TTFNF - ClearBridge Large Cap Value ESG Strategy Q2 2024 Commentary

2024-07-26 01:15:00 ET

Summary

• ClearBridge is a leading global asset manager committed to active management. Research-based stock selection guides our investment approach, with our strategies reflecting the highest-conviction ideas of our portfolio managers.
• U.S. equities rose in a challenging quarter for diversified portfolios as market leadership remained concentrated in a few mega cap companies perceived to be the biggest winners in the growing AI market.
• Multiyear engagements have coincided with improvements in labor relations, environmental stewardship and innovation at Amazon, with advances in benefits and wages, reducing packaging materials and commitments to responsible AI and data privacy among tangible highlights.
• Eliminating waste and pollution, circulating products and materials and regenerating nature are three basic principles at the heart of the circular economy that align with ClearBridge’s fundamental ESG framework.

By Dmitry Khaykin & Deepon Nag

Green Hydrogen Eyes Heavy Industry Market Overview

U.S. equities continued to be a tale of two cities, as enthusiasm for artificial intelligence and new weight loss drugs drove an increasing concentration of "winners" while slowing economic indicators weighed on the broader market. Against this backdrop, the Russell 1000 Value Index trailed its growth counterpart in the quarter, returning -2.17% to the Russell 1000 Growth Index's 8.34% return. Value stocks took a defensive turn in the quarter, with utilities and consumer staples leading as the market rotated out of more cyclical sectors toward companies with more stable earnings, and as some utilities began to get credit for their role in powering the data centers on which AI relies. More economically sensitive and commodity-linked sectors, such as materials and energy, trailed due to rising disinflation and cracks in industrial and consumer activity, which also weighed on consumer discretionary stocks....

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