
Lesson #2: Reversion to the mean occurs because people persuasive enough to make something grow don’t have the kind of personalities that allow them to stop before pushing too far.
A George Washington University professor says advisors should target clients based on how financially literate they are rather than on their level of assets.
The Secure Act provides financial advisors multiple opportunities throughout the coming year and beyond to engage in meaningful interactions with their clients and industry contacts regarding the impact of the new rules, and potentially create new relationships with prospects. This whitepaper will help you take advantage of the gift that will keep on giving and learn more about how you can grow your business by leveraging the benefits of The Secure Act.
Although there were good reasons to question whether GDP growth would accelerate in the first quarter, there were also good reasons why I expected the rate of growth to improve before mid year.
First, this is going to be a long slog. The virus will spread slowly but widely. The containment measures are simply buying time. There’s no need to panic, but we should all take common-sense protective measures. Second, as usual, I am the “Muddle Through guy.”
I've been fielding many questions from investors about the new coronavirus, COVID-19, and would like to share my answers with you in this issue of Sinology.
Nearly 40 years of financial planning experience has taught me that retirement is one of the most impactful emotional transitions in life. As your clients face the shift from earning a paycheck to relying on sources other than work for income, difficult emotions and deeply buried money scripts will surface.
There are two key drivers of investment returns. One is valuations, which provide a great deal of information about long-term investment prospects, and about the income component of total returns. The other is the uniformity or divergence of prices across thousands of individual securities, which helps to distinguish whether shorter-term investor psychology is inclined toward speculation or risk-aversion.
I outline what marketing personalization is and how advisors can use it in this digital age.
Clients are now meeting with their accountants to review the past year and look ahead. Charitable giving has become much more prevalent in those annual conversations as a result of the tax law changes at the end of 2017.
Gold mining stocks have broken out, with several hitting new 52-week highs this week. Gold royalty and streaming companies, including Franco-Nevada and Wheaton Precious Metals, also hit fresh 52-week highs.
I don’t believe they really want socialism. Few even understand what it is. What they want is change. They see little hope for improvement in their situations, no matter how hard they work and sacrifice. They don’t see anyone in authority trying to help them. So, when someone offers what sound like easy answers, they jump aboard.
Many investors overlook lesser-known smaller companies in favor of well-known behemoths, but there are some mighty values in small-capitalization (cap) stocks, according to Franklin Small Cap Value Fund Portfolio Manager Steve Ranieri. He outlines five things for investors to consider.
Mike explains how our global outlook has evolved with the developing coronavirus outbreak.
Three key themes from our latest Cyclical Outlook will likely drive the global economy and central bank policy in the year ahead.
This is going to be one of those years where we believe behavior—for advisors and clients—is going to really matter. At Russell Investments, we believe one of the biggest detriments to a client’s return is their own behavior.
For many advisors, asking clients for referrals remains a messy, uncomfortable situation.
The spread of the coronavirus COVID-19 appeared to be slowing, but adjustments in the criteria for recognizing cases changed, boosting the reported number of infections. The change increased anxiety and uncertainty about the economic impact.
In 2007, I was at a conference where Paul McCulley, who was with PIMCO at the time, was discussing the idea of a “Minsky Moment.” At that time, this idea fell on “deaf ears” as the markets, and economy, were in full swing. However, it wasn’t too long before the 2008 “Financial Crisis” brought the “Minsky Moment” thesis to the forefront.
We’ve all gritted our teeth whenever one of the trade magazines comes out with a list of the “top” wealth management firms, ranked from “top” to “bottom” based on the absolute least meaningful way to measure the quality of an advisory business: their AUM. The goal of such lists should be to identify those firms that are best at serving their clients and are managed in a healthy and sustainable way. Here’s a way to rank firms that achieves that goal.
So far in 2020, the yield on the 10-year Treasury has averaged 0.01 percent when adjusted for inflation. Since the end of January, it’s actually dipped below 0 percent, trading as low as negative 0.14 percent on January 31.
While red may be the color of the day, it’s a color investors have not seen from most asset classes over the last twelve months. For example, the S&P 500 rose ~26% and investment-grade bonds gained ~14%. However, just as in a healthy relationship, we cannot take this excellent performance for granted and become complacent about the future returns we expect to come our way.
Kenneth Leech, Chief Investment Officer at Western Asset Management, takes a deep dive into what he views as key market drivers throughout 2020 as well as his current view on various sectors within the bond markets.
A review of last month’s market-moving events across countries and asset classes.
Like the three little pigs building their houses, financial advisors have many choices of how they will build their books of business. Many of the most successful advisors embrace fee-only wealth management. In this blog post, we put some numbers to these theories.
What if I told you that you could create one (just one!) blog post to drive your entire inbound marketing strategy?
Research Affiliates examines how different asset classes perform across full market cycles, and discusses how macro forecasts inform its investment strategies.
The U.S. economy has been resilient in the face of uncertainty, but risks are growing.
The state of monetary policy explains why so many people are falling behind and why wealth inequality is at levels last seen almost 100 years ago.
CLSA predicts that the price of gold will beat the S&P 500 in 2020. The Hong Kong investment firm has an impressive track record when it comes to making market predictions—last year it had a 70 percent hit rate—so it may be prudent to take this one seriously.
