César Pérez Ruiz, Chief Investment Officer Pictet Wealth Management. Seeking guidance Last week saw a softer-than-expected US consumer price index reading that gave stocks and bonds a boost on hopes the Federal Reserve will soon end its interest rate hikes. The dollar slumped. Headline CPI…

Enrique Diaz Alvarez, Chief Financial Risk Officer, Ebury. The significant positive surprise in US June inflation numbers set financial markets roaring higher on expectations that the Federal Reserve is very close to the end of hikes. US rates dropped sharply, jokes beyond July were priced…

It might seem a harsh economic environment for lenders. But not for those providing direct loans - less competition from the banking sector, the ability to select from companies with strong balance sheets and high yields make this an ideal entry point. Andreas Klein, Head…

Flavours, fragrances, ingredients, extracts and odours.... of chemical or natural origin, which are widely used in the food and beauty sectors, represent a global market worth around €40 billion and are likely to grow at an average rate of 4% a year over the next…

Tight spreads mean we continue to prefer investment-grade equivalents. Lauréline Renaud-Chatelain, Fixed-income strategist, Pictet Wealth Management. US and euro high-yield (HY) corporate bonds have been extremely resilient in the face of this year’s rise in interest rates. Both thanks to lower effective duration and much…

Since the beginning of the year, we have seen an increasing divergence between the optimism of the equity markets and the warnings coming from the fixed income segment. Equity markets are rising, corporate earnings have been very resilient, and, at the same time, yield curves…

Businesses and investors are stepping up efforts to measure how corporate activity affects the health of the biosphere, and in turn, ​ how biodiversity loss impacts their own financial prospects. Gabriel Micheli, Senior Investment Manager & Viktoras Kulionis, Investment Manager and Senior Environmental Economist Pictet…

Long a pioneer, alongside the USA, in artificial intelligence (AI), China seems to have fallen behind in the second instance, that of Generative AI. ODDO BHF AM would like to devote this Fund Insight to the strengths and weaknesses of China's Generative AI model; distinguishing…

We expect central banks to terminate their rate-hiking campaigns in the coming months, but they may continue to sound hawkish. Frederik Ducrozet, Head of Macroeconomic Research Pictet Wealth Management. In order to push back against a resurgence of rate cuts expectations, central bankers may have…

This month’s Editorial by Olivier de Berranger, Deputy Chief Executive Officer and CIO, La Financière de l’Echiquier. The resilience of the global economy, and particularly that of the G7 countries other than the United Kingdom, was surprising throughout the first half of 2023. 2022 was…