Finding the Golden Mean with a Buffered Strategy
For many market participants, the priority is not pursuing every inch of a bull market run but rather participating while managing downside risk. This desire for a more predictable investment experience has contributed to the growth of buffered (or defined outcome) strategies, which aim to balance participation in market gains with a defined level of…
Parsing Productive Assets with the S&P Pantera Digital Asset Index
Moving beyond Narrative: A Fundamental Lens on Digital Assets Digital asset markets have evolved rapidly, but the tools used to evaluate them have not kept pace. Many crypto strategies have historically been shaped by market narratives, momentum or broad exposure to the largest tokens.1 Designed with the crypto and blockchain investment firm Pantera Capital and…
35/20 Vision: The S&P 500 Capped 35/20 Indices
As U.S. equity markets continue to reach new highs, market leadership has become increasingly concentrated among a handful of large-cap stocks. The S&P 500 Capped 35/20 Indices use weight caps to maintain diversification within sector-specific benchmarks. Each index in the range comprises all constituents from its respective GICS® sector of the S&P 500® while mitigating…
2026 YTD Commodities Surge amid Renewed Inflation
S&P GSCI Outpaced BCOM, Stocks and Bonds We recently published The S&P GSCI: Built for the Cycle, a 10‑year analysis of how broad commodity indices behaved across differing inflation regimes, and why the S&P GSCI’s production‑weighted design historically demonstrated a higher inflation beta than alternatives such as the Bloomberg Commodity Index (BCOM). This blog is…
- Categories Commodities
- Tags commodities, energy, inflation, real assets, S&P GSCI
- Categories
- Commodities
S&P 500: America’s Benchmark
Cathy Clay, CEO of S&P Dow Jones Indices, and Lynn Martin, President of the NYSE Group, recently met on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange to discuss how the S&P 500 connects America’s past, present and future. Drawing on the index’s nearly 70-year legacy, they examine what has made the benchmark so iconic—its role…
- Categories S&P 500 & DJIA
- Tags large-cap U.S. equities, S&P 500, The 500, Trump Accounts, U.S. equities
- Categories
- S&P 500 & DJIA
The Case for the S&P Dividend Aristocrats in Today’s Market
With broad market benchmarks trading at historically low yields and elevated valuations, it’s timely to examine the performance of the S&P Dividend Aristocrats® Index Series in today’s market environment. These indices track companies with a consistent record of dividend growth and currently offer a combination of strong yields and reasonable valuations. Historically, they have also…
Choppy Chips
The U.S. market has been buffeted by swings in the performance of semiconductor companies, as investors have become increasingly anxious about the outlook for the tech sector and whether a regime change is in store. The choppiness has been global in nature, sparked by a steep sell-off in Korean chipmakers, with the S&P Korea BMI…
Don’t Call It a Comeback: Value’s Ascendance Continues in Australian Equities
The S&P/ASX 200 Value gained 20.20% over the financial year ending June 30, 2026, outperforming the S&P/ASX 200 by more than 14% and its counterpart, the S&P/ASX 200 Growth, by more than 25%. This represents the index’s strongest one-year relative outperformance in over 16 years. Following a long period in which Australian companies with growth…
Mexico Rating Actions: Market Impact through the Lens of Bond Indices
Mexico’s recent rating actions have brought renewed attention to the country’s sovereign credit profile. Moody’s downgraded Mexico in May 2026, while S&P Global Ratings revised its outlook to negative. For fixed income investors, the key question is not only what changed from a ratings perspective, but also how those events translated into market performance. Bond…
Measuring Liquid Commodities through Changing Markets
How does a commodity index track liquid futures while seeking to address inflation and volatility in global markets? Look inside the DJCI 3 Month Forward – Quarterly Reweight, a rules-based index that emphasizes diversification and liquidity through a methodology with four distinct elements.
