Perspectives

As the year started, the overriding theme was the dominance of the U.S. in the world's financial markets. However, there were already some uncertainties on the horizon. Three months later we have seen quite astounding action on both the policy front and in financial markets. MSCI's roundtable of experts provide their unique perspective on it all.

25 years on from the peak of the dot-com bubble, we discuss parallels between today's AI-driven market boom and the dot-com era with MSCI's Donald Sze, exploring market sentiment, lessons from history and implications for investors navigating current dynamics.

Trade tensions are rising - what does this mean for investors? MSCI's Abhishek Gupta and Thomas Verbraken discuss the latest tariff developments, their potential impact on inflation and interest rates and how they could reshape market dynamics in 2025 and beyond.

Real estate is resetting - but not everywhere and not all at once. Tom Leahy and Ben Chow, the EMEA and APAC heads of real-estate research at MSCI, unpack 2025's key trends, from interest rates to AI-driven demand, and discuss why strategy, timing and resilience could be important drivers going forward.

The first Bitcoin was mined on Jan. 3, 2009. Since then, much of the story has been about volatility, speculation and retail investors. But our guests - including MSCI's Padmakar Kulkarni, Barbara Schlyter of DWS Group and Menai's CIO, Shubin Jha - help us dig deeper into the world of digital-assets investing and examine why institutional investors have started to pay closer attention.

The dominance of the U.S. showed no signs of waning as the year began. But what will investors be watching as they seek to steady an unbalanced world? Our quarterly panel breaks down the potential effects for global equities, fixed income and private investments, as well as one area where it's Asia that dominates - energy consumption.

With fixed-income investors still recovering from a year that arguably saw nearly every cycle of the market, we look ahead to 2025 across sectors, including sustainability-linked bonds, securitized products and the ongoing effects of inflation and moves by central banks.

When it comes to managing portfolios, the role of risk, and risk managers continues to evolve. We hear from two industry leaders, recently returned from the MSCI Analytics Summit, on the future of identifying, measuring and managing risk.

We're joined by MSCI's Chief Research Officer, Ashley Lester and Chief Client Officer, Axel Kilian, who recently attended the 19th annual Institutional Investor Forum, hosted by MSCI. We discuss the benefits and considerations of a total portfolio approach, as well as the myriad of challenges facing asset owners and investors around the world.

From the effects of China's stimulus to the power of sustainability on portfolio performance and companies cost of capital, our panel dissects the latest market drivers and where investors may be focused for the rest of 2024.