Investment Week (December 7)
“Japanese equities are comfortably multi-asset teams’ most favoured asset class according to our sentiment indicator. Its economy continues to be viewed as being relatively sheltered from the effects of interest rate rises seen elsewhere.”
Tags: Asset class, Economy, Equities, Interest rate, Japan, Most favoured, Multi-asset teams, Rises, Sentiment indicator, Sheltered
IPE Real Assets (September/October Issue)
“Real estate is often said to be a long-term, buy-and-hold asset class for institutional investors. But the success of investments invariably comes down to getting the timing right.” Recently, “a handful of fund managers” have “sold to bigger parties, either fully or partially.” This raises the question whether the latest round of M&A is a signal. Though it is a “possible canary,” there are other reasons for M&A. The prevailing outlook amongst investors and managers is for “a supportive market environment in the short to medium term” and “an extended cycle, albeit a flat one in terms of capital value growth.”
Tags: Asset class, Buy-and-hold, Canary, Extended cycle, Fund managers, Institutional, Investors, M&A, Real estate, Timing, Value growth
The Economist (April 28)
“There is no consensus on what a crypto-asset is. Even within countries, authorities disagree on how to classify them. Are they a commodity, a currency, a security or their own, peculiar asset class?” The Swiss regulator, FINMA, took what may become a popular approach. FINMA’s treatment of crypto-assets will be based “on their actual function—ie, whether they are used for payments; as a utility token that gives its holder access to a specific service; or as an investment. This also means a token’s classification can change over time.”
Tags: Asset class, Authorities, Commodity, Consensus, Crypto-asset, Currency, FINMA, Regulator, Security, Switzerland, Treatment
Institutional Investor (January 26)
“It’s not even been a week in office and the Trump administration has already managed to send shivers of excitement through the arcane world of infrastructure investment with talk of new domestic projects…. Not surprisingly, asset managers with infrastructure teams are jumping on the renewed interest in the asset class, holding press briefings and webinars to provide clarity.”
Tags: Asset class, Asset managers, Clarity, Excitement, Infrastructure, Investment, Projects, Trump
The Economist (August 20)
“What are the most dysfunctional parts of the global financial system?” While here are many candidates, “if sheer size is your yardstick, nothing beats America’s housing market.” At $26 trillion, “it is the world’s largest asset class” and “the slab of mortgage debt lurking beneath it is the planet’s biggest concentration of financial risk.” This wasn’t fully sanitized in the wake of the financial crisis. “Vast, nationalised, unprofitable and undercapitalised, it remains a menace to the world’s biggest economy.”
Tags: Asset class, Dysfunctional, Financial risk, Global financial system, Housing market, Mortgage debt, Size, U.S.
Institutional Investor (August 27)
Gold is losing “its luster as an asset class.” Long considered a “hedge against inflation, currency volatility and geopolitical turmoil,” many experts are now questioning gold’s status as a legitimate investment. “Gold has failed to benefit from global economic and political turbulence recently…. Given that gold offers investors no yield, if it doesn’t rise in value during episodes like these, investors don’t have many reasons to hold it.”
Tags: Asset class, Currency volatility, Geopolitical turmoil, Gold, Hedge, Inflation, Investment, Investors, Turbulence, Value, Yield
