A central focus was how investors are navigating persistent uncertainty—from geopolitics and inflation to AI disruption and interestrate volatility. As I recently wrote in Every Storm Runs Out of Rain, periods like this often feel uniquely challenging in real time, but uncertainty is not new to markets. What tends to matter most is not predicting the next headline, but avoiding reactive decisions at moments when fear is elevated.

During the recent period of heightened geopolitical stress, investor behaviour shifted decisively toward derisking, with capital concentrating in largecap North American equities, the U.S. dollar, shortduration bonds, and energy. Since the ceasefire, we’ve begun to see a cautious return of risk appetite, with leadership gradually broadening beyond the largest technology names—a reminder that markets often begin to stabilize well before uncertainty fully disappears.

We also discussed private credit, an area currently being treated as a broad risk trade. Our view is that much of the pessimism is already reflected in valuations, particularly among listed alternative managers. Importantly, private credit is not a single asset class, and higherquality segments—such as infrastructure and assetbacked lending—continue to attract institutional capital. Selectivity remains critical.

Finally, we highlighted several companies on our radar, including Apollo Global Management, Microsoft, and United Rentals—each of which we believe is being debated more on nearterm narrative than longterm fundamentals.

If you’d like to discuss how these themes apply to your portfolio or have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out.