This publication presents manager performance for 37 asset classes and substrategies, showing the median, mean, and key percentiles of return. Relevant indexes for each asset class are also included to provide market context.
This chart book examines historical currency momentum, valuation, and fundamentals in nine key currencies—US dollar (USD), British pound (GBP), euro (EUR), Swiss franc (CHF), Japanese yen (JPY), Australian dollar (AUD), New Zealand dollar (NZD), Canadian dollar (CAD), and Singapore dollar (SGD)—to help investors understand how these currencies behave against other major currencies.
Over the past two weeks, central banks in the United States, United Kingdom, euro area, and Japan have all held monetary policy meetings. The communications following these meetings retained a hawkish bias, suggesting further policy tightening may be necessary—except for the Bank of Japan—however, additional interest rate hikes will likely be much less frequent for the remainder of this cycle. Despite this reality, we do not think major central banks will be quick to cut interest rates next year.
Risk assets enjoyed mostly positive returns in fiscal year 2023. Equities rebounded as fears over the severity of a possible recession moderated. Emerging markets equities lagged developed markets as the pace of reopening in China disappointed. Bond performance improved as credit assets posted positive returns but developed markets sovereign bonds struggled. Real assets suffered due to higher interest rates and slowing demand.
No, we continue to believe investors should hold US Treasuries in line with policy allocations. While the recent decision by Fitch Ratings to downgrade the sovereign credit rating of the United States added upward pressure on Treasury yields, we do not expect it will have a lasting impact.
Yesterday, US President Biden issued an Executive Order (EO) limiting US investments in China in three technology sectors—semiconductors and microelectronics, certain artificial intelligence systems, and quantum information technologies—in 2024 and beyond.
A year after posting their second highest annual returns ever, performance for the US private equity and venture capital indexes fell back to earth in 2022.
Yes, the transition to a low-carbon economy is producing a myriad of productive ways to put capital to work.
The energy transition involves a complex and dynamic set of changes in the way we do just about everything. While significant progress has been made in some quarters, considerable capital will be needed to fund the massive investment required over coming decades. We expect investors with a deliberate and thoughtful plan to invest in the transition across the risk/reward spectrum will be rewarded.
By changing the PPA discount rate methodology to the Full Yield Curve approach, ERISA-covered US single-employer pension plans can significantly decrease or eliminate their variable rate premiums, reduce complexity, and simplify the risk management process.