Investment Officer

Apex Group said it has appointed Samir Pandiri to the newly created role of Group President and Member of the Executive Committee, to support and drive the business’ sustained growth.

Researchers at the University of Florida have discovered a significant correlation between ChatGPT’s assessment of headlines, and the subsequent daily returns of the stocks studied.

The researchers used ChatGPT to indicate whether a particular headline contained good, bad or irrelevant news for companies’ stock prices.  The study shows a positive correlation between ChatGPT’s sentiment analysis, and subsequent daily stock market returns.

Michael Reinhard has decided to step down as chief executive officer at Frankfurt-headquartered Universal Investment Group, a leading management company in Luxembourg. Until a successor is appointed he will be replaced by David Blumer, who joined UI as non-executive chair last year.

The market is expecting a 75 basis point rate cut by the Federal Reserve after a six-month pause. According to Invesco, the likelihood of that happening is much lower than the market thinks. This is good news for emerging markets, said Wim Vandenhoeck, senior portfolio manager for EMD and global bonds.

Alternative investment funds last year took a bigger slice of the Luxembourg pie, a new study said on Wednesday. In terms of assets under management, alternative funds accounted for more than a third of the total last year, compared to a quarter a year earlier.

The data stems from the latest edition of the Observatory of Management Companies, published annually by PwC Luxembourg.

Fund management companies in Luxembourg registered some 22 new reserved alternative investment funds (Raifs) in April 2023, according to publicly-released data updated on 15 May. This development brings the total for this year so far to 128. Considering only the first four months of the year, the total number was down 20 per cent from last year during the same period.

Financial services provider Apex Group on Tuesday said it has closed its acquisition of the data and analytics division of troubled London-based asset services provider MJ Hudson Plc. The deal includes part of MJ Hudson’s business in Luxembourg. The acquisition of the firm’s regulated business units remains remains to be closed as it is still subject to regulatory approval, Apex said. 

Europe’s top financial supervisor on Tuesday said it has opened up a consultation on the draft technical standards for European Long Term Investment Funds, or Eltifs, to collect input from the industry. Interested stakeholders have until 24 August to provide input.

The standards, known formally as the ‘RTS’, shed more light on the redemption policies and matching mechanism for Eltifs. The consultation also asks the industry to comment on the proposed disclosure requirements for costs of Eltifs. 

While those European investors still in doubt about the importance of ESG are becoming increasingly bogged down in a rearguard action, U.S. states are increasingly passing anti-ESG laws. “If this becomes federal policy, I would underweight the U.S. in the portfolio,” said Gaya Herrington,  a sustainability researcher and advisor to the Club of Rome.

The latest edition of the Bank of America Global Fund Manager Survey shows that fund managers are still overweight equities while their expectations of future economic growth have come down considerably.

Indeed, the chart below shows that fund managers have never been so pessimistic about growth. Not during Covid and not during the Great Financial Crisis. The ‘mismatch’ between expectations and positioning is extreme.