Emerging Markets

Many of the speakers and attendees were bullish on the physical metal, pointing to gold’s resilience in the face of a very strong U.S. dollar and multiyear-high yields.

Fund managers have been avoiding emerging markets (EM), especially when it comes to China. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t opportunities that exist.

The Federal Reserve weighs the data while investors wonder: Is the rate-hike cycle over?

With the rapid pace of urbanization, there’s an increasing demand for efficient and sustainable power solutions, and ABB’s advancements in smart grids and renewable energy integration are pivotal in meeting the demands of this transition.

While some stocks may seem expensive, there are areas of opportunity that feature attractive valuations and growth catalysts, according to the Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions team.

Given concentration risk, understanding what a strategy and portfolio owns is more important than ever in current markets.

In State Street Global Advisors’ recent Gold ETF Impact Study, the firm reported that “36% of surveyed investors don’t invest in gold because they don’t know enough about the ways that they can invest in gold.”

The biggest growth companies continue to increase their concentration in major equity indexes this year. It’s not surprising that investors are starting to rethink their exposure to large-caps, given concentration risk and ongoing market uncertainty.

Thematic ETFs have come a long way since they made their full debut in the ETF ecosystem.

The European Central Bank is likely at or very near its peak policy rate, but we don’t expect rate cuts in the near term.

What’s inside an ETF really matters. This is an argument I’ve been making for more than a decade. However, with the growth of alternatively weighted index ETFs and actively managed products, this has become even more notable.

A return to the Great Moderation Era looks unlikely, which might lead to an increasingly volatile—and somewhat unfamiliar—inflationary, economic, and geopolitical landscape.

Celebrating an exciting milestone: Franklin Income Fund turns 75. Learn more about this flagship strategy and read some fun facts from back in 1948.

Now seems like a good time to talk about wrappers and which ones are best for different situations. How do you decide whether to use an ETF, a mutual fund, or something else?

Despite substantial growth and huge advancements in public policy support, clean energy has had an abysmal stretch in the stock market the last two and a half years.

In a significant turnaround for its aviation sector, Mexico’s air safety rating was upgraded from Category 2 back to Category 1 by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The upgrade could be a game-changer, offering opportunities for both Mexican airlines and their U.S. joint venture partners.

Competing narratives have emerged to describe the state of the U.S. economy.

Soft consumer confidence and property-market woes are playing a large role in the slowdown of China’s economy.

Now, is it an oversimplification to say that the upgrade to GDP growth is just down to Taylor Swift and Beyoncé? It is, to a degree, no matter how popular they are—and they are very popular indeed.

Bearish China traders have had the upper hand for most of the year. Still, easing deflation could give bulls a glimmer of hope.

Last week the World Gold Council reported that central banks continued to add to their global gold reserves during the month of July. The World Gold Council also highlighted that China, Poland and Turkey were among the countries that were the largest buyers of gold during the month.

Inflation averaged 1.8% in the ten years pre-COVID. Don’t expect inflation to average that low in the decade ahead. Not until the US finds a way to repeat the 1980s policy mix.

ETFs are the instrument of choice for millions of investors in the U.S. Through a single trade and for a relatively low price, an investor gains broad exposure to a market, sector or niche.

From the dense Amazon jungle to wide stretches of Malaysian palm oil plantations, agricultural practices have been stripping the world of vital forests for decades.

Known as “onsemi” for short, this Knowledge Leader is a global leader in intelligent power and sensing solutions for industries ranging from automotive to industrial, and from 5G & cloud power to medical solutions.

PIMCO’s Global Advisory Board discusses economic and geopolitical factors shaping the long-term global outlook.

There has been lots of speculation lately regarding China’s economic “decline” or potential economic “perils,” so much so that newspaper articles about the coming demise of China’s miracle economic growth over the previous decades continue to take (our) time away from other, perhaps, more important topics.

While there are lots of reasons to celebrate the growth stocks inside the NASDAQ 100 index, some advisors might be looking for alternatives to the market-cap weighted index ETFs that reduce their risk profile. Thankfully there are some choices to consider.

Changes in sentiment may drive the performance of the Eurozone equity markets, even with disappointing economic data.

We expect yields to fall later this year and into 2024 as inflation continues to cool.

The U.S. dollar has dropped to its lowest level against other currencies in 15 months. In this environment, a wide range of assets stand to profit, not least of which is the AI-infused U.S. technology sector. However, no space stands more ready to benefit from this environment than emerging markets..

In the final part of our series on global supply chains, portfolio managers Inbok Song and Sherwood Zhang look at the companies that are reconfiguring their networks and portfolio manager Vivek Tanneeru gives his assessment on the investment opportunities.

A hard landing in China would rattle Asian economies.

Oil has entered a new uptrend after finally breaking out from nearly a year-long bottom formation. Support from OPEC+, notably Saudi Arabia’s one million barrel per day production cut for the remainder of the year, has been a major driver of the rally.

Even though past performance doesn’t guarantee future results, investors should prepare for continued market volatility this month.

Greetings from Europe. I promised to write a letter describing my personal investment portfolio. I still plan to, but it won’t be this week.

Tony Davidow, Senior Alternatives Investment Strategist, at Franklin Templeton Institute, shares some takeaways from a panel discussion on the topic.

Dina Ting, Franklin Templeton ETFs’ Head of Global Index Portfolio Management, explores the positive trends that are making a case for holding UK equities.

The August jobs report confirms the labor market's continued slowdown, which is for now consistent with the Fed's soft-landing desires—but not without warning signs.

August saw modest market pullbacks across the board, as investors were nervous about risk.

Factory order numbers had previously been a source of positivity for the U.S. economy. The tough turn for the economy should remind investors of active ETFs’ ability to respond to a market downturn.

Powell’s recent Jackson Hole Summit speech was mainly as expected. Well, except for the part where Powell obfuscated the truth behind the surge in inflation.

Diversifying a portfolio means spreading the investments across a variety of asset classes, industries and geographies.

In the second part of our series on global supply chains, portfolio managers Inbok Song and Peeyush Mittal examine the regions and countries that may benefit from industries and companies shifting operations.

Seven mega-cap US-based companies – Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Nvidia, Tesla, and Meta (Facebook) – have stayed top of mind for many investors this year.

The BRICS’ invitation to six more nations to join their group is an important initiative promoting greater global influence for major EM countries.

Things are not exactly going China’s way these days. One incident after the other has led to a virtual collapse of international investments in China, but that could potentially be the more benign outcome of the ongoing Chinese debt crisis.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been top-of-mind for investors for much of 2023, fueling a strong rally in the S&P 500. While it may take time for AI to have a similar impact on small cap stocks, we share the market’s enthusiasm and believe AI has the potential to become one of the most disruptive secular growth trends ever.

Stocks are up 18.7% year-to-date, which is good news for portfolios and 401(k)s, but did you know that most of the heavy lifting has been done by a very small number of S&P 500 stocks?

Look up the word “cycle” in a dictionary, and you’ll find something like this: “A regularly recurring sequence of events.” Sounds simple, but that definition leaves a lot of ambiguity.

We believe idiosyncratic credit events may occur over the next 12 months, but systemic bank risk is remote.

A steady stream of news helped drain enthusiasm from the equities markets through most of August, snapping a five-month growth streak at a time of the year known for cool market performance despite the swelter of its dog days.

We believe idiosyncratic credit events may occur over the next 12 months, but systemic bank risk is remote.

The Northern Trust Economics team shares its outlook for major markets in the months ahead.

First, let me start with a tweet by Larry Summers, though this chart has been passed around by Andreas Steno Larsen and others.