Perspectives

Richard Hill of Cohen & Steers joins MSCI’s Jim Costello to discuss the changing perceptions of the commercial-property market, from dull and boring to dynamic and complex — and the current set of risks and potential opportunities.

Our quarterly roundtable examines markets and market-moving events to help institutional investors as they determine the best way forward; across asset classes and parsing out differences between developed and emerging markets.

The launch of the MSCI Sustainability Institute, founded and led by Linda-Eling Lee was attended by some of the most highly respected members of the ESG-investment community. We explore the institute’s aims and how it will work with investors, companies, academics and policymakers to drive action by capital markets.

We sat with MSCI’s global head of research for a wide-ranging discussion, including why he chose to return to the company now, the challenges and opportunities facing the investment industry and a unique take on risk management, ESG and climate and AI and technology.

Physical risk from climate change has started to affect nearly every region of the world, from the four hottest days on record occurring in a row this month to more frequent, more intense storms. We discuss what this all may mean for companies, insurers and investors.

Investors are faced with the potential of “sticky” inflation, continued equity-market concentration and expectations that U.S. interest rates may be higher for longer. We sit down with a panel of MSCI experts to get their views on the questions being asked and answered by markets and investors, and the potential implications heading into the second half of 2023.

In many ways, the EU has led the way on climate regulation in an effort to increase transparency and decision making through disclosure from companies, as well as investors. We discuss what’s expected from the EU sustainable finance package, and its potential impact.

As discussions continue in Washington, D.C., we examine how markets have handled the uncertainty so far, how such showdowns played out in the past and three “what if” default scenarios.

2023 has presented many risks and potential opportunities for investors, including inflation, continued war in Ukraine and China’s lifting of the zero-COVID policy, which allowed people and goods to travel as freely as they did before the pandemic gripped the globe. We look into how it’s gone so far.

The news on progress toward climate change and biodiversity goals was not great as Earth Day 2023 approached. But there were some bright spots, including detailed proposals to move forward, increased attention from governments in the form of regulation and a growing awareness from investors that accounting for these issues may be the right thing to do for their portfolios.