Global Small Caps: Unlocking value through governance engagements in Japan
In recent years we have intensified our active ownership approach with Japanese companies, aiming to boost capital efficiency, improve governance structures and enhance shareholder returns.
Chart of the week: the outlines of a new credit bubble
AI is not a bubble by definition. But the investment wave surrounding it is. The first hairline cracks are now clearly visible, and comparisons with the run-up to the global financial crisis are becoming hard to dismiss.
Washington is rewinding the clock on investor protection
Washington is rewinding the clock on investor protection. Under chair Paul Atkins, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has rolled back a series of rules, scaled back enforcement and curtailed shareholder rights. According to former senior counsel Benjamin Schiffrin, who spent nearly two decades at the agency, the regulator is now siding more with Wall Street than with investors.
Morningstar: Blackrock vs Pimco in global diversified bond strategies
Over the 12 months to February 2026, the US dollar weakened by 12.6 percent against the euro, a move mirrored across several emerging-markets currencies, including the Brazilian real, South African rand, Mexican peso and Malaysian ringgit. This currency shift has pushed managers in the Morningstar Global Bond – Diversified category toward local-currency emerging-markets debt to capture both rate differentials and currency appreciation.
In a tense Fixed Income market, where are the opportunities still to be found?
After several years marked by significant rate volatility, the environment is becoming more readable. However, while inflation has stabilized, certain external factors could influence the monetary trajectory.
The biggest threat to the euro is the ECB
On the eve of the recent meeting of EU leaders on how to make the European economy more innovative, more competitive, and less dependent on foreign countries, participants were sent a note from the European Central Bank (ECB). In it, the bank outlined what it considers desirable policy to achieve those goals.
The global economy appears poised to accelerate
Despite disappointing US Gross domestic product growth in the fourth quarter of 2025, the global economy appears poised to accelerate, note Guy Wagner and his team in their latest monthly market report "Highlights".
Clarity around ‘Sanaenomics’ makes Japan investable again
Prime Minister Takaichi’s clear reflation policy is making Japan attractive to investors once more, even though the policy rate, at 0.75 percent, stands at its highest level in thirty years. The panic surrounding the unwinding of the yen carry trade, which caused global turmoil two years ago, now appears to have definitively faded into the background.
The wind of change for equity investors
Over the past decade, ESG has moved from the periphery to the mainstream. Luc Plouvier, senior portfolio manager for our Global Dividend strategy explains that the tide has turned.
Fed is not keen on cutting rates, feeding speculation of a rate hike
The Federal Reserve has little appetite to cut interest rates in the near term. Minutes of the January meeting show policymakers are increasingly concerned that inflation could stay above the 2 percent target for longer than expected. Markets might have to reprice their expectations, economists say.