February 2023 · Islamic Finance: What Can We Learn from the Other One Percent?

Recently, sustainability-related investment trends have come into the political spotlight, leading to heightened regulatory attention. As the financial industry tries to address these challenges, it may be timely to look to other financial frameworks. One such framework represents approximately 1% of global financial assets, and it could offer valued guidance for the ever evolving financial industry, particularly as it relates to the broad sustainability community: Islamic finance.

February 2023 · The Midterm Effect

Every four years we arrive upon a phenomenon with an unblemished multi-decade record of calling the market over the next year – the Midterm Effect. Between 1945 and 2007, the calendar year return of the S&P 500 was positive in 16 out of 16 of the years following a midterm election, correlating to the third year of presidential terms. The winning streak continued in 2011, 2015, and 2019. There is valid reason to believe that something is different about the year following midterm elections.

December 2022 · What Recent Anti-ESG Rhetoric Gets Wrong

Many criticisms of ESG investing point to the lack of correlation across various ratings organizations and suggest this undermines ESG investing, writ large. Saturna has long recognized this issue, raising it through our own research. The weak correlation across ESG ratings doesn’t mean the practice should be thrown out; rather, there’s an important role for discerning human analysis.

November 2022 · Bonds as Tools for Impact

Bonds are a major component of building our society, and while they are largely invisible to the average investor, they are woven into the fabric of life on this planet. Sovereign governments use the debt markets to finance spending programs. Local municipalities access the market to build infrastructure such as roads and water systems that serve entire communities. Schools, universities, and hospitals need the debt markets for improvements and expansion.

June 2022 · Actively Managing Islamic Investments

As the largest manager of Islamic investments in the United States, we believe that in the realm of Islamic investing, a truly passive option doesn’t exist. Instead, we ask where the active decisions are being made; in the choices of which screening methods are used to design the index, or in the implementation of screening methods in the actual investment portfolio?

April 2022 · Climate Risks and Sovereign Issuers: Sailing into an Environmental Storm?

This edition of From The Yardarm examines how effectively ESG ratings firms assess sovereign ESG factors, especially concerning the environment. We will discuss climate initiatives formed by the United Nations and examine how sustainability regulations and investors' behavioral biases are potentially increasing risk rather than reducing it.

December 2020 · Islamic Investing 2.0: The Way Forward

Traditional Islamic-compliant mutual funds have served Muslim investors well in the four decades since the first was launched in Malaysia. By fostering partnership in shared risk and reward (musharaka), and by allowing investors to diversify their assets while avoiding haram activities — typically alcohol, tobacco, gaming, financial services, pork processing, and pornography.

July 2020 · Beyond Bonds: Are Gulf-Region Sukuk the Ultimate Asset Allocation Tools?

This primer provides an overview of the investment landscape and characteristics of sharia-compliant investment certificates, referred to as sukuk, as a market niche that continues to evolve.  We cover the risk and return attributes of sukuk and explore their relationship to changes in the price of oil; an important point to consider since hydrocarbons largely drive sukuk issuers’ economies. 

May 2020 · Feeding 10 Billion People in a Climate-Changing World

By 2050, nearly 10 billion people will live on our planet. In order to sustain this population and our growing demand for resource-intensive animal-based foods, the World Resources Institute estimates that crop production will need to increase by 56% from a 2010 baseline.

January 2020 · Relics of the Past? Disruptive Innovation in the Telecom Industry

The telecom industry has seen tremendous worldwide growth in recent years as consumers use an increasing number of applications and services. Despite meaningful subscriber and data growth over the last decade, US telecom industry revenue has grown only modestly. We believe several factors explain the disconnect: competition, regulations, and disruption from over-the-top providers.