Energy

With everything up, where are the value buying opportunities?

In 2017, Bitcoin entered mainstream conversation even though it had been around since 2009.

The reflation trade continued in earnest during the first quarter of 2021. Commodities were up another 13.3% from January to March, following a 14.7% move in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Much has changed since the oil-market collapse in the early pandemic days of 2020, when prices actually turned negative. Franklin Templeton Fixed Income Research Analyst/Portfolio Manager Bryant Dieffenbacher looks back at industry developments since then, and outlines opportunities he sees in the high-yield energy bond market today.

Although we remain constructive about the economic outlook, the recent increase in speculative activity gives us some pause. We continue to favor a cautious approach in the near-to-medium term.

Review the latest Weekly Headings by CIO Larry Adam.

Human capital needs renewal; COVID-19 sweeps through India again, while the U.S. economy springs back to life.

More than 60 central banks right now are believed to be exploring the idea of digital currencies, including retail tokens that would be used by citizens as well as wholesale applications for financial institutions.

I think we will probably have a few months of significantly higher inflation. It will fade but meanwhile hurt certain people and industries. It will be like one of those extremes causing bruised knees and volatile markets.

Infrastructure is the backbone of any healthy economy, and America’s is in desperate need of refurbishment and investment.

There is no way this bull market doesn’t end very badly.

Although it’s early in the first quarter earnings reporting season, it’s worth a look at the progress so far and the implications for the rest of the season, as well as valuations.

John Vail of Nikko Asset Management dives into the findings from Nikko’s latest Global Investment Committee meeting.

Digital currencies stormed Wall Street in a big way this week. Crypto exchange Coinbase went public in a direct listing, opening the floodgates for a number of other crypto-related companies.

On April 21 the Governing Council of the Bank of Canada (BoC) will meet to discuss monetary policy.

The Northern Trust Economics team shares its outlook for global growth in this year of reopening.

Even before the war is over, the winning side needs to consider how to “win the peace” which will follow.

There are a few different ways to measure the size of a shipping fleet.

Lost in the debate over whether today's ultra-loose fiscal and monetary policies will trigger painful inflation is the broader risk posed by potential negative supply shocks.

The 2015 Paris Agreement introduced the legally binding goal of maintaining the average global temperature below the pre-industrial revolution average plus 2o Celsius in order to avoid severe stress on natural and socioeconomic systems.

Hundreds of years of history shows us that investment bubbles have been a regularly occurring feature of the financial markets.

As the end of the pandemic came into view in the U.S. and the new administration’s stimulus plan became more probable, expectations for economic growth and inflation have increased.

Infrastructure merits more investment, everywhere; we look at the specifics of the U.S. proposal.

We’re more than ready to put the pandemic in the rearview mirror. For the first time since this all started a year ago, more than one million people per day have been flying commercial in the U.S. for 30 straight days.

Yes, the housing market is a bit overheated, but for reasons that make far more sense than the rationalizations of stock market bulls. Some buyers are certainly overpaying and may regret it. Nonetheless, I don’t foresee another 2008-style housing crash in the near future, nor anything like the subprime crisis. There are altogether different fundamentals working here.

As a backdrop, we’ll bring a bit of scientific language to our analysis this quarter as we celebrate the amazing feats of our scientific brothers and sisters.

In 1974, U.S. President Gerald Ford took office “amidst one of the worst economic crises in U.S. history,” which was characterized by double digit inflation.

Well, let’s just say things are different in 2021.

Within the growth-vs.-value context, we’d like to discuss three Covid-related scenarios for companies.

Dumb and Dumber was a 1994 movie which tells the story of Lloyd Christmas (Jim Carrey) and Harry Dunne (Jeff Daniels)

We have all endured the Covid-19 pandemic for over a year now.

The last year brought exponential growth in, among other things, use of the word “exponential.” It is now the go-to term when you want to say something is “growing super-fast.”

The acceptance of digital currencies as a form of payment expanded greatly this week, foreshadowing the increasingly important role cryptos such as Bitcoin and Ether will play in our lives going forward.

You know society is in trouble when the Prime Minister of your country stands up and says something along the lines of “of course we can afford to take on more debt – you are old-fashioned if you think otherwise”.

My generation, millennials (those born from 1980 to 2000), have been noted for much of the last 10 years to be a risk averse group.

We forecast a strong global recovery in 2021 amid significant fiscal support, accommodative monetary policy, diminishing lockdowns, and accelerating vaccinations.

Addressing technical, idiosyncratic and structural aspects of inflation.

My question, as always, is whether we’re measuring inflation accurately. What if we’re doing it all wrong? As investors, we want to make decisions based on the best available data, so what should we do if the data is incomplete or flawed?

A Green New Deal should not be viewed as a big government program, but as an opportunity to reinvent vast swaths of the U.S. economy while pursuing the laudable goal of carbon neutrality

Across the industrial sector, low-carbon investing naturally leans toward renewable energy opportunities, like wind and solar power.

Companies globally are racing to reduce their carbon emissions. But what does it really take to achieve ambitious green targets?

A compelling argument can be made that the 21^st century US economy has been a two-decade series of disappointments.

Lina Khan is being appointed to the Federal Trade Commission by President Biden’s administration.

Wall Street thought 2020 was the Year of the SPAC, or special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). Turns out, this title was premature.

We are often asked if the U.S. dollar will lose its status as the world’s reserve currency.

A better appreciation of the history of market bubbles should help advisors and their clients sidestep some of the carnage when they inevitably burst. It is our intention in this article to take a more clinical approach by quantifying what we mean by a “bubble” solely in terms of market action. In that way, it is possible to compare conditions between individual markets and arrive at a rough standard. There are of course, many other aspects to bubbles and manias, several you can read about here.

We believe inflation is still, and always will be, a monetary phenomenon. It is defined as "too much money chasing too few goods and services" – but that doesn't mean every period of higher inflation is going to look exactly the same.

Headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, BHP is the world’s No. 1 mining company.

A little over a hundred years ago, the United States emerged from the double whammy of a world war and deadly pandemic. Eager to get back to “normal” life, Americans went on a decade-long spending splurge, buying cars and radios and stocks.

In this issue of Sinology, we provide a macro perspective for thinking about whether an investor’s portfolio has enough exposure to China.

Our crisis dashboard includes signals from three areas: 1) public health, 2) the consumer sector and 3) financial markets. By pulling big data from traditional sources (earnings growth and gross domestic product, for example) and nontraditional sources (like Google Trends and Glassdoor), we can create a better mosaic of the road back.

There may be some incredible opportunities for investors in companies that produce the metals, minerals and other raw materials that will be needed with an increase in spending.

The opportunity cost for inflation protection is high—is it worth the cost?

As inflation expectations have risen, the market seems to be concerned that stronger economic growth might force the Fed to act sooner than anticipated, prompting a market selloff – particularly in growth stocks. As rates rise, valuations and earnings growth expectations decline, driving investors to seek cyclical stocks with more attractive pricing. With the 10 year now about even with the dividend yield of the S&P 500, fixed income investors might also be reallocating to bonds.