The bad news: China is still building and operating coal plants by the dozens per year. The good news: The nation’s share of wind and solar power will rise to 40 percent of China’s total installed power generation capacity by the end of 2024, up from 36 percent at the end of 2023. What’s more, in 2023 the total installed capacity of power from non-fossil fuel sources had already exceeded 50 percent of the total generation capacity.

With demand muted and speculative construction completions persisting at a healthy rate, the industrial vacancy rate ticked higher by 60 basis points to 5.2 percent, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s fourth quarter 2023 industrial report. Although this is the first time the rate has surpassed the 5 percent mark since third quarter 2020, it remains 120 basis points below the long-term 15-year average of 6.4 percent.

ocieties around the world, particularly in Asia and parts of Europe, are aging quickly, due in part to the baby boom generation moving into retirement age, lower fertility rates, higher life expectancies and the imposition of government policies, such as the now abandoned one-child policy in China and restrictive immigration policies in Japan. Many look to Japan, where the country’s Statistics Bureau reports 29 percent of the population is over 65, as a case study for how a country is changed by an aging population, including how these shifts can influence the economy, investing opportunities and the social fabric.

Global manufacturing is slowly stirring back to life, as evidenced by a positive purchasing managers’ index (PMI) reading in January, and industrial metals, copper especially, look poised to benefit. Copper was one of only two metals that finished 2023 in the black, gold being the other. The asset flashed a bullish “golden cross” signal, with the 50-day moving average jumping above the 200-day moving average, and prices currently look stable in the $8,400 to $8,600 per metric ton.

The era of big data has only increased investor interest in the growing data center sector globally. The Asia Pacific’s data center market in particular is expected to reach $53.58 billion in 2028, expanding at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12 percent from 2023 to 2028, according to Dublin-based Research and Markets.

In recent years, a significant trend has emerged in the world of financial advising. An increasing number of financial advisers are making the bold decision to part ways with their FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) member broker/dealer firms and, instead, opt to start or join a registered investment adviser (RIA). This transition has been fueled by several factors, including regulatory changes, the allure of independence, and the growing realization that the RIA model may offer a more client-centric approach to wealth management. In this article, we’ll delve into the reasons behind this shift, using data from the Investment Adviser Industry Snapshot 2023, and explore why financial advisers are choosing to embrace the RIA model.

During one of a series of interviews Joan Solotar attended in pursuit of a position at Blackstone, firm co-founder and CEO Steve Schwarzman set a closed envelope in front of the applicant, instructing her to knock on the door when finished. After opening and reviewing the document, Solotar realized it was a draft of instructions for Blackstone’s upcoming “roadshow” — a series of meetings and presentations conducted by a company’s management team and underwriters to promote and generate interest in the organization’s initial public offering.

Roxanna Islam of VettaFi on Fidelity and BlackRock dominating bitcoin capital flows: “BlackRock and Fidelity have both the liquidity and the brand recognition that some of the other issuers don’t have — especially when it comes to retail investors who are hesitant about investing in an emerging asset class. It’s still early in the race, but I think the gap between BlackRock and Fidelity and the other issuers will only widen the more their volume and assets increase.”

Sports leagues boast billion-dollar revenues — and the venues where these games unfold hold significant commercial potential in their own rights. Many stadiums host concerts and other shows in addition to regularly held sporting matches and can accommodate tens of thousands of spectators at once, creating massive retail, dining and advertisement opportunities.

Infrastructure assets are underpinned by certain key characteristics. They are capital intensive, often based in specific locations, and are very hard to replicate. They generate revenues under long-term contracts or via regulatory frameworks that are inflation linked or have inflation pass-through characteristics, and they tend to have low maintenance costs.

Janus Henderson Investors CEO Ali Dibadj, has authored Shifting demographics: How post-pandemic working patterns are changing. Among other points, the paper argues that the balance of power has shifted away from employees. Read the report here.

How do you align the interests of a tax-exempt investor and a taxable investment manager? Bringing them together into the same room to let them network and engage in interesting conversations certainly isn’t the way. (You might be able to break down some of the normal barriers to open communication, but you have done nothing to alter the nature of the relationship dynamics that drive investment outcomes.)

As elevated interest rates and tighter lending standards have made capital more difficult to obtain from traditional debt markets, private credit is creating solutions for borrowers — and opportunities for investors. In the multifamily real estate space, regional banks have been one of the primary sources of financing in recent years. But with many banks taking a conservative approach, private credit is filling the gap and helping to finance quality projects at attractive interest rates from a protected position.

Gone are the days when we expected a seamless collaboration environment interconnected by a powerful network. Recently, it has gone from an impossible to-do list to a reality with the introduction of 5G technology in a number of business applications. When it comes to the world of manufacturing, now is the right time to make investments for business expansion opportunities.

Sadly, in the real world sometimes the black swans come to roost, and what seemed solid gold instead succumbs to a reverse Midas touch. The COVID-19 pandemic ruptured certain segments, such as office markets and business conferences and travel, in ways that may take generations to repair. In completely different investment spheres, it turns out that “real” diamonds today can be manufactured, undercutting the mined variety, while the works of some popular and fine artists, once hotly sought-after, are now all but forgotten. The nascent non-fungible token (NFT) market, always virtual, has in large part seemingly dissipated back into the ether from which it came.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has garnered a considerable amount of attention in the media within the past few years, ranging from glowing editorials to scare-mongering pieces. The broader public is becoming more aware of the potential applications and implications of the technology that is developing at a tremendous rate. AI is a broad umbrella that encapsulates a few different terms in advanced computing, such as machine learning and deep learning frameworks, referring to the current stage of advanced computing rather than a specific technology type or resource. Technologies such as large language models (LLMs), generative AI and the theoretical artificial general intelligence are all subsets under the umbrella term of AI.

The 721 Exchange, also known as an UPREIT (Umbrella Partnership Real Estate Investment Trust), is gaining prominence in the real estate investment landscape. This tax-deferred transaction, governed by Section 721 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code, allows investors to exchange their ownership in a single asset for units in an operating partnership, providing a means to defer both federal and state taxes.