Thematic Investing

Stocks fell in November, with indices reverting gains in the month’s last three sessions, as the emergence of the Omicron variant raised concerns the COVID-19 pandemic may continue to undermine the global economy.

In the fifth anniversary of the launch of the first thematic ETFs resulting from the collaboration between BlackRock and Qontigo, we reflect on the performance of seven strategies covered in this partnership: Automation & Robotics, Ageing Population, Digitalization, Electric Vehicles, Digital Security, Healthcare Innovation and Smart City Infrastructure.

Stocks rebounded strongly from their September losses during October, as companies reported broadly better-than-expected third-quarter earnings.

Stocks posted their first monthly decline since January during September as rising prices from food to energy stoked concerns that central banks may have to raise interest rates just as an economic recovery is losing steam.

Stocks rose for a seventh straight month during August, amid ongoing optimism that the global economy continues to rebound from the COVID-19 slump and as the US Federal Reserve indicated it won’t rush to raise interest rates.

A new Qontigo whitepaper compares the composition, risk profile and performance of the STOXX® Global Millennials and STOXX® Global Ageing Population indices, two thematic indices that help investors target companies most exposed to these two very distinct cohorts.

This whitepaper evaluates two thematic investment strategies – STOXX® Global Ageing Population (“Ageing Population”) and STOXX® Global Millennials (“Millennials”) – which seek exposure to these two distinct generations.

A new Qontigo whitepaper analyzes the risk, performance and returns attribution of four indices tracking technology themes, uncovering specific characteristics of the portfolios and differences vis-à-vis the broader technology sector and the overall market.

In this paper we analyzed four tech-oriented thematic indices’ performance and risk through a factor lens leveraging Axioma’s Worldwide Fundamental Factor Model, and also compared their characteristics to the broad market indices.

Stocks rose for a sixth straight month during July, as ongoing optimism that the global economy and corporate profits are rebounding outweighed concerns about a reacceleration of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stocks rose for a fifth straight month during June, as ongoing optimism that the global economy is rebounding outweighed concerns about faster inflation and higher interest rates.

Stocks rose for a fourth consecutive month in May, with the STOXX® Global 1800 Index extending its all-time high, as countries lifted restrictions put in place to control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.