Victory Capital Blog

Medical Tourism to emerging markets countries is a growing trend that has the potential to power returns among the exciting cohort of small-cap emerging markets equities. Is your strategy positioning to take advantage of this burgeoning opportunity? 

Asset-backed securities—fixed income investments collateralized by an underlying pool of assets—may offer investors an opportunity to diversify income portfolios and, in some cases, capture incremental yields in a risk-savvy manner. Should you be diving into the ABS pool?

Every year at Integrity, we discuss ways to improve. This year, we are focusing on information management, flow, and processing. As a result, we have made incremental changes to some of our team members’ roles. Additionally, we are implementing a new research management system.

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February CPI, reported in March, lowered to 2.8% year-over-year and Core CPI to 3.2% year-over-year. The Federal Reserve (the Fed) unanimously voted to hold rates steady at their meeting in March and indicated that they are willing to adjust their current restrictive stance should risks to the labor market or meeting the 2% inflation target arise. The Fed’s newest economic projections showed reduced growth expectations and higher core inflation at the end of the year, reflecting recently implemented tariffs and expected retaliation.

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Value and momentum investing are two popular and well researched investment strategies that allow investors to target equities with specific investment characteristics. However, allocating to each style on its own may have limitations. Combining value and momentum factors into a single solution just might be a game changer. 

With the S&P 500® coming off back-to-back years of 20-plus percent returns, passive investors may be celebrating. However, WestEnd Advisors cautions that passive investment based on market cap-weighted equity indices is inherently backward-looking and risks creating overconcentration in what has already done well, rather than emphasizing what may be likely to outperform going forward. It’s important for investors to understand the nuances and embedded risks of a passive equities strategy to determine if there are better alternatives.  

Did fourth-quarter earnings provide a hint of slowing momentum for the tech-laden S&P 500® Index, as well as fuel for a potential rotationinto small value stocks? We look at some of the earnings results and trends from Q4 2024, as well as the outlook for 2025. In short, what we find is slowing momentum in the S&P 500, while earnings expectations are improving for the forgotten stocks of the Russell 2000® Value Index.

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January CPI, reported in February, rose to 3.0% year-over-year and Core CPI to 3.3% year-over-year. The Federal Reserve (the Fed) did not have an FOMC meeting in February, but the minutes released from their January meeting indicate that monetary policy could remain restrictive should inflation continue to be stubborn. The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, the Personal Consumption Expenditure Index, decreased in January to 2.6% from 2.8% in December. This report boosted confidence among those expecting two rate cuts this year, but much uncertainty remains given the murkiness of future tariff policy and labor market activity.

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Credit spreads have been well below their long-term averages lately. What does this
mean for fixed income investors? Victory Income Investors gives their thoughts in Bonding Over Bonds.

Monday, January 27th saw a selloff in all things AI. A new AI platform out of China called DeepSeek, roiled the prevailing AI narrative. I’m by no means an AI or technology expert so I consulted a competing AI chatbot to find out what is so special about DeepSeek. Here’s what I found.

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December CPI, reported in January, was 2.9% year-over-year and Core CPI was 3.2% year-over-year. The Fed did not reduce rates in January as inflation remains somewhat elevated, while the economy continues to expand at a solid pace. Payroll job gains averaged 170k per month over the past three months and unemployment is stable. In their statement following their January meeting, the Fed reconfirmed their focus on price stability and maximum employment, and bar any surprises is in no rush to adjust their policy stance.

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