At Marketing Wiz, our team actively monitors global financial markets to contextualize relevant stories for our clients and their stakeholders. This December, here are three themes that can serve as the foundation for some curated content or even a long-form article for your firm:
2025 Economic Outlook: Growth Expected but Risks Remain
- In the run-up to 2025, next year’s economic outlook appears strong, with researchers and analysts expecting global growth of more than 2.5%. Risks remain, however, owing to the potential for trade disputes and resurgent inflation.
- After exceeding expectations in 2024, the US economy looks set for another year of robust growth thanks to healthy consumer spending. The labor market, however, appears to be slowing, and inflation remains stubbornly above the Fed’s target.
- Despite stimulus measures, the Chinese economy appears to be on the cusp of a significant slowdown, which could have spillover effects. In Europe, price pressures may limit the pace of ECB rate cuts next year.
Trump Tariffs and the Dollar’s Future
- A core part of Donald Trump’s economic agenda is to end America’s trade deficit by making imports less attractive. To achieve that, Trump has floated a universal tariff of up to 20% on all imports plus higher rates on goods from specific countries.
- Attempting to balance America’s trade deficit could have unintended consequences for the dollar’s status as global reserve currency. Since foreign trading partners end up with significant dollar stockpiles, the dollar’s dominance is partially owed to America’s trade deficit.
- America accrues significant benefits owing to the dollar’s reserve status. Government borrowing costs are lower than they otherwise would be and foreign investors purchasing dollar-denominated assets may help boost domestic markets.
Private Markets Are Going Mainstream
- Among endowments and institutions, alternative asset classes like private credit and private equity have long been a source of uncorrelated returns. Today, private markets are becoming more accessible to a wider range of investors.
- The universe of broadly accessible private market investments has historically been limited to interval funds and BDCs. Now, that list is expanding, with BlackRock building out private market model portfolios for advisors and Apollo pursuing a private credit ETF.
- Historically, private assets have offered compelling opportunities due to illiquidity premiums and relatively more inefficient markets. They also introduce novel risks, however, and have faced criticisms over ‘volatility laundering.’
Interested in building out long-form collateral relating to any of these themes? We invite you to reach out to our team today for a discussion of our custom content capabilities.
Craig Hall is founder and president of Marketing Wiz, a financial marketing firm specializing in the independent wealth management space.
