U.S. companies are projected to buyback more than $1.1 trillion worth of stock in 2025, which would mark an all-time high. Buybacks have been particularly concentrated at the top, with the 20 largest companies accounting for almost half of repurchases.
Trend-following hedge funds lost 9.6% in the first half of this year, on track for their worst annual performance since at least 1998. Meanwhile, hedge funds more broadly returned 4%, net of fees, while the S&P 500 delivered 6.2% to investors, including dividends.
Markets are pricing in a 64% probability of a 25bp cut in September and expect approximately 100 bps of cuts over the next year. Meanwhile, the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield is trading at 4.33%, near the lower end of its year-to-date range.
In the Russell 3000, 41.5% of chief executives are at least 60 years old, up from 35.1% in 2017. Over the same period, the share of CEOs in their 30s and 40s has grown to 15.1% from 13.8%. People in their 50s held 51.1% of CEO seats eight years ago and now occupy 43.4%.
The $85 billion merger deal between Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern joins 50,000 miles of railroad tracks that span from the Jersey shore to the ports in California. The union would create a single company controlling coast-to-coast rail shipments for the first time in U.S. history.
The world economy grew at a 2.4% annual rate in the first half of this year, around its longer-term trend.
U.S. venture firms invested $69.9 billion across an estimated 4,001 deals, a 25% decline in deal value compared to the previous quarter. Artificial intelligence, national security, defense tech, fintech and crypto — all sectors aligned with the priorities of President Donald Trump’s administration — are attracting outsized interest from investors.
U.S. defined-contribution plans held $12.4 trillion in assets at the end of 2024.
The private-credit business has grown fast in the past two decades, with capital raised for lending to private-equity-backed companies—the biggest part of the market—up more than 100-fold since 2006 to nearly $700 billion in 2024.
