Good morning and welcome to our new Monday feature on the week ahead, aiming to give you a preview of news you need to know and what we will be keeping an eye on in the coming days. July is flying, wow. ... Earnings season (along with the weather) is heating up, it's inflation numbers time again and ESG is in the crosshairs of House Republicans.
Earnings
- BlackRock, J.P. Morgan and State Street will report second-quarter earnings Friday following a second quarter that saw the S&P 500 return 8.7%. Bloomberg estimates BlackRock will record $105.9 billion in net inflows, with assets under management rising to $9.3 trillion.
Economy
- June CPI numbers will be released Wednesday, two weeks ahead of the next meeting of the Federal Reserve. As inflation remains stubborn and still sits above the Federal Reserve's 2% target, the central bank will likely hike rates again, but may be nearing the end of its tightening campaign.
Pension funds
- Alaska Permanent Fund's board will meet Wednesday, and the Juneau-based sovereign wealth fund's CIO Marcus Frampton could disclose investments completed by its staff in the second quarter.
- The $10.5 billion San Diego City Employees Retirement System's board on Friday might adopt a fiscal year 2024 real estate investment plan that would commit $100 million to non-core, and reallocate its core real estate debt holdings to core-plus real estate equity.
Washington
- The SEC is meeting Wednesday and is expected to finalize rules related to money market funds.
- Meanwhile, the House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing the same day examining environmental and social policy in financial regulation. Republicans, who control the committee, are opponents of ESG investing.
- On Thursday, the House Financial Services Committee's Capital Markets Subcommittee will hold a hearing on reforming the proxy process, and later that day, its Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee will hold a hearing on oversight of the proxy advisory industry. Republicans have voiced concern over large asset managers' and proxy advisory firms' influence at shareholder meetings.
ESG
- On Wednesday, Schroders and CalPERS will present a new approach for investors to identify leaders and laggards in human capital management and why it matters.
Europe
- Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor of the exchequer, is expected to announce Monday how the U.K. government will seek greater investment in the country from retirement funds.
Asia
- Temasek, the state investment firm in Singapore that owns and manages $497 billion in assets, will release its annual results Tuesday. Seeing that about half its portfolio is in private assets, the expectation is that Temasek is fairly cushioned from 2022's brutal stock and bond markets. The firm has also placed emphasis on ESG in recent years, so we can expect a comprehensive sustainability report from them, too.
