Mid-Year Investment Outlook 2026
Enough fuel in the engine
Explore our Mid-Year Outlook to get our latest insights on the global economy and the prospects for global markets, including the main opportunities and risks for investors.
The ECB raised interest rates by 25bps in June, its first hike since 2023, as inflation risks rose and growth outlooks softened. President Lagarde signalled this is unlikely to be a one-off move, with markets looking to September for the next decision.
Geopolitics is reshaping macro and monetary policy after the Strait of Hormuz closure triggered an energy-led inflation shock, keeping central banks higher for longer and highlighting liquidity discipline and yield opportunities.
Central banks face a dilemma as the Middle East conflict and closure of the Strait of Hormuz drive oil prices higher and supply lower, fueling inflation and threatening growth.
The Reserve Bank of Australia delivered three consecutive rate hikes, reaffirming its commitment to price stability. Its hawkish stance is expected to persist.
As financial markets evolve, tokenization is emerging as a transformative force, promising greater efficiency, transparency, and flexibility.
Even with a new Chair, policy is set by the FOMC, so any evolution in rates, communications, or the balance sheet would require consensus and likely be phased in over time.
The MAS pivoted to a more hawkish stance at its April policy meeting, increasing the S$NEER appreciation rate to counter rising imported inflation driven by energy shocks and global supply disruptions.
U.S. money market funds are poised for growth in 2026, with only modest Fed action expected and no drastic changes in policy or rates. Investors still have opportunities to add duration and seek enhance returns through careful credit selection.
APAC central banks entered 2026 split on the future direction of interest rates as disinflation fades and local growth remains robust. De-dollarization and regulatory convergence deepen local liquidity and anchor yields.
Asia’s credit markets began 2026 on a positive note, supported by solid fundamentals and strong technical driven by investor demand and new issue supply, but the recent geopolitical risk may dampen the picture.
Tokenized money market funds modernize corporate treasury by seeking to pair traditional MMF stability with blockchain enabled speed, transparency, and 24/7 access. Benefits include faster settlement, improved collateral efficiency, real-time visibility, and strategic optionality, with practical considerations around regulation, integration, skills, security, and market depth.
Explore how the Federal Reserve held the federal funds target range at 3.50% to 3.75% for a second consecutive meeting, citing elevated uncertainty tied to Middle East developments.
Greater capacity pressures, stronger private demand, a tight labour market and Middle East energy risks drove the RBA to hike. Despite a split vote and data dependence, the central bank’s commentary stayed hawkish.
Explore how 2026 policy divergence, geopolitics, and de‑dollarisation are reshaping global liquidity. Discover risks, opportunities, and strategies, active duration, diversification, and cash segmentation, across the US, Europe, the UK, and APAC.
RBA’s decision to hike restores its credibility and reflects a shift towards a more hawkish stance, given mounting evidence that the economy is running hotter than anticipated.
Supportive monetary policy, ongoing fiscal initiatives, and the conclusion of quantitative tightening should foster favorable liquidity conditions and create opportunities for short-term investors.
Get a concise overview of how tokenization is revolutionizing the financial industry by converting traditional assets into robust, efficient digital tokens. This article highlights the key impacts on money market funds, operational advantages, and the accelerating global adoption of blockchain technology.
Economic growth is expected to moderate. Fiscal support and lower interest rates provide some uplift, but fading external demand may offset it. Inflation is projected to bottom out, then rise slightly before stabilizing. Most APAC central banks are expected to pause or slow rate cuts, with short-term interest rates stabilizing at levels above previous cycles. China and Japan remain outliers; China may ease further while Japan may hike to address inflation.
Highlights include: ECB optimism, resilient euro area growth, and ongoing BoE rate cuts amid UK economic challenges. Learn how policy divergence, political risks, and market trends are shaping investment strategies for euro and sterling investors.
Explore the Bank of England’s recent rate cut, shifting inflation outlook, and evolving monetary policy. Learn how economic trends and policy decisions impact GBP cash investors, with insights on market expectations, fund strategies, and future rate movements.
Recently, Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan argued that the FOMC should modernize its target policy rate by selecting a new benchmark that more accurately reflects the marginal cost of funds for borrowers.
Delve into a comprehensive analysis of how digital assets and tokenized money market funds (MMFs) are reshaping the financial landscape. This whitepaper provides an in-depth exploration of the latest innovations, practical benefits, regulatory developments, and emerging trends in liquidity management for the digital era.
The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) is likely to maintain an accommodative stance, although further rate cuts are unlikely as stability and liquidity take precedence.
We asked Teresa Ho, Head of US Short Duration Strategy at JPMorgan, and Robert Motroni, Portfolio Manager, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, to walk us through the Federal Reserve (Fed)’s decision to cut interest rates in September, what they think the central bank might do next and how it all impacts short-term bonds and money market funds.
Explore how diverging central bank policies, trade tensions, and de dollarisation trends are shaping global liquidity markets in 2025. Discover key risks, opportunities, and strategies for investors seeking to navigate volatility and capitalise on elevated front-end yields across Europe, the UK, and Asia Pacific.
Explore the Cash Cookbook, your essential guide seeking to craft the perfect recipe for cash and liquidity management success. This guide will help you choose the best liquidity solution to meet your organisation's liquidity needs and risk tolerance, while adapting to current market conditions.
The Reserve Bank of Australia reduced the cash rate target by 25 basis points to 3.60%, citing continued moderation in inflation and further easing of the labour market. Despite growth and inflation aligning with forecasts, the RBA noted that global economic uncertainty and trade policies pose risks to Australia's outlook.
Explore the Bank of England's recent decision to cut the bank rate by 25 basis points to 4%, with insights into the unexpected voting dynamics and implications for GBP cash investors. Understand the economic context, inflation projections, and strategic opportunities amidst market uncertainty and volatility.
As we pass the midpoint of 2025, the US economy is navigating a complex landscape marked by fiscal policy changes, geopolitical tensions, and evolving monetary policy. The Federal Reserve's anticipated rate cuts, coupled with the recent debt ceiling resolution, present both challenges and opportunities for money market fund investors. This brief 2H25 outlook explores the implications of these developments and offers strategic insights for cash investors seeking to navigate the current environment.
Explore the Global Liquidity EMEA Mid-Year Investment Outlook, analysing the implications of the diverging paths taken by the ECB and BoE. Discover how these central bank policies are shaping distinct market outlooks for the euro and UK, and uncover strategic opportunities for cash investors amidst geopolitical tensions and fiscal policy shifts
Since World War II, the U.S. debt ceiling has been adjusted—either raised or suspended—more than a hundred times, with the Treasury never having depleted its cash reserves and borrowing capacity before Congressional intervention. We remain confident that the debt limit will be increased in a timely manner.
Explore the European Central Bank's recent decision to cut key policy rates by 25 basis points and its implications for inflation forecasts, market reactions, and fund positioning. Understand the ECB's strategic outlook amid trade uncertainties and discover how euro cash investors can navigate the evolving monetary landscape.
Explore the Bank of England's cautious approach following a split MPC decision to reduce the Bank Rate to 4.25%. Understand the implications for GBP cash investors amid economic uncertainty, disinflation progress, and revised growth and inflation forecasts.
The new Fed chair Kevin Warsh, like Kevin McCallister in Home Alone, faces a lonely vigil: survive until the adults get home again. The latest on inflation, rising Treasury yields, shrinking equity risk premia and pressure from the White House. Also: investing in China’s home-grown AI ecosystem, and the predation in prediction markets.
Despite improving US leading indicators and economic/stock market resilience, GOP House members are abandoning ship at a record pace.
Misanthropic: on Mythos, bad human behaviors and systems vulnerabilities. Anthropic describes Mythos as both its best aligned model to date while also conceding that Mythos likely poses the greatest alignment-related risk of any model they have created to date.
Salem’s Lot: an update on the Gulf War. Topics include international commodity price pass-throughs to the US, the limits of energy independence, Gulf temperatures and their relevance to US military options, the proposed Iranian toll on the Strait of Hormuz, the cost per payload of asymmetric warfare and our commodity price tracker.
The last 48 hours have seen an escalation in attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure.
This year we tackle the fiercest energy debates— from data centers and power prices to the “primary energy” fallacy and more.
New York City now has one of the tightest housing markets since 1960.
A few comments and exhibits on Venezuela, oil, geopolitics and drug trafficking
In this year’s EOTM Outlook by Michael Cembalest, we focus on four risks: US power generation constraints, China on its own, Taiwan and hyperscaler profits.
On the surface not much has changed since our last review two years ago.
While the prior decade was defined by disruption in content distribution, the next decade will be defined by disruption in content creation, augmented by generative AI.
This piece is not about how mad liberals are at the administration, although the latest polling data indicates that it could be.
In this piece, we look at the AI and data center takeover, and the OpenAI-Oracle deal; the US government equity investments in Intel and MP Materials,...
Fair Shakes: assessing US earnings and economic trends during one of the broadest policy shifts since FDR
Deregulation, deportations, tariffs, tax cuts, cost cutting, crypto, oil & gas, medical freedom and Agency purges: What could possibly go wrong? Sections include the AI Golden Goose, the invisible nuclear renaissance, DOGE Quixote, the two China traps, Dr. Seuss goes to Europe, a crypto update and the 2025 Top Ten list.
For three decades until 2020, US healthcare stocks generated roughly the same returns as the tech sector, and with much less volatility.
Every summer, I answer questions from the Eye on the Market client mailbag.
Throughout history, non-FDIC insured short-term dollar denominated debt redeemable at par on demand has been prone to runs, whether in money market funds, repos or uninsured deposits.
A brief note on the debt and deficit impacts of the House budget reconciliation bill, Henery Hawk and Foghorn Leghorn.
With some kind of tariff equilibrium possibly within reach, we return to some regularly scheduled programming: artificial intelligence and language models which were the primary drivers of equity markets before the trade wars began.
Like his predecessor Robespierre during the French Revolution, Dogespierre (Elon Musk) also brought down the proverbial guillotine, focused this time around on government spending with indiscriminate cuts to Federal employment, contracts, leases and grants.
Join Michael Cembalest as he explores a wide variety of investment topics, including the economy, policy and markets.
While the markets may have forced the President’s hand to change tack on tariffs, the revised announcement still entails the highest tariff rates in 100 years, subject to some necessary assumptions regarding what happens to $460 bn of US imports from China.
Straight talk from the CEO front lines on Liberation Day. Almost all the news on tariffs and declining CEO business confidence that’s fit to print, with only a few minor redactions.
Here’s the interesting thing about the stock market: it cannot be indicted, arrested or deported; it cannot be intimidated, threatened or bullied; it has no gender, ethnicity or religion; it cannot be fired, furloughed or defunded; it cannot be primaried before the next midterm elections; and it cannot be seized, nationalized or invaded.
Solar capacity is booming around the world, both utility scale and residential applications, and is often accompanied by energy storage whose costs are declining as well. Yet after $9 trillion globally over the last decade spent on wind, solar, electric vehicles, energy storage, electrified heat and power grids, the renewable transition is still a linear one; the renewable share of final energy consumption is slowly advancing at 0.3%-0.6% per year. Our 15th annual energy paper covers the speed of the transition, electrification, the changing planet, the high cost of decarbonization in Europe, nuclear power, the Los Angeles fires, Trump 2.0 energy policies, renewable aviation fuels, superconductivity, methane tracking and the continually wilting prospects for the hydrogen economy.
From Here to Eternity: tracking Trump’s economic, market and constitutional milestones. Whether you’re elated or despondent about the blizzard of changes taking place in Washington, let me remind you of something: two years is an eternity in US politics. In this month’s note, we include a Trump policy impact tracker, and an assessment of the statutory and constitutional challenges that Trump policies face as the administration explores the outer limits of executive power.
The sincerest form of flattery: on DeepSeek, NVIDIA, OpenAI and the futility of US chip bans. The DeepSeek episode can be two things at once: (i) a reflection of impressive Chinese AI innovation in the face of US chip bans and other restrictions, and (ii) the by-product of probable terms of service and copyright violations by DeepSeek against OpenAI. A Shakesperean irony: OpenAI may have had its terms of service violated after spending years training their own models on other people’s data. Warning: this piece is very geeky.
Trump 2.0 is a hodgepodge of distinctly American political strains: the bare-knuckled nationalism and anti-elitism of Andrew Jackson, the tariff-loving protectionism of William McKinley, the small-government/pro-business policies of Calvin Coolidge, the unforgiving enemies lists of Richard Nixon, the deportation policies of Dwight Eisenhower, the manifest destiny of James Polk and the isolationism of 1914-era Woodrow Wilson. American First policies announced yesterday create risks for investors since its supply side benefits collide with its inflationary tendencies; there’s not a lot of room for error at a time of elevated US equity multiples.
I was visited by six ghosts recently warning me of dangers related to predictions, allocations, apparitions, legalizations, expurgations and ablations. Here’s what they said.
A reflection on the 2024 election and who tells your story. On Trump’s victory: market implications of a supply side boost from deregulation clashing against inflationary impulses of tariffs and deportations. The ten year Treasury will be the most reliable barometer of all. To conclude, an ode to vaccines and an RFK bibliography.
For participants in the China equity rebound trade: once you hit your return targets, take the money and run.
The US is about to conduct its most polarized Presidential election in 100 years.
NVIDIA and its GPU customers are now a large driver of equity market returns, earnings growth, earnings revisions, industrial production and capital spending.
A surge in the Japanese Yen is resulting in home repatriation of Yen-funded positions overseas, and close-out of Yen-funded positions abroad. While Google was found guilty of home bias anti-competitive search engine behavior, any judicial remedies could be as bad for recipients of Google’s shelf space payments as they are for Google itself. Work-from-home trends have plateaued at ~30%, which has important implications for owners of impaired office buildings. Most distressed sales now require discounts of 60%+ vs pre-COVID levels; the fundamentals of the office sector explain why.
From 1930 to 2010, there were six extended periods of small cap outperformance as it dominated large cap over that entire period. But since 2010, small cap sits alongside value stocks and non-US stocks in the unholy trinity of underperforming portfolio strategies. While poor profit fundamentals argue against a prolonged period of outperformance vs large cap, small cap stocks are at their cheapest levels in the 21st century with potential market and political catalysts in their favor. First, a few words on the CrowdStrike outage.
US small cap stocks were the lions of the 20th century, generating substantial returns over large cap stocks during six different extended periods of time. It has been 20 years since the last one due to a combination of poor small cap profit fundamentals, higher exposure to rising interest rates and the pricing power accruing to the largest stocks in a winner-take-all economy. Small cap has joined value stocks and non-US stocks in the trinity of severely underperforming asset allocation strategies. Relative to large cap, small cap stocks are now at their cheapest levels in the 21st century. While poor fundamentals argue against a seventh multi-year small cap outperformance regime, small cap is much closer to fair value for diversified portfolio investors.
Recent Supreme Court rulings may now usher in the largest pushback on the regulatory state since the Reagan Administration. A look at the end of Chevron deference, a revised statute of limitations for challenging government regulations, the Major Questions Doctrine, the right to a jury trial and a District Court injunction against Biden’s LNG export moratorium.
US Presidential elections: a brief primer on candidate replacement; Supreme Court decisions. As part of our ongoing coverage in the Eye on the Market of issues related to the US political process (third party candidates, the 11th and 12th amendments, the Electoral Count Reform Act, faithless electors, the No Labels movement, etc), I want to share a brief description of what we understand regarding candidate replacement procedures after the last Presidential primary and before the general election in November.
Investing in professional sports leagues and related businesses. As rules around private equity ownership of sports leagues expand, we review team valuations and profitability, emerging sports categories, streaming and broadcast revenues, the decline of regional sports networks, drivers and comparisons of league parity, relegation and financial pressures in the English Premier League, stadium subsidies, sports betting and other adjacent businesses, antitrust issues, the esports winter, the worst teams that money can buy and the best basketball players of all time.
With spring planting season having arrived in Zone 7, it’s a good time to review agriculture from an investor’s perspective. Topics include agricultural price inflation in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; public and private equity investments in agriculture, farmland ownership and the drivers of farmland returns; seed bio-engineering designed to reduce consumption of fertilizer, fungicide and water; and some satellite data on the immense agricultural damage occurring in Gaza and Israel. The Appendix addresses the avian flu’s impact on agriculture and the food supply.
Cicadian Rhythms: the fading prospects of a US disinflationary boom; Japan’s structural reform/M&A emergence; and Eye on the Market mailbag responses to questions on Tesla/Musk, GLPs, housing, China, Truth Social and Meta’s latest open source model
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: on tech valuations, AI, energy and US politics Last week I spoke to the firm’s tech CEO clients at a conference in Montana. This note is a partial summary of that presentation, entitled “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: an investor lens on tech valuations, AI, energy and the US Presidential Election”.
Electravision. The predominant vision for the future involves the electrification of everything, powered by solar, wind, transmission and distributed energy storage. This vision primarily relies upon the greater efficiency of electric motors and heat pumps vs their fossil fuel counterparts. While the grid is getting greener, electrification is advancing at a much slower pace for reasons related to chemistry, physics, cost, politics and human behavior. Our 14th annual energy paper takes a closer look, and also includes sections on nuclear power, China, hydrogen, “net zero oil” and Gaza’s energy future.
Five Easy Pieces: on Magnificent 7 stocks, open source large language models, the No Labels movement, the Armageddonists and bottom-fishing in Chinese equities.
This Eye on the Market is about all the things that can be true at the same time. The collapse of the political middle in Congress should not be an excuse for everyone else to abandon the ability to believe things that may appear contradictory, but which are all part of a more complicated reality.
Falling US inflation and possible Fed easing are increasing talk of a soft landing rather than a hard landing and bear market. Our 2024 Outlook takes a closer look at equities, fixed income, China, Japan, antitrust, weight loss drugs and ten surprises for 2024.
A review on industry returns in private equity, venture capital, hedge funds, commercial real estate, infrastructure and private credit
Six questions and answers on the intersection between geopolitics, US politics and financial markets
A comparison of NYC to 21 other US cities with respect to urban recovery, commercial real estate, mass transit, crime, outmigration, work-from-home trends, tax rates, economic pulse, fiscal health, unfunded pensions, energy prices, industry diversification and competitiveness.
I asked Chat GPT-4 questions on economics, markets, energy and politics that my analysts and I worked on over the last two years. This piece reviews the results, along with the latest achievements and stumbles of generative AI models in the real world, and comments on the changing relationship between innovation, productivity and employment. The bottom line: a large language model can process reams of text very efficiently, and that’s what it’s made for. But it cannot think or reason; it’s just something I paid for. Upfront, a few comments on oil prices.
Global Resilience to higher rates
The impact of underperforming 2020 and 2021 US IPOs
Comments on mega-cap stocks and artificial intelligence. Then, it’s time for some of my unsolicited letters to Barron’s, MSNBC, “No Labels”, FHFA and more.
Time to retire the US/Emerging Markets barbell for a while
Oh, The Places We Could Go: on the US dollar, reserve currencies and the South China Morning Post
Frankenstein’s Monster: banking system deposits and the unintended fallout from the Fed’s monetary experiment; commercial real estate, regional banks and the COVID occupancy shock; the wipeout of Credit Suisse contingent convertible securities; a market and economic update; and an update on San Francisco, which has experienced the weakest post-COVID recovery of any major city in North America.
Renewables are growing but don’t always behave the way you want them to.
One of these things is not like the other, and that thing is Silicon Valley Bank.
US economy stays warm, large language model battles get hot
The Federal debt and how the Visigoths may try to break the system if no one fixes it.
The End of the Affair. The affair with market catalysts of the last decade is over now, and a new era of investing begins. A look at a world of higher inflation, more regionalized trade and investment and more capital scarcity.
A discussion of the YUCs, the MUCs, FTX and three rules for investors: the Gensler Rule, the Sirens Rule and the Summers Rule. Our 2023 Outlook will be released as usual on January 1st.
A preliminary read on midterm election results given the context of prevailing market and economic conditions.
My list of things I am thankful for this year: CH4, HR4346 and mRNA-1273. Of course, your mileage may vary.
Three reruns for investors. First, in almost every post-war bear market, equity declines preceded the fall in earnings, growth and employment. As a result, we’re more focused on changes in manufacturing surveys than on the other victims of a recession as a sign of the bottom. Second, Graham Allison’s rising power conflict analysis and its historical precedents come back into focus with the latest US policies cutting off high performance semiconductor exports to China. Third, another press article on a small country as a prototype for a renewable future that does not address its irrelevance for larger developed or developing economies.
Three topics this week: the repricing of risky credit, labor markets and a COVID recap. While equities are pricing in a much greater probability of recession now, the credit markets are just getting started. One canary in the coal mine: the Citrix financing, which will be followed by a string of even weaker credits. On labor markets, the Fed is facing the tightest labor supply conditions in decades. Can second chance policies easing the path to employment for people with criminal arrest records help increase the labor supply, or will the Fed have to crush the economy to restore desired levels of wage and price inflation? Lastly, an update on bivalent vaccines and inhalable vaccines, as the latter offers the best chance of actually reducing infection and transmission.
Three topics in this month’s Eye on the Market. First, an update on the Fed, inflation and corporate profits since we believe the June equity market lows may be retested in the fall. Second, a detailed look at what would have to happen for the climate bill’s projected GHG savings to actually occur; the answer matters given the implications for the US natural gas industry. And finally, will all the new IRS agents really stick to auditing taxpayers above $400k? Data from the GAO suggests there may not be enough of them to meet the Administration’s revenue targets.
The global supply chain mess will require increased vaccination and acquired immunity, semiconductor capacity expansion and the end of extraordinary housing/labor supports to resolve. A close look at some very anomalous charts on shipping, semiconductors, inventories, labor shortages, foreclosures and mortality.
Greetings students. We look forward to seeing you back on campus. Your Fall 2021 syllabus is attached. Syllabus update: Biology BI66 “The Origins of COVID” has been cancelled until further notice.
Red Med Redemption: A visual depiction of politics, ideology, vaccine resistance and the Delta variant. Other topics: US economic recovery update, and big tech reliance on acquisitions to fuel growth at a time of rising anti-trust enforcement. We conclude with a new “Investor Odds & Ends” section that covers NYC hotel/office markets and possible changes in personal, corporate and international tax rates.
COVID and the Delta variant; the Fed as firefighter and arsonist; US-China economic divorce picks up steam; and the pig-snake inflation timetable (how long until we know if there’s a permanent wage/price rise).
Every two years, we take a close look at the performance of the private equity industry given its rising share of institutional and individual portfolios. Our findings this year: the private equity industry is still outperforming public equity, but this outperformance narrowed as all markets benefit from non-stop monetary and fiscal stimulus, and as private equity acquisition multiples rise. We examine manager dispersion, benchmarks, co-investing, GP-led secondary funds, the torrid pace of industry fundraising and manager fees in this year’s piece.
The election as referendum on America: how well does the “system” work, and for whom?
Assess the investment implications of the Iran conflict, and explore the potential economic and market impact under different scenarios, with the latest analysis from J.P. Morgan’s Market Insights team.
Discover the risks of passive investing in today’s shifting economic and political tides, and how they influence portfolio returns.
Explore the drivers behind the recent rise in gold, the outlook for gold prices, and the role that gold can play in a diversified investment portfolio.
Explore how investing in quality stocks can build resilient portfolios, offering stability and outperformance in uncertain market conditions.
Uncover the factors influencing the future path of the US dollar and what they mean for investors.
Uncover how AI megacaps are tackling innovation, business shifts, and future chip demand in a changing landscape.
Is cash really king in today's volatile market? Discover why a diversified portfolio might be a smarter investment choice.
Understand the drivers of small cap stock valuations and find out why small cap investing could offer attractive opportunities for long-term investors.
Read about the complex issues at the heart of measuring the financial impact of ESG investing.
The leader of the European Central Bank (ECB) has become very familiar with the challenge of ‘threading the needle’ in recent years and the test facing Christine Lagarde today was no different.
