ilbusca/iStock via Getty Images By Dina Ting, CFA, Head of Global Index Portfolio Management, Franklin Templeton ETFs While global investors have been focusing on other emerging markets, Brazil has been working through political and fiscal changes. Now, the country's economic indicators are improving, and capital has begun to flow back into Latin America’s largest economy. Despite being one of the...
ilbusca/iStock via Getty Images By Dina Ting, CFA, Head of Global Index Portfolio Management, Franklin Templeton ETFs While global investors have been focusing on other emerging markets, Brazil has been working through political and fiscal changes. Now, the country's economic indicators are improving, and capital has begun to flow back into Latin America’s largest economy. Despite being one of the world’s largest economies and a key supplier of agricultural goods, energy and critical minerals, Brazil has spent much of the past decade in the shadow of faster-growing global markets. While investor capital has chased returns elsewhere, tapping into China’s scale, South Korea’s innovation and India’s structural growth story, Brazil has moved through political transitions and fiscal recalibration with far less attention from global allocators. Today, the country’s macro backdrop looks increasingly differentiated within emerging markets (EM). Unemployment is near multi-year lows, median wages are at record highs and inflation has cooled sufficiently for policymakers to signal that a long-awaited easing cycle could begin as early as March. Through mid-February, broad EM indexes gained more than 7% year-to-date, compared with a roughly 0.08% decline in the S&P 500 Index, suggesting that the strength that defined EMs in 2025 has carried into 2026. 1 Against this backdrop, Brazil has stood out. Its equity market is up roughly 24% year-to-date, outperforming broader EM benchmarks by approximately 16 percentage points. 2 Yet Brazil still represents less than 5% of major EM indexes - underscoring how underallocated the market remains in global portfolios. 3 Renewed appetite has translated into flows. Brazil-focused ETFs attracted approximately US$3.4 billion over the past three months, with net inflows equivalent to more than 20% of beginning assets under management. 4 Sector leadership: Utilities lead, cyclicals reaccelerate The Brazilian real has also stabilized against the US...
WANAN YOSSINGKUM/iStock via Getty Images Insurance initial public offerings remained thin on the ground last year as insurers weighed the benefits of an outright sale rather than going public. Last year saw four insurance initial public offerings (IPO) with a total aggregate amount of $1.15 billion offered. This figure was up from 2024, which saw three IPOs with a total aggregate amount of $37 mil...
WANAN YOSSINGKUM/iStock via Getty Images Insurance initial public offerings remained thin on the ground last year as insurers weighed the benefits of an outright sale rather than going public. Last year saw four insurance initial public offerings (IPO) with a total aggregate amount of $1.15 billion offered. This figure was up from 2024, which saw three IPOs with a total aggregate amount of $37 million, but still well below 2021's seven IPOs with a total aggregate amount of $4.35 billion. 2025 insurance IPOs were largely concentrated among a few sectors, including Florida-based property & casualty (P&C) companies, excess & surplus (E&S) companies and managing general agents ( MGA ), according to Tana Marcom, a senior director for Fitch Ratings. "The MGA space is ripe for it, as well as anything having to do with specialty Florida personal lines following the reforms," Marcom said in an interview with S&P Global Market Intelligence. "In addition to the tort reform [Florida] did, there was a lack of any sort of large hurricane activity last year, and so some companies took advantage of that, and more might prior to hurricane season this year." Technology and market condition improvements continued to be a driving factor behind IPOs even as a slate of IPO-ready insurers held off for potential 2026 launches, Marcom said, although this year's total will likely remain lower than 2021's record year. "We do think that there's going to be a pickup broadly in M&A activity this year, and I think, in turn, we could see an uptick in IPOs as well," Marcom said. "But it's obviously starting from a relatively low base to begin with, so there is not going to be a blockbuster record year." Insurance IPO trends matched the broader trend seen amongst all financial sectors. In 2025, there were 230 IPOs in the US across all financial sectors with a total aggregate amount of $68.28 billion. This figure was up from 2024, which saw 141 IPOs with a total aggregate amount of $34.97 billion, bu...
matejmo/iStock via Getty Images Emerging-Markets Bond Market Review Emerging-markets debt gained 3.29% in the last quarter of 2025, as measured by the J.P. Morgan Emerging Markets Bond Index Global Diversified Index, leading widespread advances among most major fixed-income categories. Noteworthy drivers include the U.S. Federal Reserve's September decision to continue easing its monetary policy, ...
matejmo/iStock via Getty Images Emerging-Markets Bond Market Review Emerging-markets debt gained 3.29% in the last quarter of 2025, as measured by the J.P. Morgan Emerging Markets Bond Index Global Diversified Index, leading widespread advances among most major fixed-income categories. Noteworthy drivers include the U.S. Federal Reserve's September decision to continue easing its monetary policy, strong investor appetite for higher-yielding assets, improved fundamentals and country-specific developments, even as yield spreads remained tight. On October 29, the U.S. central bank lowered its benchmark federal funds rate by 0.25 percentage points at its second consecutive meeting, as it looked to balance a recent slowdown in hiring and inflation running higher than its 2% target. On December 10, the Fed cut rates by another quarter point. Nominal 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yields finished Q4 effectively unchanged at around 4.2%. A number of crosscurrents continued to influence yield movement, including softer labor markets, Fed easing, sticky inflation and medium-term fiscal challenges. On the geopolitical front, negotiations related to a potential end to the Ukraine–Russia conflict remained largely stalled the past three months. In December, a Kremlin spokesperson reported that recent talks between the U.S. and Russia to try to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine were a "working process," but the path forward remained unclear. Escalating tension between the U.S. and Venezuela also made headlines, as the U.S. expanded its military presence near the country and intensified pressure through sanctions targeting the oil sector. As well, persistent conflicts in the Middle East and Africa fueled regional instability. In terms of tariffs, U.S. policies toward emerging markets reflected a push-and-pull between tension and easing. Notably, a late-October truce with China provided some relief, but uncertainty lingered. High-yield bonds outperformed investment-grade is...
Wolters Kluwer N.V. press release ( WOLTF ): FY GAAP EPS of €5.64. Revenue of €6.13B (+3.5% Y/Y), up 7% in constant currencies and up 6% organically. Recurring revenues (83% of total revenues) up 7% organically; non-recurring down 1%. Cloud software revenues (21% of total revenues) up 15% organically. Print reduced organic growth by 50 basis points. Adjusted free cash flow €1,348 million, up 10% i...
Wolters Kluwer N.V. press release ( WOLTF ): FY GAAP EPS of €5.64. Revenue of €6.13B (+3.5% Y/Y), up 7% in constant currencies and up 6% organically. Recurring revenues (83% of total revenues) up 7% organically; non-recurring down 1%. Cloud software revenues (21% of total revenues) up 15% organically. Print reduced organic growth by 50 basis points. Adjusted free cash flow €1,348 million, up 10% in constant currencies. Net-debt-to-EBITDA of 2.0x. Proposed 2025 dividend €2.52 per share, an increase of 8%. Announcing 2026 share buyback of up to €500 million, of which €100 million completed in 2026 to date. Outlook 2026: We expect another year of good organic growth, margin increase, and high single-digit growth in diluted adjusted EPS in constant currencies. Adjusted operating profit €1,687 million, up 9% in constant currencies. 2026 Outlook by division Health: We expect full-year 2026 organic growth to be in line with prior year (FY 2025: 5%). Tax & Accounting: We expect full-year 2026 organic growth to be in line with prior year (FY 2025: 7%), with revenue momentum picking up in the second half. Financial & Corporate Compliance: We expect full-year 2026 organic growth to be ahead of prior year (FY 2025: 3%), with momentum picking up in the second half. Legal Regulatory: We expect full-year 2026 organic growth to be ahead of prior year (FY 2025: 5%). The first quarter 2026 faces a challenging comparable. Corporate Performance & ESG: We expect full-year 2026 organic growth to be ahead of prior year (FY 2025: 7%). The first quarter faces a challenging comparable. More on Wolters Kluwer N.V. Wolters Kluwer: A High-Quality Company Discounted By AI Wolters Kluwer N.V. (WTKWY) Discusses AI Integration in UpToDate and CCH Axcess Solutions - Slideshow Wolters Kluwer N.V. (WTKWY) Discusses AI Integration in UpToDate and CCH Axcess Solutions Transcript Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating on Wolters Kluwer N.V. Historical earnings data for Wolters Kluwer N.V.
The Hungarian opposition Tisza party has widened its lead against Prime Minister Viktor Orban ’s ruling Fidesz to an unprecedented 20 percentage points among decided voters after a series of recent scandals, a poll showed Wednesday. Tisza, started just 2 years ago by former Fidesz insider Peter Magyar , has the backing of 55% of decided voters against 35% for Fidesz, the Median poll published by H...
The Hungarian opposition Tisza party has widened its lead against Prime Minister Viktor Orban ’s ruling Fidesz to an unprecedented 20 percentage points among decided voters after a series of recent scandals, a poll showed Wednesday. Tisza, started just 2 years ago by former Fidesz insider Peter Magyar , has the backing of 55% of decided voters against 35% for Fidesz, the Median poll published by HVG news website showed . Magyar vowed in a statement to intensify his campaign further after the poll, which he said would translate into a two-thirds parliamentary majority for his party, giving it a mandate to change the constitution. An environmental scandal at a Samsung plant north of Budapest has been among key issues that hurt the government’s standing, HVG said. Tisza supporters are also seen as having a higher propensity to vote in April 12 election, boosting its numbers among decided voters compared with the entire population. Read more: Hungary’s Orban Latches On to War Fears in Reelection Bid The forint gained 0.3% against the euro in early trade after the poll was published, outperforming eastern European peers. The currency has been boosted by bets that a victory by the pro-European Union opposition would help unlock funds frozen by the block and start Hungary’s process of euro accession. Median’s result suggests a much wider lead than some other independent pollsters, some of which see a single-digit lead for Tisza, while government-affiliated pollsters consistently project a Fidesz win. Apart from Fidesz and Tisza, far-right Mi Hazank party is also projected to clear the threshold for parliament, Median said. The survey was conducted on Feb. 18-23 among 1,000 people; the margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 points.