Investment Officer Netherlands

Stay away next year from “long” government bonds and from corporate bonds, both high yield and investment grade. Profligate governments and poor risk-return profiles will spoil the mood in those markets.

Market sentiment in fixed income is turning quickly. Within just a few weeks, investors and even central bankers have rotated one hundred eighty degrees. Rising inflation risk and an even greater lack of fiscal discipline are pushing yields higher. It is a nightmare scenario for politicians and the run-up to a major confrontation.

Prudent risk management is vital in high-yield-bond investing. As this week’s Morningstar fund comparison shows, even strategies operating in the same corner of the market can diverge sharply when stress hits.

India is drawing fresh interest from global investors as domestic demand, rapid digitalization and a deepening capital market give it resilience few major economies can match. Emerging market specialists say these qualities are becoming increasingly relevant for diversified portfolios.

European regulator Esma is advocating a revision of research rules, expected to take effect next year. Allowing research and trade execution to be paid for jointly again could create new opportunities for smallcap coverage.

A majority of large asset managers are most optimistic about equities for 2026, particularly those from emerging markets. US equities remain a strategic cornerstone, while Europe and Japan play a smaller but growing role in geographic diversification.

Assets managed through discretionary mandates have expanded more slowly in Europa over the past ten years than assets held in investment funds. That is the conclusion of Efama, the European fund industry association, in its latest sector review.

In private credit, institutional investors face their biggest risk not in the asset class itself, but in selecting the general partner. Interviews with private market insiders suggest the real danger is a lack of scrutiny of managers.

Many fund houses mark Liberation Day—the day president Trump announced sharply higher US trade tariffs—as the standout moment of 2025, according to the Investment Officer Outlook Survey 2026. But what surprised asset managers even more was how quickly markets carried on in the months that followed, as if nothing had happened.