Displaying items by tag: Goldman Sachs

(New York)

Goldman Sachs is entering the ESG market as it plans to sell bonds to finance greener projects this week. This is part of the firm's broader attempts to provide funds to socially conscious investments. In fact GS plans to issue $750 billion in credit by 2030 to this trending area of finance. CEO of Golman Sachs Bank Carey Halio said to expect a steady stream of issuance in ESG, but the size of these initiatives will grow slowly over time. Goldman is just the latest to jump into this segment of the market. Investors may also have the opportunity to invest in alternative currencies in the future as Goldman has indicated a similar rollout could happen in the euro area. GS is just the latest of financial firms moving into the growing ESG arena. Bank of America, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley helped contribute the $118 billion growth in ESG last year.

FINSUM: Financial firms involvement in ESG will only continue as many of these companies will find helpful policies with the new administration.

(New York)

According to both Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, last week’s retail-driven chaos was nothing…Read the full story here on our partner Magnifi’s site.

(New York)

Goldman Sachs has been one of the biggest bulls on the street so far in 2021. The bank is calling for 6.6% GDP growth and a strong year for the S&P 500. However, in the last week they have been backtracking a bit and pointing out some of the key risks to the economy and market. Whether or not investors like it, Goldman has a very clear risk risk—COVID variants. The bank says that if the new variants make the current vaccine ineffective, then all bets for the market are off. Based on the current science, that seems unlikely to happen. But nonetheless, there are intermediate risks, such as the new variants slowing down herd immunity or making consumers more fearful about going out/spending/the economy, both of which could have unforeseen negative consequences on the economy.

FINSUM: The new virus strains are a big risk. While the current vaccines don’t seem likely to be rendered useless, consumer fear of the new variants could slow down the recovery. Notably, Goldman says its baseline forecasts don’t include any of these eventualities.

(New York)

Goldman Sachs has been leading Wall Street in its bullish outlook for 2021. The bank has been forecasting 6.6% GDP growth, a full 2.5% above the consensus forecast. However, the bank just published a note which represents the first backtrack on that call. The bank pointed out that the new strains of COVID could pose a risk to growth. In particular, they explained that if the current vaccines do not give a high degree of protection against the new COVID strains, then the spending boom which they forecasted this year might be delayed to 2022. In the bank’s own words, if the new strains require a new vaccine “Virus-sensitive spending would likely retrench while a new vaccine is developed, and although a new vaccine could be approved in less than five months, the consumption boom would likely be delayed until 2022”.

FINSUM: We are sure they made this admission with some frustration as GS has been quite bullish. That said, they did so because it is very realistic. It should be noted that most authorities say that the current vaccine should cover the new strains.

(New York)

The market has been a bit choppy to start the year, including a loss over the last five days. See the full story here on our partner Magnifi's site.