January Monthly Commentary
Global equities were a mixed bag in January as investors responded to diverging monetary policies and the resulting potential for an uptick in volatility. The S&P 500 fell 3.0% on the month while emerging markets were modestly positive as the MSCI EM Index returned 0.6% International developed equities were buoyed by the European Central Bank’s […]
December Monthly Commentary
US equities scaled new highs in December amid optimism around the economy. To this end, the S&P 500 returned 13.7% for the year and the Russell 2000 gained 4.9%. These advances came amid a slump in the rest of the world with the MSCI EAFE Index falling 3.5% last month. The drop was fueled by […]
Fossil Fuel Holdings Decreasing, Advocacy on the Rise
This fall, we have continued to reduce the fossil fuel holdings of the UUCEF. As of January 1, 2015, our active investment portfolio will include only eight oil and gas producers included on the Carbon Tracker list of the 200 largest publicly traded owners of carbon reserves in the world. (We also hold a small […]
Oikocredit’s Investor Spotlight on Tim Brennan
Oikocredit featured UUA Treasurer and CFO, Timothy Brennan, in its December Investor Spotlight. Oikocredit is but one of the many community investments in the Unitarian Universalist Common Endowment Fund. Through community development, investors designate part of their portfolio for credit unions, non-profit banks, or funds that make loans to start-up enterprises in low-income communities. Such programs […]
Keeping The Pressure On Dow
Unbelievably another decade has passed since one of the most horrific industrial disasters in history occurred in Bhopal, India. What isn’t unbelievable is that shareholders are still calling for Dow to accept responsibility and to clean up the tons of toxic waste that contaminated the local water supply. The contamination is still posing health risks […]
November Monthly Commentary
After a spike in volatility in October and a subsequent recovery, it was back to more of the same for US markets in November as many domestic equity indices scaled new highs. Conversely, 10-year government bond yields in many countries—Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Japan— dropped to all-time lows late in the month as […]
Do You Know How Your Money Is Being Spent?
Today, the Sunlight Foundation released a report about the political spending of the top 200 politically active companies. They document billions of corporate lobbying that is turned into trillions of dollars of corporate welfare. The UUA has been fighting for companies to disclose this spending to shareholders so that shareholders will know how their money […]
October Monthly Commentary
Markets experienced a turbulent ride in October but wound up in a familiar place by month end with domestic equities positive and Treasury yields lower. A wave of volatility spurred by global growth concerns permeated through markets – first felt in currencies and then resulting in a sharp equity selloff early in the month. US […]
Shareholders Challenge Policies for Foreign-Based LGBT Workers
The UUA has joined a group of U.S. investors to press some of the nation’s largest publicly traded corporations urging them to extend their LGBT nondiscrimination policies and equal benefits policies to their employees abroad. The UUA is concerned about the highly varied and often harsh legal and cultural environments faced by LGBT communities in […]
February Monthly Commentary
Financial markets reversed course in February as global equities rallied. The MSCI EAFE Index returned 6.0% amid investor anticipation of the European Central Bank’s quantitative easing program, which kicks off this month. The gains were also driven by strong returns from Japan, where multinational companies reaped the benefits of a weakened yen and recent inflation […]