Jan 5, 2022 Waman Virgaonkar, Hitendra D Varsani

If economic expansion and higher inflation continue in 2022, interest rates could rise around the world. As investors re-evaluate equity portfolios, we look at factor-index performance in different U.S. interest-rate and yield-curve regimes.

Sept 21, 2021 Fritz Louw

COVID-19 has weighed heavily on the financial positions of companies that hold leases for commercial real estate. Property investors can track the covenant quality of their tenants and translate it into a probability of default over the length of the lease.

July 27, 2021 Chenlu Zhou, Shuyin Hua

Short-term credit spreads widened to a greater extent than long-term spreads during the March 2020 COVID-19 crisis. As a result, many U.S. corporate-issuer spread curves flattened or even inverted. What were the implications for corporate-bond investors?

Mar 31, 2021 Waman Virgaonkar, Hitendra Varsani

After 18 years of challenging performance, many have asked if value is still a valid investment strategy. But the reopening of the global economy following vaccination rollouts has reignited interest across stocks, sectors, countries and regions. 

Feb 17, 2021 Yihai Yu

In 2020, the Federal Reserve’s purchases of mortgage-backed securities, low interest rates, mortgage-underwriting policy changes and technology advancements led to a historic refinance frenzy and posed an unprecedented challenge for MBS risk management.

Feb 8, 2021 Michael Hayes, Zach Tokura

An issuer’s credit spread should be consistent when measured in the USD- or EUR-denominated markets, because both are measuring the same credit risk. Yet divergence can occur as a result of liquidity or supply-demand imbalances, such as those in the COVID crisis.

Jan 13, 2021 Andrew DeMond, Manuel Rueda

Factors have long had a place in constructing equity portfolios, but investors increasingly use factors in sovereign and corporate bonds, commodities and currencies. Which non-equity factors have been the best performers coming out of recent crises, and why?

Jan 12, 2021 Will Robson

COVID-19 has caused a severe and rapid economic contraction and accelerated secular changes already hitting parts of the real estate markets. Investors face a fundamental question: How will real estate evolve as a sector and asset class? Here are our 2021 real estate trends to watch.

Dec 17, 2020 Stuart Doole, Kumar Neeraj, Vishad Bhalodia

We show how MSCI Thematic Exposure relevance scores helped position growth funds, as an example, alongside thematic funds, and highlighted key megatrends that drove performance. A thematic lens can help analyze other categories and strategies as well.

As 2020 comes to a close, we check in with head of research and product development, Peter Zangari. We look at changes the pandemic brought to the industry, the issues investors still face — and how the need to innovate in challenging times inspired his team as they looked to new techniques to produce insights to help investors manage through.

Dec 16, 2020 Manuel Rueda and Gaurav Trivedi

Telehealth has the potential to reduce inequalities in access to care as well as relieve strain on health systems. We tested an approach that combines natural-language processing and MSCI ESG Ratings screens.

Dec 9, 2020 Guido Giese, Navneet Kumar, Zoltán Nagy

Inflows into ESG funds have soared in recent years and months, in part motivated by outperformance since the COVID-19 pandemic erupted. But have these inflows become a self-fulfilling prophecy, creating an ESG bubble?

Dec 8, 2020 Yang Liu, Sheng Yao

Private-infrastructure investments are often treated as comparable to relatively safe long-duration bonds with attractive yields, but this approach can mislead investors as they evaluate risk, yield and portfolio hedges.

Dec 7 , 2020 Linda-Eling Lee, Meggin Thwing Eastman, Arne Philipp Klug

Climate. ESG bubbles. Disclosure. Social inequality. Biodiversity. The topics don’t get much bigger — or more systemic. Here’s our analysis of the five ESG trends that will matter most to companies and their investors in 2021.

Nov 24, 2020  Fritz Louw

With new COVID-19 lockdowns and swaths of white-collar workers working from home, many office tenants are contemplating whether the future of work includes office space. This could have significant impact on office demand and income from leases.

Nov 23, 2020  Zoltan Fekete, Reka Janosik​​​​​​​

Since the global financial crisis, many have expressed concern about the health and future of credit-default swaps. Could institutional investors find the liquidity they need to hedge credit risk in subsequent periods? We examine CDS liquidity during the COVID-19 crisis.

Nov 19, 2020  Monika Szikszai, Thomas Verbraken

Will inflation rear its ugly head in the U.S.? Although the outcome of the U.S. elections might have lowered inflation expectations, investors can prepare for scenarios where inflation goes up. In this stress test, we examine three scenarios for inflation over varying time horizons.

Nov 18, 2020  Dimitris Melas, David Lunsford, Andy Sparks

To gauge investor expectations after Joe Biden was declared winner of the U.S. election and good news broke about COVID vaccines, we surveyed 151 U.S.-based financial advisers. We examine the advisers’ views on the next 12 months and markets’ reaction since Election Day.

Nov 17,, 2020  Roman Kouzmenko

Good vaccine news on Nov. 9 drove unusual equity-index and factor returns, including in small caps. The MSCI USA Small Cap Index returned 3.03% that day vs. 0.82% for the MSCI USA Index. Was this due to the size factor, or was there a bigger story?

Oct 27, 2020 Will Robson, Niel Harmse

Infrastructure investments have not been spared the effects of the pandemic. A closer look across investment types, subsectors and risk levels over time may provide useful perspective as private-capital firms and their investors manage through.

Oct 19, 2020  Chenlu Zhou

Property investors turned to global gateway cities to diversify portfolios and generate capital growth in the years since the 2008 global financial crisis. We assess whether COVID-19 could jeopardize the relative dominance of these power cities.

Oct 13, 2020  Niel Harmse

Property investors turned to global gateway cities to diversify portfolios and generate capital growth in the years since the 2008 global financial crisis. We assess whether COVID-19 could jeopardize the relative dominance of these power cities.

Oct 1, 2020  Jakub Malich

Have banks with stronger ESG risk management practices been more financially resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic? We look at the asset quality, profitability and capitalization of banks around the world.

Sep 20, 2020  Hamed Faquiryan, Manuel Rueda

We look at the unusual bankruptcy of Hertz Global Holdings Inc. — whose equity rallied in early June, when holders of Hertz bonds were expecting losses as high as 90% in default — to discuss the importance and subtleties of firms’ capital structures.

Sep 24, 2020  Samantha Sue Ping, Gaurav Trivedi

How good a job are corporations doing in disclosing ESG policies and data to investors and other stakeholders? We took an in-depth look at reporting of health & safety disclosures. Our findings confirmed some common assumptions and upended others.

Sep 16, 2020  László Arany

Was bond liquidity worse during the COVID-19 outbreak or the 2008 global financial crisis? We analyzed transaction costs from the forced selling of USD 10 million of U.S. corporate bonds, throughout the two crises.

Aug 26, 2020  Saurabh Katiyar , Reil Abucay , Chirag Gosar

Institutional investors have typically used traded volume as a way to assess market liquidity. Adding alternative measures that gauge market impact and trading costs can provide a more comprehensive view for portfolio managers and traders.

Aug 19, 2020  Alex Johnson , Simon Minovitsky

When COVID-19 first swept through global equity markets, many factors exhibited unprecedented performance swings. How could institutional investors interpret the industry-momentum factor’s moves in the context of the underlying market dynamics?

When I spoke about a major generational shift, rooted in the embrace of technology that was changing every aspect of life, I clearly didn't go far enough. COVID-19 increased the intensity of these changes – without time for a learning curve. Peter Zangari's latest Forbes column discusses "Does the New COVID-19 Reality Mean We’re All Dinosaurs Now?"

Aug 5, 2020  Reka Janosik , Thomas Verbraken

In times of heightened volatility, risk limits can protect against equity-market drawdowns. While such measures can dampen portfolio losses, they may also have an impact on long-term returns, particularly in case of a sharp V-shaped market recovery.

Jul 29, 2020  Juan Sampieri , Andy Sparks

Investors may employ leverage with lower-risk asset classes such as bonds to seek higher risk and returns. We assessed the effects of leverage on the returns of three hypothetical multi-asset-class portfolios during the COVID-19 crisis.

Jul 20, 2020  Rohit Mendiratta , Hitendra D Varsani

COVID-19 has had a profound impact on how companies manage cash flows and liquidity. Bond investors face the possibility of increased leverage, rating downgrades and defaults. Can factors and ESG metrics shed light on these risks?

Dec 9, 2020 Guido Giese, Navneet Kumar, Zoltán Nagy

Inflows into ESG funds have soared in recent years and months, in part motivated by outperformance since the COVID-19 pandemic erupted. But have these inflows become a self-fulfilling prophecy, creating an ESG bubble?