Reuters (December 5)
“Assets that rise rapidly above their long-term trend are usually set for a fall…. This year, gold has risen more than 60% in dollar terms, its best performance in 46 years. Adjusted for inflation, gold has never been more expensive. Either we are witnessing another bubble or it’s a paradigm shift.” It may be the latter as speculative euphoria has focused on cryptocurrencies while “central bankers have significantly increased their gold holdings.”
Tags: $60, Assets, Bubble, Central bankers, Cryptocurrencies, Dollar, Expensive, Fall, Gold, Holdings, Inflation, Paradigm shift, Performance, Speculative, Trend
New York Times (December 22)
“An annual ritual is underway at the major Wall Street investment houses: predicting exactly where the S&P 500 will finish the next calendar year.” Since 2000, the Wall Street consensus has failed miserably at this fool’s errand, predicting only gains when there were seven years of losses. Their average “variance between actual annual performance and the prediction was huge — an average gap of 14.2 percentage points.”
Tags: 14.2 percentage points, 2000, Consensus, Fool’s errand, Gains, Investment houses, Losses, Performance, Prediction, Ritual, S&P 500, Variance, Wall Street
Investment Week (October 14)
“Environmental, social and governance considerations among private investors have continued to fall for the third year in a row amid a declining love for ESG.” The annual ESG Attitudes Tracker found that “the percentage of respondents… who claimed they consider ESG when investing dropped to 48%, down from 53% in 2023, 60% in 2022 and 66% in 2021.” Lackluster performance in the ESG sector appears to be “the core reason” for the waning enthusiasm.
Tags: Attitudes Tracker, Declining love, Dropped, ESG, Fall, Investors, Lackluster, Performance, Respondents, Waning enthusiasm
Institutional Investor (August 2)
“Asset owners, like endowments and pension funds, are gearing up to publish their annual returns for the fiscal year.” Though CIOs insist “that 10- and 20-year returns matter more… than one-year numbers, the annual horse race has begun.” These comparisons appear inevitable, but industry experts call them “flawed” because they overlook “clear differences in performance reporting standards” and “also fail to consider each institution’s particular tolerance for risk, goals, and individual needs.”
Tags: 20-year returns, Annual returns, Asset owners, CIOs, Endowments, Experts, Fiscal year, Flawed, Goals, Individual needs, One-year, Pension funds, Performance, Reporting standards, Risk
Institutional Investor (July 3)
“In the often dogmatic debate over whether using environmental, social, and governance factors helps or hurts investment returns, neither side is going to cheer the findings of a recent Preqin report: ESG didn’t matter.” The analysis of 11,000 funds found “average performance of ESG funds was 13.5 percent, compared with 15.0 percent for all private capital funds,” a difference that is not statistically significant. Moreover, “the results were similar even after accounting for different asset classes.”
Tags: 13.5%, 15.0%, Asset classes, Debate, Dogmatic, ESG funds, Helps, Hurts, Investment returns, Performance, Preqin, Private capital
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
Investment Week (April 26)
“Managers have expressed confidence in the performance of sterling and its future potential, but the uncertainty surrounding the UK and global economies, as well as the upcoming general election, could pose headwinds to the asset’s performance.”
Tags: Asset, Confidence, Future, General election, Global economies, Headwinds, Managers, Performance, Potential, Sterling, UK, Uncertainty
Financial Times (February 22)
“The benchmark Nikkei 225 index finally broke through its “iron coffin lid” to surpass its long-standing record 1989 closing price of 38,915 points, which was set when 15 of the world’s largest companies by market cap were Japanese. “The Nikkei has risen 16.6 per cent since the start of the year, making it the world’s best-performing major index, as a falling yen lures foreign investors” and strengthens the performance of exporters.”
Tags: 1989, 38, 915 points, Benchmark, Best-performing, Falling yen, Foreign investors, Index, Japan, Market-cap, Nikkei 225, Performance, Record, Surpass
South China Morning Post (February 7)
“China’s state security ministry has stepped forward to warn those who disseminate ‘short’ views on the country’s economic and market prospects.” Based on this year’s performance, “excessive information manipulation has backfired and frightened away investors” from Chinese stocks on the Shanghai and Hong Kong exchanges. “To investors, a one-sided story, no matter how good it may look on the surface, is not trustworthy if there’s no counter-balance…. The rational response would be to stay away.”
Tags: ‘Short’ views, Backfired, China, Counter-balance, Frightened, Hong Kong, Information, Investors, Manipulation, Performance, Prospects, Security ministry, Shanghai, Stocks, Trustworthy, Warn
Institutional Investor (January 22)
“Bloomberg terminal users got a research boost on Monday just in time for earnings season: summaries and analysis of company performance written by artificial intelligence.” From Monday, all users will be able to access generative AI summaries “designed to help analysts save time absorbing earnings data and transcripts by highlighting key points. They will be available immediately for companies in the Russell 1000 and the top 1000 companies in Europe.”
Tags: AI, Analysts, Bloomberg, Earnings season, Europe, Generative, Key points, Performance, Research, Russell 1000, Summaries, Time, Transcripts
