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CIO Corner
CIO Office Perspectives
Unlock exclusive insights into the latest market drivers and economic trends with CIO Office Perspectives.
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Central Bank Credibility Keeps Pressure on Long Bond Yields to Remain High
September 09, 2025
The global bond market remains unsettled as fiscal and political instability across the US, UK, and France weighs on investor confidence. Despite disinflationary trends in several advanced economies, yields on long-dated government debt remain stubbornly elevated. At the heart of this persistence lies a deeper concern: central bank credibility is eroding under political, fiscal, and institutional pressures, leaving markets with little choice but to demand a higher risk premium.
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US Equity: Great Earnings, Greater Expectations
September 03, 2025
Nvidia’s latest “beat” turned into a modest selloff because—at today’s valuations—the size of the surprise matters more than the size of the numbers. That same math now governs the S&P 500, where a dozen mega-caps tied to a handful of growth themes (AI chips, hyperscale cloud, select platforms) drive an outsized share of index returns. This is not 2000—profits are real—but concentration and valuation stretch mean forward returns lean on continued multiple support. That’s fragile.
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Abu Dhabi’s Big Bet: Can the ‘Capital of Capital’ Rival Global Financial Hubs?
September 02, 2025
Abu Dhabi, the political heart of the United Arab Emirates, is making a bold play to cement itself as a global financial powerhouse. Long overshadowed by Dubai’s two-decade head start as the region’s commercial hub, the oil-rich emirate is now leveraging its vast sovereign wealth—an estimated $1.7 trillion—to draw hedge funds, private equity giants, and asset managers into its orbit.
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The VC Reset: What’s Real, What’s Temporary, and What’s Next
August 22, 2025
From a narrow rebound in IPO activity, to Europe’s surprise deal surge, to the way fund managers are quietly reshaping their fundraising strategies, there are signals worth paying attention to. And not all of them point in the same direction.
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4 Trends Putting the Alternatives Market to the Test
August 21, 2025
Across private equity, venture capital, and cross-border deal-making, the data shows shifting priorities, sharper regional contrasts, and, in some cases, uncomfortable trade-offs. From the rise of carve-outs over public-to-privates, to the influx of foreign capital in Europe, to a venture market split between AI enthusiasm and industrial policy, the numbers challenge some of our assumptions about what’s “normal” in deal flow.
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Private Credit's Quiet Shifts: 5 Questions the Market Can’t Ignore
August 19, 2025
Fundraising patterns are shifting, geographic capital flows are changing, and certain asset classes are claiming structural advantages that deserve scrutiny. The headlines often focus on totals—how much was raised, where it came from—but the real insight comes from the “why” and the “what next.” In a market shaped by delayed rate cuts, policy uncertainty, and evolving investor profiles, the right questions matter more than the immediate answers.
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The Shifting Ground of Infrastructure Investing: Scale, Strategy, and Risk
August 18, 2025
From mega funds dominating the fundraising tables, to North America’s sudden comeback, to the sharp pivot toward core-plus strategies, the shifts we’re seeing aren’t just quarterly noise. They point to deeper debates about concentration strategy, and risk appetite. Add in a steep drop in deal value and the debate over whether infrastructure has become the new safe haven” in private markets, and you’ve got plenty of tension for investors to think about.
Contributor
Gareth Nicholson
CIO and Head Discretionary Portfolio Management
Disclaimer
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IWM CIO Corner Disclaimer
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