All Features articles – Page 4
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Features
Fossil fuel divestment is back in fashion
More and more asset owners are exiting oil and gas. Sophie Robinson-Tillett speaks to some about why, and how, they’re selling out of the sector
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Features
Britain’s LDI crisis: When things nearly fell apart
On 23 September 2022, Kwasi Kwarteng, the then UK chancellor of the exchequer, announced a £45bn (€52bn) package of tax cuts. The hand-outs, designed to please key voters, were the wrong gift at the wrong time. For several years, the Bank of England had been attempting to end quantitative easing and start putting a higher price on borrowing.
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Features
Research: The yin and yang of passive and active investing
Amin Rajan and Sebastian Schiele look at the complementary relationship between active and passive investment strategies
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Features
Qontigo Riskwatch - September 2023
*Data as of 31 July 2023. Forecast risk estimate for each index measured by the respective US, World and Emerging Markets Qontigo model variants
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Features
IPE Quest Expectations Indicator: September 2023
US officials are talking up the Ukrainian advance towards Melitopol, a sign that all is not well. Contrary to expectations, the biggest problem is not the Russian air force, but land mines. Trump’s legal problems are as worrisome as his inexplicable lead among Republicans. US abstinence in the struggle against climate change is a potential cause for a major trade war as the EU realises it must expand its regulations on importing ‘dirty’ products to prevent a free rider problem undermining its climate efforts. In the UK, Labour’s lead over the Conservatives remains crushing, making it difficult to claim the government has a popular mandate.
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Features
How the AT1 bond market shrugged off the Credit Suisse debacle
On a late Monday evening in August, the Italian right-wing government unexpectedly announced a new 40% tax on banks’ ‘windfall’ profits derived by the higher lending rates. Shares in Italian banks tumbled, banking executives cried foul, and analysts poured scorn over the measure. The government, which was hoping to raise up to €3bn to help families and small businesses, backtracked shortly after, scaling back the tax.
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Features
Discerning investor sentiment: this year’s proxy season
Every annual general meeting (AGM) season has traditionally brought with it a few symbolic moments – events that serve as broader indicators of the market’s mood when it comes to environmental and social issues.
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Features
Digital health revolution ramps up
The world is at the beginning of a digital health revolution. This has been accelerated by the COVID pandemic that forced radical shifts in doctor/patient interactions, and supercharged by the emergence of OpenAI’s ChatGPT that brought generative artificial intelligence (AI) to the forefront and pulled the potential of AI in healthcare into the limelight.
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UK venture capital: spinning out for success
Academic research produces excellent technology and medical firms, but the funding is not always available to take things further
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Features
Fixed income, rates & currency: US debt crisis averted – what next?
The US debt ceiling crisis was resolved in June, avoiding potentially major fireworks, with a suspension of the limit until early 2025. This ensures that the next time the politicians have to fight about it will be after the November 2024 presidential election. Although markets were relieved at the temporary resolution, the process of rebuilding the very depleted Treasury cash balances – with some huge bill auctions planned – will drain significant liquidity from the system, which could put pressure on the rates market.
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Features
Austria’s politicians are too timid to make decisions, says VBV’s Schiendl
Austrian institutional investors believe that both national and European Union politics are impeding the evolution of the occupational pensions market.
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Features
Ahead of the curve: Is growth back or is it a trap?
It is likely you have heard about ‘value traps’. They are low-multiple companies that are priced at an ever expanding discount to the market and structurally underperform as fundamentals weaken due to new competition and, in extreme scenarios, may even face obsolescence.
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Features
Accounting: Corporate reporting at a crossroads
When the definitive history of modern corporate reporting is written, historians will no doubt step back in awe. They will marvel at the International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB) decision to issue its management commentary proposals only to inherit the integrated reporting framework and then waste substantial energy grappling with the complexities of aligning or even merging the two.
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Features
IPE Quest Expectations Indicator: July 2023
The war in Ukraine is starting to look like a stalemate. This would be in Russia’s favour. Delivery to Ukraine of more of the tanks promised or fighters to contest Russian air control might lead to a breakthrough, but is unlikely to happen in the summer. In the US, Trump looks like a leading but weak candidate for the Republicans, even against a Democrat as unpopular as Biden. Legal pushbacks against the fight to prevent permanent climate change, notably in Texas, have the potential to cause a trade war with the EU. They illustrate how European and North American values are slowly drifting apart.
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Features
Qontigo Riskwatch – July 2023
*Data as of 31 May 2023. Forecast risk estimate for each index measured by the respective US, World and Emerging Markets Qontigo model variants
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Features
IPE Quest Expectations Indicator: August 2023
Politics is on hold until September. Normally, markets do not care and analysts reduce their activity. A political crisis in the Netherlands shows the danger. There are warnings from all sides that climate measures are ever more urgently needed. Markets need a clearer view of which products govern- ments will support with market-shaping measures and when, especially in the face of a faltering pace towards climate goals. Early signs of problems include a lack of capital for innovative start-ups and the increasingly loud voices of climate change deniers.
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Features
FX in waiting mode after lively 2022
After a long period of muted volatility, currency markets sprang back into action in 2022 as geopolitical risk and diverging monetary policy came to the fore. This year it is quieter, but markets remain rattled over the unpredictable interest rate scenarios. As a result, many market participants are waiting for a sharper picture to emerge.
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Features
Fixed income, rates & currency: Strong labour markets surprise
Global purchasing managers’ index (PMI) data, which measures the state of the US economy, has been mostly strong, although manufacturing indices have been considerably weaker than services, perhaps reflecting their greater sensitivity to higher interest rates.