Last week’s artificial intelligence (AI) led global equity rout captivated headlines, overshadowing notable developments flowing out of Tokyo. Recently elected Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi — the pro-growth and pro-stimulus policy lawmaker — and her cabinet approved the country’s largest stimulus package since the pandemic on Friday, totaling 21.3 trillion yen ($135 billion). The announced 17.7 trillion-yen ($112 billion) spending plan is primarily aimed at price relief for citizens and features a three-month gas and electricity subsidy for each household, a cash handout for children, a reduced gasoline tax, a

2025 has been an exceptional year for emerging market (EM) equities. South Korea has surged almost 80%, while South Africa, Brazil, and Mexico have each posted gains of more than 40% year to date. Within the MSCI country universe, six of the top 10 performers this year are emerging markets. This level of outperformance relative to the U.S. at the broad asset class level has been rare and, barring a strong late-year rotation, this will mark only the third time in the past 15 years that emerging markets have outperformed U.S. equities.

EM Equities Have Handily Outpaced U.S. Equities this Year

• Source: LPL Research, Bloombe

With hurricane season officially coming to an end on November 30, a niche area of the investment world called Catastrophe Bonds (“cat bonds”) has time to pause from a record-breaking year of issuance. Cat bonds are insurance-linked securities designed to transfer the risk of natural disasters — such as hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, and wildfires — from large insurers to capital market participants. Investors receive a yield in return for assuming the risk that a predefined catastrophic event does not occur during the bond’s term. If the event does occur, investors may lose some or all their principal investmen

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to be a transformative technology that impacts how we all live and do business. With some creativity, and time for current offerings to improve, it is not difficult to imagine how in the future these systems could enhance or even replace much of the work that we humans are currently doing. Late in 2025, none of this is breaking news and the relevant questions for investors are ultimately: what is the utility of these new tools in dollar terms and when should we expect to see the benefit? More use cases uncovered, or benefits realized sooner than expected would add additional tailwinds to the AI t