Tag Archives: Anu Ganti
Cashing in the Chips?
The rally in U.S. equities continued in May, with the S&P 500® posting 11 all-time closing highs during the month. A key catalyst for the market’s upward march has been optimism surrounding companies benefiting from the boom in AI. The beneficiaries of the investment in AI are no longer just the mega-cap hyperscalers, but the…
- Categories Equities, S&P 500 & DJIA
- Other Tags
Measuring the Managers
The measurement of active manager performance versus benchmarks is not new. The earliest study dates back to more than 90 years ago, when Alfred Cowles found that “statistical tests of the best individual records failed to demonstrate that they exhibited skill, and indicated that they more probably were results of chance.”1 Forty years later, by…
- Categories S&P 500 & DJIA
- Other Tags
- Categories
- S&P 500 & DJIA
- Other Tags
Return of the Macro: Declining Dispersion and Climbing Correlations
As we approach the end of the first quarter, the S&P 500® is down 3% QTD, and underneath the surface, there have been significant crosscurrents at play. Concerns about the impact of AI on software companies have been prevalent, with the S&P Software & Services Select Industry Index down 20% QTD, while chipmakers have remained…
- Categories Equities
- Other Tags
- Categories
- Equities
- Other Tags
Tech Tantrums
The past week has been turbulent for Big Tech, with disappointing reactions to earnings from Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet, while Apple and Meta emerged relatively unscathed after announcing their results. Concerns about growing capital expenditures on AI1 among these giants have led to renewed bubble fears among market participants. In an environment characterized by such…
- Categories Equities
- Other Tags
2026 Is the Year of the Stock Picker?
Recent market commentary has declared that 2025 was a brutal year for stock picking, with USD 1 trillion pulled out of active equity mutual funds during the year, according to the Investment Company Institute. The year was characterized by sharp double-digit swings for the S&P 500®, and in such environments filled with bouts of volatility,…
- Categories Equities, S&P 500 & DJIA
- Other Tags
- Categories
- Equities, S&P 500 & DJIA
- Other Tags
Cautioning the Clairvoyant
December is typically when we hear Wall Street strategists announce their forecasts for the S&P 500® for the year ahead, and this year has been no exception: 2026 forecasts have ranged from a relatively bearish 7,100 from Bank of America to a bullish 8,000 from Deutsche Bank. But how accurate have these forecasts been in…
- Categories Equities, S&P 500 & DJIA
- Other Tags
- Categories
- Equities, S&P 500 & DJIA
- Other Tags
Animal Spirits or Anxiety?
Big Tech and the strength of the Magnificent 7 stocks have powered the S&P 500® to 36 all-time closing highs through the end of October. Amid the euphoria, nervousness about the AI boom1 has sent jitters through the market, most recently with SoftBank’s sale of its stake in Nvidia. The extreme level of mega-cap dominance…
- Categories Equities, S&P 500 & DJIA
- Other Tags
Diversification across Durations
The S&P 500® surged to a third all-time closing high on Oct. 28, 2025, up 18% YTD. But the ride for U.S. equity investors has not always been a smooth one, with the index recouping sharp losses from earlier in the month on renewed tariff-related concerns and regional bank losses, coupled with AI bubble1 jitters…
- Categories Equities, Fixed Income
- Other Tags
- Categories
- Equities, Fixed Income
- Other Tags
Skewing Success
The results from our SPIVA® U.S. Mid-Year 2025 Scorecard demonstrate a relatively better start to the year for active managers, with 54% of U.S. large-cap funds underperforming the S&P 500®, slightly better than the 65% reported in 2024. However, Exhibit 1 shows that over the more than 24-year history of our SPIVA U.S. Scorecard, majority…
- Categories Equities, S&P 500 & DJIA
- Other Tags
Indicization Nation
To indicize means to provide, in passive form, a strategy formerly available only via active management. Until the early 1970s, there were no index funds; all assets were managed actively. The shift of assets from active to passive management is one of the most important trends in modern financial history. Our recent Annual Survey of…
- Categories Equities, S&P 500 & DJIA
- Other Tags