Max Severijns

Every May, a ritual unfolds in Omaha, Nebraska that I have never quite understood. Thousands of investors fly to a shareholder meeting in the middle of the American Midwest to hear a wise old man explain that smart investors can probably find better uses for their money than flying to shareholder meetings in the middle of the American Midwest.

Oil prices will have to climb much higher to stabilise global markets as disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz deepen, JPMorgan said. For import-dependent Europe, the risk of slower growth and higher inflation is rising by the day.

Proxy advisers are facing mounting political pressure in the US, even as demand for their services grows elsewhere. For Glass Lewis, one of the two dominant global proxy advisory firms alongside ISS, that divergence is reshaping both its strategy and its product offering.

If history is any guide, the artificial intelligence boom will not be those who build the technology, but those who deploy it. That is the view of Kevin Khang, head of global economic research at Vanguard. He argues that today’s market narrative risks mistaking the early winners for the ultimate ones.

Software stocks are being repriced as investors reassess how artificial intelligence will reshape the industry. Some fund managers now argue the selloff has gone too far, even as uncertainty around long-term earnings remains unresolved.

A mix of erratic political choices has chipped away at confidence in Washington. Yet, as the economic backdrop remains stubbornly solid, the case for US assets is alive and kicking, America’s largest investors say.

A wave of massive initial public offerings, including SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI, is set to hit US equity markets just as index providers move to fast-track their inclusion. Asset managers expect this combination could inject fresh volatility into passive investment strategies.

The conflict between the US and Iran is hitting the core of the Federal Reserve’s rate strategy. The one factor that was keeping rate cuts alive, falling housing costs, is now under pressure. Fed governor Stephen Miran’s bet that housing costs would keep falling fast enough to justify lower Fed rates is now being tested in the worst possible way.

Now that the US SEC has placed most digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, outside its oversight, chair Paul Atkins said the “brake on innovation” that the market watchdog had become under Gary Gensler is disappearing.

For decades, investors have been told to balance risk with a simple formula: the 60/40 split between stocks and bonds. New research from Yale argues that approach is fundamentally flawed, leaving many savers too conservatively positioned to maximise long-term wealth.