Content (278)
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White papersFinding opportunities amid higher rates, AI disruption, and market concentration
Investors today are being challenged from all sides. Interest rates remain elevated, policy uncertainty and geopolitical shocks are clouding the outlook, and artificial intelligence is reshaping markets while intensifying concentration risk. These aren’t abstract concerns or distant possibilities; they’re forces unfolding in real time, changing how investors assess risk and identify opportunities. Four investment leaders recently gathered in New York City to discuss what has changed, where risks may be mispriced, and how they are navigating a market that’s only growing more complex.
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White papersOpportunity demands selectivity: Quick takes on capital markets
Structural investment remains a powerful force across equity markets, which continue to be supported by spending on AI infrastructure, power, healthcare innovation, and industrial capacity. At the same time, higher rates and rising capital costs are widening the gap between companies that simply benefit from those trends and those that translate them into durable earnings growth. As dispersion increases, identifying quality businesses with pricing power, strong balance sheets, and disciplined capital allocation is becoming increasingly important.
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White papersHigher income, broader opportunity: Quick takes on capital markets
Elevated yields and resilient fundamentals have broadened the opportunity set across fixed income markets. Notably, the combination of higher yields and generally sound credit conditions has expanded the range of sectors capable of generating attractive income. While selectivity remains important, income is contributing more meaningfully to portfolio outcomes across the fixed income landscape.
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White papersRethinking diversification with liquid alternatives
As multi-asset portfolios have become more equity-risk driven, allocators increasingly view liquid alternatives as a structural portfolio component rather than a tactical overlay. Inflation uncertainty, policy shifts, market concentration, and episodic liquidity stress have made traditional stock-and-bond diversification less reliable. For institutional investors, the key question is how to incorporate liquid alternatives in a disciplined way that improves resilience without compromising governance, transparency, or flexibility.
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White papersThe expanding role of investment grade private credit in institutional portfolios
U.S. investment grade private corporate credit, debt issued directly to a small group of institutional lenders rather than sold on the public bond market, is seeing increased interest from asset allocators. The market predates the below-investment grade direct lending market by decades, driven largely by life insurers as a core fixed income allocation.
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White papersFive forces shaping the data centre investment landscape
Demand is accelerating. Supply is constrained. Execution is everything. For investors seeking exposure to one of real estate’s most compelling structural growth themes, data centres continue to stand out.
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White papersFour for fixed income: The themes driving bond markets
Many investors entered 2026 expecting slower growth, cooling inflation, and eventual Federal Reserve rate cuts. Instead, markets have faced a more complicated reality, with geopolitical tensions rising, oil prices moving higher, rates backing up, and investors pricing a meaningful probability of additional Fed tightening. Yet the U.S. economy remains resilient, inflation has generally improved, and productivity gains driven by technology and AI continue to support growth.
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White papersHow U.S. middle market direct lending complements and enhances European portfolios
Direct lending continues to expand across Europe as institutional and sophisticated high-net-worth investors recognize the attractive opportunities available. Demand for private credit, and specifically middle market direct lending, is growing faster than supply, prompting investors to look beyond their domestic markets.
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White papersCutting through the noise: Why lower and core middle market direct lending still delivers value in clients’ portfolios.
A long-form perspective from Principal Alternative Credit on what investors should be watching—and what the headlines are missing—in today’s private credit market.
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White papersWhen safe isn’t safe
Artificial intelligence is real, powerful, and beginning to reshape the economy. What is yet to be determined, however, is whether financial markets have pulled forward too much of this future too quickly, and into too narrow a set of stocks. As AI becomes the dominant market narrative, the distinction between revolutionary technology and durable investment return rarely mattered more.
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White papersFixed income: Resilient, but more selective
Fixed income enters the second half of the year in a relatively strong position, though the path forward has become less certain. Yields remain attractive, and fundamentals are broadly stable, but tighter spreads and shifting policy expectations are leaving less room for surprises. The result is a market that still offers opportunity, but one where outcomes are increasingly shaped by how well investors navigate changing conditions rather than broad market trends.
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White papersJune FOMC meeting: A new era for the Fed
At its June meeting, Kevin Warsh’s first as chair, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) left the target range for the federal funds rate unchanged at 3.50%-3.75% for a third consecutive meeting.
