Barron’s (April 13)
“Wall Street chief executives’ cautious-to-downbeat remarks about the economy on Friday stood in contrast with their firms’ first-quarter showings and their outlooks for the rest of the year. JPMorgan Chase +4.00%, Wells Fargo -0.95%, and Morgan Stanley +1.44% reported solid earnings results, while BlackRock +2.33% posted another quarter of record assets.” Investors who were “expecting market-sensitive firms to dial down their earnings forecasts” instead found the firms “left their outlooks largely unchanged.” This could, however, just ”mean revisions are in store for later in 2025.”
Tags: Assets, BlackRock, Cautious, Chief executives, Downbeat, Earnings results, Economy, Forecasts, Investors, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Outlooks, Q1, Remarks, Wall Street, Wells Fargo
Bloomberg (March 4)
A roller coaster day left the S&P 500 Index ”at its lowest level since Nov. 4, the day before Trump was elected…. The dizzying ride provided a preview of the difficulties facing investors, who now must figure out how to price American assets in what essentially amounts to a new world order created by Trump’s tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico.” The volatility and steep decline are “a comeuppance for those on Wall Street who bet big on Donald Trump’s election win, trades that powered the equity market higher along with the dollar and Treasury yields. The bet that Trump wouldn’t do anything to disturb the stock market rally has, for now, been lost.”
Tags: Assets, Canada, China, Comeuppance, Dizzying, Dollar, Investors, Mexico, New world order, S&P 500, Stock market, Tariffs, Treasury yields, Trump, Volatility, Wall Street
Trader’s Magazine (December 2)
“Assets of the top 100 asset owners globally have returned to growth in 2023 after a fall of 8.7% in 2022.” Achieving a brisk 12.3% increase in 2023, “the world’s largest 100 asset owners (the ‘AO100’) now hold a record US$26.3 trillion.” Chief among them is the “Government Pension Investment Fund of Japan…with an AUM of US$1.59 trillion.” The top three also includes the two largest sovereign wealth funds. Norway’s Norges Bank Investment Management in second place with AUM of US$1.55 trillion while China Investment Corporation is now third globally with US$1.24 trillion.”
Tags: 12.3%, 2023, Assets, AUM, China, Government Pension Investment Fund, Growth, Japan, Norway, Record, Top 100, US$26.3 trillion
Bloomberg (October 28)
“Political uncertainty will likely weigh on sentiment for investors in Japanese assets after the ruling coalition led by the Liberal Democratic Party failed to win a majority in parliament for the first time since 2009.” Though this uncertainty was not priced in, there may still be buying on dips, and “global investors are still pinning hopes on Japan’s improving corporate governance as a factor to buy equities.”
Tags: Assets, Coalition, Corporate governance, Dips, Failed, Investors, Japan, LDP, Majority, Parliament, Political uncertainty, Sentiment
Institutional Investor (May 31)
“Insurance companies seeking better investment performance continue to outsource more of their general accounts to asset managers. Investment firms managed $3.6 trillion in assets for insurance companies globally in 2023, up from $3.2 trillion in 2022 and more than double the $1.4 trillion they managed for them in 2014.”
Tags: $3.6 trillion, Asset managers, Assets, General accounts, Insurance companies, Investment firms, Outsource, Performance
Washington Post (May 9)
“A group of powerful investment managers and public treasurers with assets invested in McDonald’s are demanding that the company take tougher steps to address child-labor violations at its franchises.” The investors want McDonalds, as well as Wendy’s, “to adopt a zero-tolerance policy for the use of child labor at franchised restaurants” and “conduct third-party human rights risk assessments of their businesses.”
Tags: Assets, Child labor, Child-labor violations, Demanding, Franchises, Human rights, Investment managers, McDonald's, Powerful, Risk assessments, Treasurers, Wendy’s, Zero tolerance
Institutional Investor (August 23)
“Proponents and critics of ESG claim it can change society. Both will be disappointed.” During the past five years, ESG investing has taken off. “By the end of 2022, global ESG funds had attracted more than $2.5 trillion in assets.” Regardless of this clout and “whether or not asset managers are ‘woke,’ ESG doesn’t hurt oil companies or provide capital for solutions to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.”
Tags: $2.5 trillion, Asset managers, Assets, Capital, Change, Climate change, Critics, Disappointed, ESG investing, Impacts, Oil companies, Proponents, Society, Woke
Investments and Pensions Europe (June 20)
“Four German states have recently revised their sustainable investment strategies, sticking to stricter ESG standards, a move that has caused shifts to the allocation of public pension assets worth close to €30bn.” The states (North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and Brandenburg) “switched to a Paris Aligned Benchmark (PAB), lining up with the EU taxonomy and United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to invest their assets.”
Tags: €30bn, Allocation, Assets, ESG standards, EU, Germany, PAB, Public pension, Revised, SDGs, Strategies, Stricter, Sustainable investment
Sydney Morning Herald (August 10)
“There are 68 trusts in China with about $4.3 trillion of assets – property loans, shares, bonds and commodities – under management, with property accounting for at least $500 billion of the total.” The National Audit Office has been instructed “to inspect the books of the country’s biggest trust firms.” This shows “the increasing concern of the Chinese authorities that the implosion of their property development sector could ignite a wider financial crisis.”
Tags: $4.3 trillion, 68 trusts, Assets, Authorities, Bonds, China, Commodities, Concern, Implosion, Loans, National Audit Office, Property, Shares
Investment Week (April 13)
“2021 was a stand-out year for environmental finance, as COP26, a new US administration, and rapid growth in industry collaboration drove climate action and commitments across businesses and the asset management industry.” Morningstar found that “the number of mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with a climate-focused mandate grew to 860 at the end of last year… and assets in the space doubled to $408bn.”
Tags: 2021, Asset management, Assets, Businesses, Climate action, Collaboration, Commitments, COP26, Environmental finance, ETFs, Mandate, Morningstar, Mutual funds, Rapid growth, Stand-out, U.S.
