While the U.S. stock market has been pricing in a “soft-landing” scenario for the economy, a blowout January jobs report, relatively strong corporate earnings, and Federal Reserve Jerome Powell’s comments during the past week could point to the possibility of “no landing,” where the economy is resilient while inflation stays target. Such a scenario
Investors yanked a record $13 billion from U.S. sustainable funds in 2023, stung by mediocre performance and the continuing backlash against environmental, social, and governance investing. Last year was the worst calendar year for outflows since Morningstar started keeping track more than a decade ago. Steep outflows from one passive iShares ESG fund accounted for
Google-parent Alphabet is set to cut more jobs in order to make space for investment in artificial intelligence. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said some teams would need to eliminate roles in order to “create the capacity” for investment in promising areas such as artificial-intelligence, CNBC reported, citing an internal memo. That could be… Google-parent Alphabet
Published: Jan. 16, 2024 at 6:22 p.m. ET Walt Disney Co.’s board on Tuesday nominated a slate of 12 directors that notably left out activist investors from Trian Fund Management (Nelson Peltz, James Rasulo) and Blackwells Group (Craig Hatkoff, Jessica Schell, Leah Solivan), both of which have been highly critical of Disney Chief Executive Robert
Apple Inc. has long been the most valuable U.S. company, but Microsoft Corp. seems poised to overtake it. A look back at the companies’ financial performance and a look ahead at expected revenue and profits make the case that Apple is no longer a growth stock and that Microsoft is the better long-term investment. Late
Optimism over artificial intelligence powered the stock market in 2023. It also helped some sustainable funds turn in a surprisingly strong performance. Based on data from Morningstar Direct, the top five sustainable U.S. equity mutual funds in Barron’s annual survey outperformed the S&P 500 index, returning an average 35% against a gain of 26%, including
Stock-market investors fear a megacap meltdown. Here’s what history says.
Investors spent 2023 fretting about the sustainability of a stock-market rally largely driven by a handful of megacap tech stocks. Those worries remain in place as the S&P 500 has returned to record territory in the new year. “With the usual set of select megacap stocks pacing early 2024 performance, concentration-risk worries have been getting