Private Equity

Chris Galipeau discusses high-conviction insights that go beyond media headlines.

Global equity markets moved modestly higher this week as first-quarter earnings season continued to deliver strong results.

Despite these higher costs, a projected 45 million Americans are expected to travel at least 50 miles from home this weekend, setting a new record. Close to 40 million will drive while some 3.7 million will fly.

On May 26, 1896, Charles Dow calculated a simple arithmetic average of 12 industrial stocks and arrived at a closing value of 40.94. Now, exactly 130 years later, that same benchmark has crossed the historic 50,000 threshold.

New AdvizorPro data shows RIAs broadened their ETF lineups in Q1 2026, leaning into real assets, active managers, and defense strategies.

Private markets (private equity, private credit and real estate) have historically delivered an “illiquidity premium”. Institutions and family offices have recognized this illiquidity premium and have historically allocated significant capital to capture it.

Since the post-COVID recovery began, U.S. nonfinancial corporations have generally managed capital conservatively. They have kept credit metrics stable and, in many cases, actively improved them. That discipline was not entirely voluntary: The sharp adjustment in funding costs triggered by the Federal Reserve’s 2022–2023 rate hiking cycle raised the bar for incremental borrowing and pushed management teams toward balance sheet restraint.

In this video, Chuck Carnevale explains why he believes a diversified dividend-growth stock portfolio can be a better long-term strategy for retirees than the traditional 60/40 stock-and-bond allocation. Using a real-world portfolio he created in August 2021, Chuck demonstrates how an all-equity income portfolio can provide both rising income and capital appreciation while helping investors stay ahead of inflation.

During the American cigar craze of the 1990s, a couple of my neighbors purchased humidors and began collecting. The holy grail for them was Cuban Cohibas, banned from import by longstanding U.S. sanctions.

Artificial intelligence (AI) might be the talk of the town these days, but quantum computing is the quiet thunder rumbling in the background. It just got much louder with the U.S. White House commiting to roll out a massive $2 billion funding package distributed across nine quantum computing companies.

For private equity firms, capital flexibility is prized today. Merger-and-acquisition (M&A) activity has cooled, while commodity prices and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven disruption have heated up, creating uncertainty for investors. This makes it more challenging to sell portfolio companies, so private equity firms are holding investments longer. As a result, many firms are turning to net asset value (NAV) loans for capital needs.

Some institutional investors who had grown accustomed to outperforming the broader private equity composites are finding they have not done so consistently in recent years. Their diagnoses of the problem often center on specific decisions or biases they made in their recent manager selection, whereas a likely culprit is a falloff in the persistence of outperformance among private equity managers.

Nvidia is now a textbook fit for quality-focused indexes in ETFs given its strong underlying business fundamentals. The company has become the smartest kid in the quality classroom, scoring exceptionally high on metrics like high return on equity (ROE), strong return on invested capital (ROIC), stable earnings growth, and low balance sheet leverage.

Recently, Matthew Bartolini, global head of research strategists at State Street Investment Management, sat down with VettaFi to discuss where inflation stands, opportunities within portfolio construction, and much more.

Sustainable investing in fixed income has come of age. Against a backdrop of heightened geopolitical tensions, persistent economic and trade uncertainty, sustainable fixed income continued to demonstrate its appeal in 2025.

Emerging markets (EM) are using low-cost renewables to cut fuel imports, stabilize power costs and improve energy security—positioning EM as the growth engine of the energy transition. Countries and companies that leverage their dominance in critical minerals and green technology could pull ahead, creating dispersion in potential outcomes for investors.

While most institutional investors recognize that private equity and public equity share similar economic risks, they often seem to ignore how their aggregate equity portfolio is affected by their substantial allocation to private equity.

In the past year, new models from industry leaders have continued to boost AI’s capabilities. According to various capabilities tests, Anthropic’s Mythos model has leapfrogged other AI models – including in the ability to thwart or support cyberattacks.

Enterprise software is undergoing its most significant reset in a generation. Artificial intelligence (AI) is reallocating value within software—creating clear winners and exposing vulnerabilities in business models that have worked well for the past two decades. We believe investors who treat software as a uniform asset class will make costly mistakes.

Institutional investors have spent years hearing about the promise of artificial intelligence. That phase is giving way to a more practical question: not whether AI can create more scale, but whether that scale can be governed, validated, and translated into better fiduciary decisions. For OCIO providers, AI without discipline is not an advantage.

The consumer is still spending, but with a higher level of caution. Inflation remains a persistent pressure point, particularly for lower- and middle-income households. This has caused the U.S. personal saving rate to fall to 3.6% as of March 2026, leaving significantly less breathing room for discretionary purchases.

LPL Research examines rising inflation risks amid geopolitical tensions, while resilient growth and strong investment support continued expansion.

It’s human nature to allow familiar patterns to guide our decision-making processes. But it’s just as important to recognize when changing conditions warrant a rethink. Return patterns in global equity markets appear to be shifting in ways that should prompt investors to revisit their allocations.

The exchange-traded fund marketplace continues to expand. Now with more than $20 trillion in assets under management ($14 trillion in the U.S., growing at an 18% five-year annualized clip), 2026’s volatility and emerging investment themes have taken the universe to new heights.

Although a lot has changed since our last quarterly, its central theme – dispersion – feels like it’s only become more pronounced. We wrote last time that ‘‘we believe we’re entering a new era of dispersion in the performance of financial assets.’’

Chris Galipeau discusses high-conviction insights that go beyond media headlines.

For shareholders, the upside justifies the gamble. For bondholders, the downside is real and the upside belongs to someone else. That wedge – the classic asset substitution problem – is what credit investors are increasingly pricing, and until the re-leveraging impulse shows signs of reaching a plateau, the divergence across the capital structure is likely here to stay.

Emerging market debt is compelling as a medium‑term structural allocation, particularly for investors seeking to diversify away from concentrated U.S. exposures.

Tax-equivalent yields on high-quality munis are hitting 7% to 9%. Discover how WisdomTree ETFs, WTMU and WTMY, exploit the steep yield curve.

As inflation lingers and market dynamics shift, advisors are rethinking the 60/40 portfolio with managed futures and options income ETFs.

I’ve long been a student of game theory, the branch of mathematics that studies how rational actors make decisions when their outcomes depend on what everyone else does. It’s a helpful framework for understanding markets and geopolitics, and right now, there’s no better place to apply it than Taiwan.

The summit in Beijing between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered little in the way of diplomatic breakthroughs but bears important cross-asset implications.

Vanguard research suggests that one practical answer may lie in pairing traditional target-date funds with a modest allocation to deferred-income annuities (DIAs).

Against this challenging macro backdrop, a stark divergence is expected as major retailers report earnings next week. Discounters are projected to perform well, with Walmart (WMT) expected to outpace Target (TGT) by gaining market share from high-income households trading down for groceries, while Target remains more vulnerable due to its heavier mix of discretionary goods.

The stagflation narrative dominating financial social media isn’t completely wrong. That’s what makes it so dangerous. After more than 30 years of managing client portfolios through actual inflationary cycles, not watching them on YouTube, I’ve learned that the most damaging investment advice isn’t built on outright lies.

First quarter 2026 earnings were stronger than expected and we think that there might be continued strength in the second quarter, unless there is a major macro shift.

AI is surely the zeitgeist at industry conferences across sectors right now. Emerging technology, increased efficiency, and scalability are all talking points. But so too are headcount reductions, reduced tech-sector free cash flow, and growing worries about a 1990s-like bubble.

What were the key takeaways from last month’s numbers? Our corporate bond specialists look back at the market’s performance and provide incisive commentary to help you make sense of what drove the market—and what may be on the horizon for fixed income investors.

High-growth technology stocks still dominate the investment landscape, fueled by the promise of AI. But recent signs of a broadening market are revealing that more industries beyond just tech are positioned to benefit. We think large-cap value stocks are well-poised for this shift, especially since AI can be both a disruptive and driving force in today’s dynamic market.

Semiconductors and software have largely overshadowed the electrification ETF trade. Paul Baiocchi, head of fund sales and strategy at SS&C ALPS Advisors, says most investors are missing the sectors that actually power the AI buildout.

Investors and advisors often seek private equity, but they are frequently thwarted by liquidity and other issues.

Artificial intelligence (AI) leadership is no longer a developed-market monopoly. Emerging markets (EM) now have their own AI champions, and productivity gains may follow. For bond investors, we expect the implications to differ by country—driven by industry composition, capital intensity, digital infrastructure and speed to adoption.

Many have drawn the comparison between the current AI buildout with the dotcom period in the late 1990s, when the infrastructure for the internet was built. It’s a sensible comparison to make because of the massive amount of capital deployed to commercialize the buildout of revolutionary and life-changing technology.

The logic of balanced investing is straightforward: equities drive long-term growth, bonds provide income and ballast when stocks fall, and the combination delivers a smoother ride than either asset alone. For decades, the 60/40 portfolio has been the default framework for good reason – it has worked, often brilliantly, across multiple market cycles.

Our reading is that this is a meaningful positive at the surface — a real-time confirmation that the most pessimistic recession scripts written in March can be set aside — but it is also a print that fails to alter the structural calculus we have been describing all year. The labor market is steady. The trajectory of fiscal policy, monetary credibility, and dollar reserve status is not.

Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS) executives detailed their artificial intelligence strategy for operational efficiency as new data showed the top 100 registered investment advisor firms now manage more than $1.6 trillion in client assets, double what they controlled just two years ago, according to Padi Raphael, global co-head of third party wealth at the firm.

Within private credit, attempts to increase liquidity – the ability to buy or sell an asset quickly, in size, and at prices reflecting fundamental values – are welcome developments, in our view. Yet until these efforts address the market’s inherent structural constraints, including a lack of true price discovery, they will only increase the perception of liquidity without truly improving liquidity.

Access to private equity, private credit, private infrastructure, and private real estate assets can potentially improve long-term investment outcomes for participants.

Get ready each week with high-conviction insights that go beyond media headlines.

Emerging market stocks have rebounded to new highs following their correction at the onset of the Iran war. The recent rally has been concentrated around AI. Can this continue?