Diversity & Inclusion

The G7 countries may have set out to deter China without escalating the new cold war, but the perception in Beijing suggests that they failed to thread the needle at their recent summit in Hiroshima.

The US Federal Reserve is adrift, and it has only itself to blame. Regardless of whether its policy-setting committee announces another interest-rate hike in June, its top priority now should be to address the structural weaknesses that led it astray in the first place.

As other nations seek to become less dependent on the U.S. dollar, rumors of the greenback’s potential demise continue to swirl. Can the dollar remain king of the world’s reserve currency?

If you were doubting whether the age of AI has arrived, NVIDIA’s stock performance this week may have given you second thoughts.

According to the company’s investor relations page on this REIT, Simon Property Trust (SPG) is a real estate investment trust engaged in the ownership of premier shopping, dining, entertainment, and mixed-use destinations and an S&P 100 company.

War, inflation, rising rates, banking chaos, and recession are among the challenges facing markets. Investors must balance these shorter-term risks with the long-term return prospects of equities.

Over the past decade or so, there has been a broad trend in the industry toward closing and freezing defined benefit plans.

In 2011, markets were relatively flat during the year before Congress and the White House (temporarily) buried the hatchet with the passage of the Budget Control Act on August 2, 2011.

The terms private credit and private debt are often used interchangeably to describe direct origination credit strategies. But, the business is also known by another name: non-bank lending.

One metric I look at fairly often for various countries is the relationship between the performance of stocks vs. bonds. The idea is straightforward enough: when stocks are outperforming bonds, it tends to be associated with a growing economy.

Diversification is a cornerstone of thoughtful, long-term focused investing. Incorporating assets and asset classes that don’t always move in tandem – that is, their returns aren’t strongly correlated – can help temper stock and bond market risk.

Here’s what we learned in earnings season about how companies are coping with a particularly tricky set of macroeconomic conditions.

The view by many is that sustainable investing is concessionary in that financial results are forgone in order to achieve sustainable outcomes. Our historical analysis shows that this assertion isn’t true and that unique ESG data can be predictors of company results.

Rising rates in today's fixed-income markets have led to more attractive bond prices and higher yields, alleviating some of the challenges facing income investors.

The paradox that this marriage potential created at the college was that the odds are good, but the goods are odd. This is the statement that can be made for common stock investing today.

The economy co-exists and interacts with broader society, including government. Public policies—and the political processes that determine them—can change the economy in deep and lasting ways. We may not like them, but we can’t ignore them.

It would appear that the decline in European natural gas prices has contributed to an increase in Eurozone GDP estimates for the year. Once prices crossed below $50, GDP estimates began to rise, and now the consensus expects .6% GDP growth from the Eurozone this year.

Portfolio manager John Paul Lech explores the defining changes of the last three years. Here he explains how he is navigating the new era of rising interest rates and financial tightening.

China reported year-over-year inflation last night at just 0.1%, 0.2% lower than expectations. Clearly, China’s reopening is not creating price pressures, which brings the strength of the reopening into question.

Stock selection in a climate investing strategy takes more than just avoiding companies exposed to global warming risks. The process should intersect with an active search for diverse opportunities among companies helping to fight climate change, but with high-quality business models, too.

Many investors are choosing to access bitcoin and broader crypto themes through traditional ETF wrappers due to their relative simplicity and familiarity.

Portfolio Manager John Paul Lech explores the defining changes of the last three years and how they have informed his approach to the years ahead.

Key Takeaways

• Stocks and bonds perform well after the last rate hike
• The bar for cutting rates is higher than it has been in the past
• First-quarter earnings results have been better than feared

The U.S. regional banking crisis is intensifying as rising interest rates put smaller banks at risk, leading to significant losses in the sector. Amid the turmoil, gold and gold mining stocks may offer investors a potentially safer alternative to manage risk.

Despite its commitment to curbing China’s geopolitical ambitions, the Biden administration has done little to counter the country’s expanding economic footprint in South America. Given the region’s crucial role in the fight against climate change, the US can no longer afford to take its southern neighbors for granted.

The pandemic hurt small retailers by hastening the transition to digital commerce and emptied office buildings by turning living rooms into workspace. But it also fueled a warehouse building boom and unleashed a torrent of pent-up travel-and-leisure spending when economies reopened, underscoring the diversity of commercial real estate.

Yesterday JP Morgan introduced a new model to quantify the last 20 years of Federal Reserve statements and speeches. While we aren’t privy to the details of the AI model, we will just assume that the model properly captures dovish and hawkish language.

Portfolio Manager John Paul Lech explores the defining changes of the last three years and how they have informed his approach to the years ahead.

Although investing in in-state municipal bonds may have tax advantages, there can be good reasons to buy out-of-state munis.

With the European Market’s earning season fully upon us, let’s look at expectations for the month ahead. According to our proprietary analytics, the European energy and real estate sectors have experienced the highest level of downward revision to sales of all sectors on both a one- and three-month basis.

In the spirit of being a good corporate citizen working to build a better world, Franklin Templeton is launching a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) webpage that will highlight the company’s DEI efforts.

Investors in European bank shares have been rattled by recent turmoil in the sector. But many banks are in much better shape than widely perceived, and the sector is subject to much tighter regulation than in the US.

Chinese economic data blew expectations out of the water this week, reflecting a strong comeback for the Asian giant as it finally emerges from the world’s most restrictive pandemic-era lockdown.

Corporate bond investors may be wondering if banking sector turmoil will affect financial institution bond issuers. Here's what to know now.

Consisting of 60% stocks/40% bonds, this classic investment portfolio has historically been a trusted way to generate returns and diversify investor portfolios. However, we believe the 60/40 allocation may now be working against investors.

This week as regional banks start reporting earnings we will get a better look at the lasting effects of the bank crisis kicked off by the failure of Silicon Valley Bank last month. Looking at recent earnings forecast revisions, regional banks appear particularly exposed to short- and longer-term headwinds.

The value style is in the early stages of what Mutual Series believes could be a multi-year outperformance relative to growth.

Born of the Global Financial Crisis, additional tier-1 securities were designed to absorb bank losses in times of turbulence and maintain financial safety at no cost to taxpayers. Despite good intentions, we’ve found AT1s to be flawed instruments that are contingently junior to common equity in practice.

• Most mutual funds or ETFs can't solve certain issues that your high-net-worth clients may face today
• Direct Indexing can help investors with tax management, diversifying concentrated positions or imposing restrictions for a variety of reasons.
• Direct Indexing may help solve investment challenges that requires personalization and tax management

Volatility can be challenging but it also creates opportunities. In our view, rotating across sectors within the investment grade market is the most effective way to take advantage of price fluctuations and generate alpha.