The Bid

Globalism is at a crossroads. Coronavirus has caused a dramatic pullback in the once-seamless transfer of technology and people across countries. As a result, companies more and more have to adapt with societies and their needs, or else get left behind. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella sat down at the BlackRock Future Forum to discuss how changes in geopolitics are shaping...

If you were to invest in a company, you’d watch how it performs and take interest in how it grows over time. In the world of investment stewardship, companies take those actions on behalf of their clients. Investment stewardship involves engagement with public companies to promote positive behaviors. And this year, BlackRock has committed to being more transparent about our stewardship activities....

We entered this year with the view that there wouldn’t be an economic downturn in 2020. No one could have predicted the global pandemic that would come just a couple of months later. Since then, market volatility has been at all-time highs, unemployment has surged and there’s no question that we’re in a downturn. But one prediction we made has held true: our view was that when the next downturn hi...

The retirement landscape has been changing for some time. Before COVID-19, stopping work entirely was no longer the goal. Post-COVID-19, it may mean that stopping work won't be possible. So how should retirement savers navigate what’s next? On this episode of The Bid, BlackRock’s President, Rob Kapito, and Head of the Retirement Group, Anne Ackerley, talk about lessons learned from prior crises, s...

From hurricanes to wildfires to other extreme weather events, physical climate risk isn’t new. But the way we measure it is. Improvements in data over the past few years have allowed us to better understand why climate risk is an investment risk. On this episode of The Bid and our mini-series, "Sustainability. Our new standard," Trevor Houser, Partner at Rhodium Group, and Mary-Catherine Lader, Bl...

As the pandemic has expanded globally, it has created uncertainty about companies’ future prospects. One way to analyze this: credit. Credit is the market of bonds that companies issue to fund their growth ambitions. And there’s a lot that credit can tell us about the overall health of the global economy. On this episode of The Bid, Jimmy Keenan, Chief Investment Officer and Global Co-Head of Cred...

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated and accelerated many of the geopolitical trends already underway. On this episode of The Bid, Tom Donilon, Chairman of the BlackRock Investment Institute and former U.S. National Security Advisor, discusses four trends he’s watching – a coming storm for emerging markets, a worsening outlook for U.S.-China relations, massive state intervention and continue...

The coronavirus has spread to more than 180 countries. As the virus has progressed worldwide, what lessons can we learn from how different regions have navigated the pandemic? On this episode of The Bid, four of BlackRock’s leaders around the world share their perspectives from Hong Kong, Italy, the UK and the U.S. and touch on where we’re seeing signs of recovery, the reaction from our clients an...

The Federal Reserve in the U.S. recently cut interest rates to zero, and it isn’t the only central bank to lower rates in response to the coronavirus. But low interest rates have been a theme for longer than recent weeks; they’ve been declining since 1980. So how did we get here, and what do low interest rates and low bond yields mean for investors looking for income? On this episode of The Bid, M...

The coronavirus has set new records, from volatility in markets to the scale of the economic shutdown to the number of people working from home. But there’s also been record growth in sustainable investing. In the fourth episode of our mini-series, “Sustainability. Our new standard,” Salim Ramji, Global Head of iShares and Index Investments, discusses how the today’s market volatility has accelera...

The coronavirus has caused the world to shift, and there’s no doubt that this will continue. Healthcare companies and researchers are mobilizing to create a vaccine; technology has begun to emphasize solutions for working at home; and the focus clean energy has increased. All of these shifts can be encompassed by megatrends. These long-term societal trends are only being accelerated by the pandemi...

The coronavirus has driven markets into turmoil over the past few weeks. And this uncertainty has created a lot of questions: What are the parallels between today and the financial crisis of 2008? Is today’s crisis worse? What signs are we looking for which suggest we are on the path to recovery? On this episode of The Bid, we answer these questions through a deep dive with Kate Moore, Head of The...

Factor investing has been years ahead in the sustainability conversation. Factors are characteristics that help explain stock returns – think buying cheap, trending, high-quality, or lower-risk stocks – and many factors have sustainable components to them as well. In the third episode of our mini-series, “Sustainability. Our new standard,” Andrew Ang, Head of Factor Investing, talks about why that...

The coronavirus is spreading to more and more countries, opening up a new global dimension to this epidemic and gripping markets with volatility and uncertainty. As a result, our BlackRock Investment Institute has downgraded our global growth outlook.  On this episode of The Bid, Global Chief Investment Strategist Mike Pyle discusses the effects we think coronavirus will have on global m...

What comes to mind when you hear of emerging markets? If portfolios are any indication, many investors shy away from emerging market (EM) stocks. EMs are often unfamiliar territory – and fear of the unknown can create cold feet. On this episode of The Bid, Gordon Fraser, portfolio manager for EM on BlackRock’s Fundamental Active Equity team, walks through the EM terrain around the world...

Geopolitics and trade tensions drove the market narrative in 2019. While we see trade tensions moving sideways this year, other risks still loom. Tensions between the U.S. and Iran are elevated; technology competition between the U.S. and China shows no signs of easing; and the U.S. is heading for one of its most consequential elections in modern history. On this episode of The Bid, Tom Donilon, C...

In the second episode of our mini-series, “Sustainability. Our new standard,” Philipp Hildebrand, BlackRock’s Vice Chairman, and Rachel Lord, Head of Europe, Middle East and Africa, talk about why the public and private sector together must tackle climate change, how BlackRock will deliver on recent announcements regarding sustainability and the moments that changed their perspective on the climat...

Since the Global Financial Crisis, major central banks like the Federal Reserve in the United States and the European Central Bank in Europe have helped support record-long economic expansion. But central banks are starting to face limits – and the tools of the past, such as interest rates, may not be enough when the next downturn happens. The answer? Central banks and governments may need to part...

Climate change will have a lasting impact on global economic growth – fundamentally reshaping finance and investment management. BlackRock has announced a series of changes that make sustainability our new standard for investing, including exiting sectors that present high environmental, social and governance risks, such as thermal coal producers; launching new products that screen fossil fuels; a...

It’s the top of a new decade, and there’s a lot to look forward to in the markets. Will China trade tensions persist? Who will win the U.S. election? And will stock markets continue to hit new highs? On this episode of The Bid, Mike Pyle, BlackRock’s Global Chief Investment Strategist, talks about the three themes that he sees shaping markets in the year ahead, why the U.S. election may be a headw...

Fintech went mainstream this year, in large part as technology companies started to bridge the worlds of tech and finance. But there’s another, more established side to fintech: enterprise technology. More and more, large companies are starting to rethink the role that technology plays in their businesses. On this episode of The Bid, Sudhir Nair, Global Head of the Aladdin Business, talks about wh...

2019 is nearly over, and stock investors can breathe a sigh of relief. The year brought no economic recession, the consumer sector is strong and unemployment is low. Is this as good as it gets, and what does this mean heading into 2020? On this episode of The Bid, Tony DeSpirito, Portfolio Manager and Chief Investment Officer for BlackRock’s U.S. Fundamental Active Equity Group, talks about his ou...

Global growth looks set to rise in the first half of 2020. But rising income and wealth inequality and a surge in populism are testing limits across multiple dimensions. What does this mean for how we invest?  On this episode of The Bid, the second in a two-part series, we go behind the scenes at our Investment Forum to hear from thought leaders and investors on the path forward for global gr...

Rising inequality, environmental pressures, increased protectionism and the reduced effectiveness of monetary policy have put institutions globally under stress. But the tools and policies used in the past may not be effective in solving these challenges. As the world pushes up against its structural limit, what does this mean for geopolitics, economies and markets?   On this episode of The B...

This year, millennials surpassed baby boomers as the largest living adult generation in the U.S. And that’s not the only shift that’s underway. Millennials also make up the largest working cohort, and they’re the first generation to spend their early lives on the Internet.   Millennials are also driving megatrends – technology, demographics and social change, urbanization, climate change and...