Max Severijns

European institutional investors wishing to capitalize on anticipated rate cuts by the Federal Reserve are turning to curve steepeners.

Economists at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) assert that Europeans invest insufficiently in venture capital.

Investment advisors in both the US and Europe have been expressing a desire to increase allocations to alternatives, but the average allocation has remained modest, according to gatekeeper surveys by Cerulli and PGIM.

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the Government Pension Fund Global, has dethroned its Japanese counterpart and is now the world’s largest asset owner.

In the event of Donald Trump’s re-election as US President, a big shift in trade policy could happen.

More and more US ETF providers are launching buffered products that fully hedge downside risk. The costs, however, also eat into the returns.

BlackRock’s strategic 3.2 billion dollar acquisition of U.K. data firm Preqin opens the door towards indexing private markets and can be seen as a defensive move against the threat of private equity.

The spread on French government bonds has peaked again, showing that financial markets are on edge ahead of Sunday’s elections. Until they conclude later in July, many investors are favouring other European government bonds. “Any reminder of the European debt crisis is a red flag for international investors,” one analyst remarked.

European family offices are taking advantage of falling US real estate prices, seeking opportunities in prime office spaces and “trophy assets” despite market instability.

Research by Ludovic Phalippou of Oxford University reveals that Benelux pension funds are the third largest sponsors of performance bonuses for US private equity firms.