Equitorial: ESG is here to stay – and we’re better for it
Fast reading We first started researching environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in 2007, with the aim of establishing whether there was a relationship between ESG and performance. The first link was established in 2014, where our seminal research paper demonstrated that governance was additive to returns. Subsequent research over the intervening period established the […]
The answer is, ‘No’
This is one of those instances when it is best to be direct. As soon as the news hit about Moody’s recent downgrade of the US credit rating, we knew cash managers would be fielding questions about its impact on US money market funds. There are no ramifications: the rating agency has affirmed its Aaa-mf […]
Riding the storm
Video transcript How have we navigated the volatility? ‘Liberation Day’ brought a tonne of volatility and uncertainty to the markets, and in trying to navigate through that we set up a series of five milestones to help confirm our bullish stance. The first thing we wanted to see was more dovish trade talk, talk about […]
Trump’s tariff rollout hits roadblock
market snapshot
What does the US debt downgrade mean?
market snapshot
The ECB’s road ahead
navigating the certain uncertainties
How should credit investors navigate such an uncertain backdrop?
Fast reading Uncertainty stemming from the Republican administration’s economic policy has undermined confidence in capital markets. Credit ratings agency Moody’s has downgraded US sovereign debt to Aa1 from Aaa. Notwithstanding a reset on tariffs with China, many market drivers – for lenders, borrowers and investors – are in a holding pattern until an element of […]
FHL Stewardship Report 2024
In 2024, the world experienced its warmest calendar year on record, with average global temperature exceeding 1.5°C above its pre-industrial level for the first time. This milestone year also saw a series of extreme weather events, including record-breaking heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, and hurricanes in the US, and storms and flash flooding in Europe, Brazil, and […]
What word best encapsulates the current economic environment?
Video transcript The word that best describes economic conditions right now has to be ‘uncertainty’. We hear it frequently on earnings calls from investors and across the capital markets, from all participants. By way of evidence, we searched the word uncertainty in the Fed’s ‘Beige Book’. The ‘Beige Book’ is a summary of economic conditions […]
Oil prices stop making sense
For the past few years, the expanded group of oil producers known as OPEC+ have tried collectively to stabilise crude prices by lowering production in order to dampen price volatility to the downside. But because several members of the wider cartel have different and conflicting fiscal and external financing priorities, efforts to limit output have not […]
