Investment Officer Global

The United Kingdom’s new ESG fund labels have struggled to gain traction. As Brussels prepares an overhaul of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), a senior Morningstar expert warns Europe not to copy London’s model.

For decades, it was an iron law for investors: in the long run, the stock market follows economic growth. A thriving economy translated into rising corporate profits and thus higher share prices. But anyone who has watched the past thirty years closely senses a growing friction with this old wisdom.

With the euro expected to strengthen further, portfolio strategies are increasingly being shaped by how much, not whether, to hedge U.S. exposures.

Tokenized funds will overtake traditional structures within five years, says Keyrock CEO Kevin de Patoul, citing cheaper, transparent, inevitable on-chain vehicles.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced a multibillion-dollar deal last week with the US for the construction of a series of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). Although the so-called “nuclear renaissance” is also taking shape in Europe according to investors, they see American companies as the main beneficiaries.

UK inflation is far too high, and the policy rate is far too low. That might sound odd, but if you look at the regime we’ve been in for more than seventeen years now, the statement makes perfect sense. Let me explain why.

Eurozone corporate bonds delivered a return of 4.2 percent over the past twelve months (as measured by the Morningstar Eurozone Corporate Bond Index), while their US counterpart, the Morningstar US Corporate Bond Index, lost 1.8 percent in euro terms. The currency effect was crucial here.

Assets in gold ETFs and ETCs have more than doubled worldwide in just two years, rising from nearly 200 to 439 billion dollars. “In the current gold rally, these instruments have gained significant momentum.”

With inflation still running close to 3 percent, investors warn the Federal Reserve may be cutting into a “stagflation-lite” backdrop: weaker growth alongside stubborn price pressures.