On Twitter, Tesla CEO Elon Musk made critical comments as he shared an article which showed that tobacco companies like Philip Morris had higher ESG scores than the electric vehicle pioneer. Tesla was given an ESG score of 37 out of 100, while Philip Morris was scored an 84.

This isn’t the first time that Musk has spoken out against ESG. In addition to tobacco companies, Tesla also scored lower than fossil fuel companies like Shell and Exxon. Given the growth in ESG funds and influence of asset managers like Blackrock, stocks with higher ESG scores are the recipient of increased inflows.

However, this has also led to opposition as many see ESG rating as faulty and politically motivated. Additionally, companies are accused of ‘greenwashing’ or other behavior to game the ratings system to artificially boost ESG scores. 

For many, this is an indication that ESG investing is misguided as tobacco causes millions of deaths around the globe every year, and companies with a record of contributing to climate change are given better scores than Tesla which is leading the charge in making EVs more popular and cheaper.   

ESG proponents counter that Tesla scores well on environmental factors but falls short in terms of social and governance factors, leading to a poor overall score. 

Finsum: Elon Musk made critical comments about ESG investing following reports of tobacco companies and oil companies with higher ESG scores than Tesla.

In the Financial Times, David Thorpe covered comments from John Roe, the head of multi-asset investing at Legal and General Investment Management, about why investors need to move past the 60/40 portfolio. Until recently, the 60/40 model portfolio was considered the gold standard based on the notion that stocks and bonds are inversely correlated.

According to Roe, this concept doesn’t work in higher-rate and higher inflation environments like the 70s. He added that "The idea is that if a real recession happens, then equities fall in value but bonds rise in value because the expectation is that inflation would be falling. But the reality is that in the 70s and the 80s, when we had a recession but inflation was also quite high, that inverse correlation didn’t always happen.”

He advises investors to also have a healthy allocation to more asset classes including real estate, alternatives, and emerging markets. These investments would outperform if inflation proves to be entrenched. As 2022 demonstrated, both stocks and bonds are liable to underperform when inflation surprises to the upside. 

Finsum: The 60/40 portfolio has been considered the gold standard for investors. However, this is being reconsidered especially as it has shown to underperform in periods of higher inflation.

Last week, the International Energy Agency declared that the world will reach peak oil demand by the end of the decade. It attributes this to an increasing share of energy produced by renewables, the explosion in EV adoption, and continued increases in efficiency. 

Due to these factors, it sees growth in oil demand growing marginally over the next few years before peaking in 2030. This year, the agency sees $2.8 trillion invested in the energy sector with $1.7 trillion going into non-fossil fuel sources like nuclear energy, renewables, and EVs. 

Out of this group, solar is the leader with nearly $700 billion in investments which is nearly equivalent to all of the capital spending on oil. In total, fossil fuel investments which include coal, oil, and natural gas are expected to total $1 trillion. 

In terms of EVs, the agency forecasts that 14 million will be sold this year. It also sees continued adoption with electric buses and trucks gaining market share. 

Overall, the IEA believes that investors and fossil fuel companies need to make appropriate adjustments to account for these shifts in behavior and consumption. 

Finsum: The IEA recently declared that oil demand will peak in 2030 due to increasing EV adoption, growth in renewables, and increasing efficiencies. 

For VettaFi’s ETFTrends Channel, Nick Peters-Golden discusses why active fixed income is the best way for investors to take advantage of higher yields. Investors should be discriminating when it comes to selecting fixed income instruments due to challenges like the inverted yield curve and the lack of real yields in many areas.

The overall climate is becoming more favorable to fixed income with the Fed finished or in the final innings of its hiking cycle, while inflation continues to moderate. However, investors should favor certain categories.

The best opportunities from a risk and reward perspective are in corporate credit and global, high-yield. Active fixed income funds offer investors the opportunity to increase exposure to these parts of the market, while avoiding less attractive parts.

According to Peters-Golden, active fixed income allows a bottom-up approach to investing which will outperform index-based funds. And, this judiciousness is more necessary in the current environment given the wide dispersion in quality and yields. 

For instance, active corporate credit funds are able to outperform, because they are allocating to firms with strong balance sheets, while corporate credit index funds are taking a one size fits all approach. 

Finsum: Trends are improving for bonds, but investors need to remain selective given the unique nature of the cycle. Active fixed income allows increased allocation to areas with better fundamentals and avoids ones where the risk-reward is not attractive.

One of the surprising developmentds of 2023 has been the strength in equity markets and subsequent decline in volatility. Currently, the VIX is trading at its lowest levels in the last couple of years despite many headwinds such as a slowing economy and a hawkish Fed.

In Barron’s, Nicholas Jasinski discusses whether the decline in volatility is temporary or will it be sustained for the rest of the year. He notes that many of the market’s worries have eased such as Republicans and Democrats coming together to raise the debt ceiling, the regional banking crisis has seemingly passed, and economic data continues to come in better than expected.

On top of this, investors have been on the sidelines with most inflows into fixed income or defensive strategies, while short interest also remaisn elevated. The net result is that the S&P 500 is up more than 20% from its October lows, and many believe a new bull market has started. 

Whether these gains will sustain and volatility will continue trend lower will depend on factors like inflation, the Fed’s rate path, and credit conditions. However, it’s clear that the market has climbed the bulk of its ‘wall of worry’.

Finsum: Volatility is at its lowest levels since before the bear market began. How it will fare in the coming months will depend on inflation, the Fed, and whether credit conditions continue to tighten.