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Do you remember “the end of history”? In the early 1990s, when I started university in Scotland, Francis Fukuyama’s notion that the world was converging on liberal democracy was all the rage. It suited the pervasive post-communist optimism of the time. As I had grown up next to the Eastern bloc and been confronted with the consequences of the colossal failure of collectivism every day (watching dumbstruck Czechs and Hungarians ogling the goods in Viennese shop windows after the Iron Curtain fell was unforgettable), it was a concept I enthusiastically embraced. The world spins backwards A couple of months into my first term, my confidence was dented by Fukuyama himself. He had come to give a lecture about his next book, Trust. By the end of the lecture, nobody did.…

“The consensus [is] that the Footsie has become... gout-ridden and arthritic... [London’s] chronic malaise has prompted much... soul-searching. I’ve... lost count of the number of reviews there have been into the UK’s listing rules... But it’s incorrect to say that the UK... can’t produce [technology firms]. There’s a very notable example – RELX... It claims to be one of the first companies in the world to have commercialised generative artificial intelligence and has been using machine learning... for over a decade... Americans call their biggest tech firms ‘the Magnificent Seven’. Why don’t we make much of a fuss over our equivalents?... Over the last 40 years, [RELX’s] shares have risen more than 6,000%... At the very least, RELX gives the lie to... assumptions about the UK market being inimical to…

Last year, China’s fast-fashion firm Shein filed the paperwork for a New York listing that it hopes could value it at as much as $90bn. But its plans have suffered a “huge setback”. Shein has decided that it needs to seek Beijing’s approval to go public, says Anshuman Daga on Breakingviews. While Shein moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2021, and doesn’t sell directly to the Chinese market, it was founded in China and “relies primarily on thousands of third-party contract manufacturers in the People’s Republic”. As a result, China’s stockmarket regulator may decide that it is indeed “subject to Chinese listing rules”, which could result in its share price taking a hit given the extent to which global investors “have turned sour on Chinese equities”. Defying Beijing would be…

Furniture store DFS took a “hammering” last year as a pandemic-era boom in furniture buying ebbed and rising interest rates made it more expensive to secure financing for a plush new sofa. The cycle should swing back in 2024. The housing market will recover, and families moving into “new digs” need “somewhere to sit” (116p). These days Prudential is “mostly an Asian-focused insurer” with a minimal UK footprint. The valuation is cheap and it could prove an attractive takeover target for one of the big Asian financial institutions (820p). FTSE 100 mining engineer Weir Group should be well placed to profit from structural demand to dig up more copper, cobalt and nickel to fuel the green energy transition. Management is targeting 20% margins, and a large “aftermarket share of revenues”…

● Relx is “the poster child for digital transformation”, says Matthew Booker on Bloomberg. Boss Erik Engstrom (pictured) has turned the firm (formerly Reed Elsevier) from an “unremarkable” trade and academic publisher into a “data and analytics powerhouse”, instilling a culture of continuous improvement and cost discipline. It helped that data had become the “new oil”: the trend allowed Relx to cash in on its LexisNexis database. Since Engstrom took over in 2009, the shares have produced a ten-fold return, with dividends reinvested, and the group’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) margin has expanded every year bar one. It trades on a price/earnings ratio of 28, in line with Apple and Meta, and above the FTSE 100’s average of ten. Relx lags rival Wolters Kluwer, but stands…

Meta Platforms is one of the few stocks that can get the full benefit of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, says Stephen Yiu, manager of the Blue Whale Growth Fund, who has bought back into the stock after ditching it in January 2022. ”Companies with the most data will benefit the most,” he tells Citywire. Meta – which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram – “has the most efficient delivery system for personalised ads, and that’s only possible with AI”. When Yiu sold out of Meta he was concerned about rising competition from TikTok, but that’s no longer a concern. TikTok’s growth potential will be capped, especially in the US, because of its Chinese ownership. Meanwhile, Meta now has new opportunities. Generative AI tools will make it possible to produce “a…

■ “The era of the personality cult of fund managers is long gone,” says Patrick Hosking in The Times. The collapse of Neil Woodford’s £10bn empire; the demise of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s Somerset Capital Management; Alexander Darwall’s doomed backing of Wirecard; and the disgrace of Crispin Odey show that investment stars are struggling. “The headwinds facing boutiques and fund managers trading on their star quality are greater than they were” owing to tougher regulation, higher costs for compliance and the focus on accumulating assets rather than selecting stocks. So all eyes will be on Ben Whitmore following his departure from Jupiter. “As long as he maintains investment performance, he has a good chance” of thriving, but he should engage with the media and clients more as he has a reputation for…

fee.org Ford has slashed in half its production goal for its most popular electric vehicle (EV), says Jon Miltimore. It has also been slashing prices as a massive glut builds up on dealers’ lots. A multi-billion-dollar punt on EVs following a record-breaking year of sales in 2021 looks to be going bad. The reason is not that EVs are bad –many are “fantastic”. But like everything else, there are trade-offs. EVs tend to be more expensive, and prices have been rising. They have a lower driving range, and the infrastructure for recharging is patchy. They’re not even that green: the manufacture of EVs has a larger carbon footprint than that for petrol-powered cars, and you have to own and drive them for a long time before you make up for…

Last week saw the much-anticipated launch of the bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). What are the implications for bitcoin? And what are the implications for MicroStrategy (Nasdaq: MSTR), a company we covered on these pages in the summer, when I highlighted it as the best way for UK investors to play bitcoin. Let’s start with bitcoin and come straight to the point. Over the long term the ETFs are an extraordinarily bullish development for the digital currency. They enable vast amounts of capital to enter the market, both at the retail and institutional level. There really isn’t that much bitcoin available to buy at present. Most supply is tightly held. The kind of money that can now come into this market is so large that over the longer term these ETFs…

● The cost of raising children continues to soar, says Ollie Corfe in The Telegraph. “The total bill from pregnancy to adulthood – adding up everything from a pram to schooling” comes to almost £640,000 for a couple earning £50,000 a year each and raising three children. Opt for private schooling and the bill rises to £1.3m. One of the biggest costs is food. The weekly food shop for a household with children has risen, on average, by £1,200 since the advent of Covid. ● “The amount you can expect to win on the Premium Bonds will drop in March in the latest sign that banks expect interest rates to start falling,” says George Nixon in The Sunday Times. National Savings & Investments (NS&I) is cutting the prize rate from…

● Thousands of people selling goods on platforms such as eBay, AirBnB and Vinted could fall foul of HM Revenue & Customs. Since 1 January, these platforms have been required to collect data about individual transactions conducted through their sites; this information will then have to be shared with HMRC. The tax authority’s aim is to identify people earning income through the platform that they’re not declaring on annual tax returns. Those caught out could face interest charges and penalties on income tax that HMRC says they should have paid, as well as demands for the tax itself. ● Insurers that have still not paid out to small businesses for losses incurred during Covid will have to add interest charges to the final settlement. Around 60 insurers stand accused of…

Messianic tech bros come and go, but few have embraced the quest for eternity quite like Bryan Johnson, who, since selling his payments-processing business in 2013, has devoted his life to beating Father Time. A personal regimen, determined by his life-extending “Blueprint” methodology and a dedicated team of doctors, includes “downing 111 pills every day, wearing a baseball cap that shoots red light into his scalp, collecting his own stool samples, and sleeping with a tiny jet pack attached to his penis to monitor his night-time erections”, says Time. Johnson, 46, thinks of any act that accelerates ageing – like eating a biscuit, or getting less than eight hours of sleep – as “an act of violence”. Some of his self-treatments are extreme, bordering on gruesome. Last year, Bloomberg Businessweek…

2022 Zeno, Alcohol-Liberated Spanish White £9.99, waitrose.com, plus a huge list of independent merchants which I have listed on my website I point blank refused to write about non-alcoholic wines for 21 years when I wrote a weekly column for the Daily Mail, and 17 years into my MoneyWeek tenure, I have not typed a word about this style of drink. Before I move on, I must declare an interest in the alcohol-free sector with my eponymous brand, and when I created my drinks, I chose not to pursue the “wine route”, because I believed it could not be done to the level of sophistication I sought. However, a few examples have recently come close to emulating a real wine’s perfume, body and finish. An old friend, David Hodgson, devised…

A guide on investment from Jordan “Wolf of Wall Street” Belfort, the world’s most notorious stock promoter, and convicted fraudster, seems about as sensible an idea for a book as one on fund management by Bernie Madoff or pension advice from Robert Maxwell. But strangely, Belfort’s book is not at all bad – at least, not as bad as you might think given who has written it. Belfort’s surprisingly sensible basic message is that the best way to make money is to be a long-term investor, rather than a short-term trader, and if you must engage in trading you should limit speculative investments to just a small part of your portfolio. Successful investors are those who choose simple, low-cost products, such as index funds, not those who get involved in…

Artificial intelligence (AI) was on display everywhere at the annual CES tech show in Las Vegas last weekend, says James Clayton on BBC News – from an AI pillow that recognises your snoring to an AI vacuum cleaner that “assesses” different surfaces. There was an AI mirror, an AI toothbrush and even an AI washing machine that, according to the Samsung representative, will “learn your clothes” – whatever that means. Companies have come under fierce pressure from investors to have “some kind of AI offering”. Last year, the FTC, the US consumer watchdog, warned against bogus claims, while admitting the term “AI” was “ambiguous”. “So for now, I’m going to stick to my non-AI capable pillow.” Good week for: Wonka, starring Timothée Chalamet (pictured), has “crossed a sweet milestone” in…

Uranium prices have hit their highest level since 2007 as more countries turn to nuclear power. Currently trading at around $92 a pound, the yellow fuel has more than doubled in price since Russia invaded Ukraine, says Jinjoo Lee in The Wall Street Journal. The rally is being driven by power companies, with utilities signing contracts for 160 million pounds of uranium last year, the highest total since 2012, according to data firm UxC. Many countries have plans to expand their nuclear fleets as a way to cut carbon emissions. Yet supply is shaky, with Russia controlling about half of the world’s enrichment capacity and production still all but halted from Niger following last year’s coup. This rally “could have a long half-life”. Around 44% of global uranium production originates…

Burberry had a lousy weekend, says John Abiona in the Daily Mail. On Friday the British fashion brand cut its projected profit figure for the year to 31 March 2024 by £100m. It also reported a 7% drop in sales to £706m in the 13 weeks to 30 December. And on Monday its stock was “downgraded across the City”, with Goldman Sachs saying that its reduced profit forecast was even more “alarming” than its “disappointing” Christmas sales. The shares have halved from their peak of April 2022 and are now at a four-year low. Burberry has blamed its “dismal” Christmas on a slowdown in luxury spending, says Lex in the Financial Times. The group’s “mid-market” position, as well as its small size, which limits its marketing spend, “makes it more…

In a “historic break with a decades-long policy”, North Korea has dropped its commitment to reunification with South Korea in favour of a relationship based on “two belligerents in the midst of war”, says Christian Davies in the Financial Times. This follows last year’s changes to North Korea’s nuclear doctrine, which now allows for a pre-emptive strike under certain circumstances. Meanwhile, “confidence-building” measures, designed to reduce military tensions, seem to have collapsed, with both North and South Korea conducting live-fire exercises close to their disputed maritime border. Many assume that the threats from the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un (pictured), are “bluster”, say Robert Carlin and Siegfried Hecker on 38 North. But the situation “is more dangerous than it has been at any time since early June 1950”. The North seems…

In the MoneyWeek exchange traded fund (ETF) portfolio, there are four holdings that make up our core equity investments. We looked at the US and Europe in recent weeks. Now it’s time to consider one that presents a lot of headaches. Long-term readers will probably know that I am a keen emerging-market investor, so it may sound surprising if I say that there are plenty of reasons to feel uncomfortable with them. This has very little to do with poor performance over the past decade. Markets are cyclical and the US has trumped all for years. Flash back to the 2000s and growth investing was all about cheap emerging markets. The MSCI Emerging Markets index once more stands at a large discount to the MSCI World index of developed markets…

Although China accounts for 28% of the MSCI Emerging Markets index, it only comprises 3% of the MSCI World index. However, MSCI only includes a modest proportion of China’s three markets (Hong Kong, Shanghai and Shenzhen) so the true size of its stockmarkets is much larger, as befits a country accounting for 18% of global GDP. That might suggest that China deserves a country-specific allocation in any portfolio, but the long-term performance of the Chinese stockmarket has been woeful. It has been flat since 2008 while the US market has quadrupled. As Ed Yardeni of Yardeni Research points out, “the Chinese Communist Party’s one-child policy has turned China into the world’s largest nursing home, while its domestic and foreign policies have turned off foreign investors and entrepreneurs”. While the threat…

New nuclear road map is madness Jeremy WarnerThe Telegraph According to the government’s new “nuclear road map”, a third nuclear monstrosity is due to be greenlighted, says Jeremy Warner. Given our record with Hinkley, this is madness. To persuade France’s EDF to even build it, ministers agreed to “punishingly expensive output prices”, committing consumers to high costs for decades to come. The funding model not only led to “grave concerns” around value for money, but it also meant the government set a precedent for potential developers. As a result, it’s moved to a regulated asset base model, which allows the regulator to impose a levy on consumer bills to help finance construction – now we pay for power before we even get it. But the “overarching” question remains: why we…

project-syndicate.org “Every billionaire is a policy failure” is a popular slogan on the progressive left. The populist right, too, want to squeeze the super-rich till the pips squeak. But they have it backwards, says Michael Strain: we should want more billionaires, not fewer. The Nobel laureate William Nordhaus found that only a minuscule fraction of the value created by technological advances accrue to the big cheeses; most goes to consumers. Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos may be worth $170bn, but compare that with the benefits accruing to the millions of consumers who enjoy low prices and more free time. Similarly, Wall Street titans efficiently allocate capital throughout the economy, which lowers costs and spurs productivity and innovation. More fundamentally, “billionaire-bashing” sends young people the “terrible and perverse message that success is…

There’s a new fixed-rate energy deal on the market, and it is the cheapest for two years. Is it worth signing up for? So Energy’s new Mint tariff is the cheapest straightforward deal (you don’t have to sign up to other products to receive the rate) to reach the market since 2022. The tariff will cost the average household using gas and electricity and paying by direct debit £1,834 a year. “This is £100 less than the maximum that suppliers can charge customers under the energy-price cap,” says Ali Hussain in The Times. The energy-price cap limits what suppliers can charge for customers on standard variable tariffs. If you haven’t signed up for a fixed deal then you are probably on a standard variable tariff. The price cap rose by…

One in five small-business founders get their new venture off the ground by borrowing money from parents or another relative, research from stockbroker Charles Stanley suggests. However, while it makes sense for small-business owners to ask family for help, particularly when bank loans are hard to secure, advisers warn that such arrangements can cause all sorts of problems. The potential for a family bust-up is high, especially if the business struggles to make money, as so many new ventures do. The best way to avoid such difficulties is to formalise financial arrangements from the start. When everyone knows where they stand, and what they expect to happen in the future, there is less scope for arguments and recriminations. For entrepreneurs themselves, a good way to start this process is to…

Lloyds Banking Group (LSE; LLOY) is said to be the most widely owned share in the UK, but I’m not sure why. Over the past 15 years, the stock has returned -1.8% per annum, including dividends, underperforming the FTSE All-Share by nearly 10% per year. Its total returns have lagged behind the wider index over the past five and ten years too. It is clear why the bank has struggled since the financial crisis. In the years immediately after the crisis it was preoccupied with shrinking its operations and stabilising its balance sheet. After that, it had to deal with the payment protection insurance (PPI) scandal. It ultimately paid out £21.9bn over mis-selling claims (for comparison, its current market capitalisation is £29bn). Until last year, Lloyds and its peers were…

“I have inherited a fortune and therefore power without having done anything for it,” complains Marlene Engelhorn. “And the state doesn’t even want to tax it,” she sighs. (Austria is one of a handful of European countries that do not impose inheritance tax or death duties.) The 31-year-old (pictured) is a descendant of Friedrich Engelhorn, founder of German chemicals firm BASF, and she inherited €25m from her grandmother. Now she is going to give it away. (Quite how much is unclear, but she said back in 2021 that she wanted to hand out at least 90% of it because she had done nothing to earn it, says the BBC.) Engelhorn is co-founder of the taxmenow campaign to combat wealth inequality, says The Times, and she is putting her inheritance at…

Ferrari has a reputation for producing iconic racing cars, but it’s also a major business. The two worlds collide in Michael Mann’s new film Ferrari, based on the book by Brock Yates, which tells the story of a critical moment in the business and personal life of the firm’s founder, Enzo Ferrari (played by Adam Driver). Despite its fame in racing circles, Ferrari is struggling to stay afloat due to lack of investment. To forge the partnership that will ensure its survival, Enzo needs success in the Mille Miglia road race and the co-operation of his estranged wife Laura (Penélope Cruz), who controls half the company. Enzo’s business problems are further complicated by the off-track drama over the need to make a decision on whether to recognise his son’s relationship…

US regulators have approved the launch of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for the first time. The announcement makes it easier for investors in the world’s biggest market to buy bitcoin and marks an important milestone in the acceptance of the cryptocurrency by the traditional finance system. Not that Gary Gensler, chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is happy about it: “Bitcoin is primarily a speculative, volatile asset that’s also used for illicit activity, including ransomware, money laundering, sanction evasion, and terrorist financing,” he said. The SEC has long opposed bitcoin, but was forced to approve the ETFs after losing a legal case last year. ETFs are portfolios that give investors exposure to assets, says Joe Tidy for the BBC. They are traded on exchanges (much like…

Marks & Spencer (M&S) has hailed its “best-ever Christmas”, says Sarah Butler in The Guardian. Its “concerted push for a bigger share of the weekly grocery shop” has succeeded. In order to “broaden its appeal”, M&S has cut prices on household basics and even offered bigger packs in order to persuade shoppers “to do more than pick up a sandwich for lunch or a ready meal for dinner”. The number of shoppers’ food baskets worth more than £30 rose by 15% over the past quarter, driven “by the larger food halls... created through refurbishments or new openings”. A jump of nearly 10% in “like-for-like food sales” in the 13 weeks to 30 December is one of the main reasons M&S has emerged as one the winners from the key Christmas…

Six to buy Celebrus Technologies Interactive Investor This software business helps companies to harness customer data and improve their marketing. A series of contract wins with blue-chip clients have raised investors’ spirits. The firm is expanding its platform into fraud detection and prevention, a sensible move given its pre-existing expertise. Another technology sell-off could hit the stock, but Celebrus is more defensive than some because its data arm meets “essential needs” for big corporate clients. 236p Eagle Eye Solutions The Sunday Times This personalised marketing specialist provides the software powering the loyalty programmes of major high street supermarkets and retailers, including Pret A Manger’s. The software sends out 750 million offers every week, tailored to each shopper’s preferences and history of purchases. Business is sticky – customers tend to be…

Politics & economics A “frantic day of back-room negotiations and lobbying” between Downing Street and Tory rebels took place on Wednesday, ahead of a critical vote for the Rwanda bill’s third reading, says Ben Riley-Smith in The Telegraph. The third reading will only take place if no amendments to the bill, which are being voted on first, pass. A group of 60 right-wing Tory MPs have threatened the bill by supporting amendments to toughen it up, with Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith both resigning as deputy chairmen in order to vote with the rebels. It would take 32 votes or 64 abstentions to defeat the bill, says Aubrey Allegretti in The Times. This is because for every vote cast against, the government’s majority is reduced by two, while for abstentions…

Donald Trump’s emphatic victory in the Iowa caucuses has only strengthened his position as the favourite to win the next US presidential election. With £8.6m matched on Betfair, Trump is at 2.32 (45.4%) to regain the White House, with Joe Biden at 3.1 (32%). Nikki Haley has drifted back out to 18 (5.5%) and Ron DeSantis is at 85 (1.2%). Interestingly, vice-president Kamala Harris is also at 85 (1.2%). Despite the recent win, I think the markets are still overestimating Trump’s chances, especially considering that one pollster now has him and Haley neck and neck in New Hampshire, the next primary state to vote. I also think they are understating the chances of Biden and especially Harris, who after all would be the person who would almost certainly be the…

It was better than nothing. Over the past few years the market for new listings in London has been slowly dying. Over the whole of 2023, there were only 23 new share issues on the London market, a fall of more than 40% compared with the year before. The total number of companies quoted in the UK has been falling at an accelerating pace, down from 2,400 in 2015 to 1,908 by the end of last year. As businesses have been taken over, merged with rivals, or decided to list elsewhere, they have not been replaced by new companies. The result? The total number keeps on going down. On current trends, by the end of the century there will probably just be a couple of quoted companies left and fund…

“Emerging markets” is a very broad term used to describe countries that are becoming wealthier and more economically advanced, but are not yet classed as developed economies. It was originally coined by Antoine van Agtmael, then an economist at the World Bank, in 1981 as a way of drawing investors’ attention to a set of promising fast-growing stockmarkets such as Brazil, India and South Korea, and was quickly embraced by the investment industry. The definition of an emerging market is not solely related to a country’s level of economic development. Index compilers also take into account the size and liquidity of local financial markets, and issues of accessibility, transparency and stability for foreign investors. Some of these criteria may be subjective, and firms may come to different conclusions. For example,…

Elliott Investment Management has built a stake of about $1bn in Match Group in order to turn the US online-dating company’s performance around and boost its stock price, says The Wall Street Journal. The owner of Hinge, Plenty of Fish and OkCupid boomed during the pandemic, with its valuation eclipsing $40bn in 2021. But a decline in paying customers, particularly at Tinder (the world’s most popular dating site), continued turnover of its top executives and concern over a saturated market have seen the group’s valuation drop to $10bn. Match remains the dominant player in the online-dating sector, however, and dwarfs rivals Bumble, worth $2bn, and Grindr ($1.5bn). Elliott’s specific demands have yet to be revealed.…

“They’re really annoying, especially in the workplace… ‘Nah, I’m not feeling it today, I’m gonna come in at 10.30am.’ Or… in emails, I’ll tell them this is all grammatically incorrect, did you not check your spelling? And [they say]: ‘Why would I do that, isn’t that kind of limiting?’” Actress Jodie Foster (pictured) on Generation Z, quoted in The Guardian “Capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell.” American astronaut Frank Borman, quoted in Forbes “I found it hard to do. It was like selling the family silver, but then they made such a good offer. I’m a wealthy man, but I’m no good to society because I don’t want anything. Still to this day I have that wartime mentality. I find it hard to throw anything away. My Merc…

spectator.co.uk Not so long ago, people who did useful things had people to work for them so that they could do those useful things more easily, says Rory Sutherland. These were drivers, secretaries, assistants and orderlies. What’s the great-grandson of a 1930s chauffeur doing? Probably in administration, HR or compliance, “adding to the burden of the useful people with every click of his mouse”. Whether in the public or private sector, the people who do the work these days find themselves “at the behest of a vast army of box-tickers and pen-pushers who demand that they must conform to a host of metrics and proxy targets so their contribution can fit into a cell on a spreadsheet”. Its principal achievement is a kind of Sovietisation of the workplace, the main…

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the City regulator, “has launched a probe into vehicle-loan companies for overcharging customers and unfairly rejecting their complaints”, says Rosie Murray-West in The Mail on Sunday. The FCA has “hinted that if it finds widespread wrongdoing, it could provide an automatic compensation scheme that could see customers receiving thousands of pounds.” Car financing has burgeoned in recent years: “80%-90% of new cars and an increasing number of used vehicles [are] bought with finance agreements”, says Rupert Jones in The Guardian. Complaints have also been on the rise after the FCA took action relating to how car dealers and brokers could earn commission on finance plans they sold to customers. Until 2021 firms could receive commission linked to the interest rate customers paid, a practice now…

New measures aimed at cracking down on financial crime will require business owners and directors to provide Companies House with more detailed information from March 2024 onwards. Those that fail to comply could find their firms are removed from the register or even face criminal charges. The shake-up applies to all new and existing registered company directors and “persons with significant control”. Individuals will not be allowed to act in such roles unless they have fully verified their identities. Companies House will also have new powers to cross-check data with other bodies, including law-enforcement agencies. Small-business owners may find one aspect of the new rules especially onerous: they will no longer be allowed to file abridged or filleted company accounts. All but the smallest firms will also have to provide…

“Over-60s are expected to comprise 22% of the global population by 2050” The Liontrust Sustainable Future Managed fund targets companies facilitating the transition to a more sustainable global economy. These businesses both enable the transition and benefit from the structural growth opportunities it provides. We divide our investments into three categories: companies that make the world more efficient; healthier or safer; or more resilient. Here are three stocks we are particularly excited about for 2024. Veralto (NYSE: VLTO) provides tools and services to enable the testing and treatment of water. Its technologies reduce the environmental impact of industrial wastewater, and replenish and purify vital water sources. It is also a leader in the detection of PFAS, a nasty chemical that can contaminate drinking water across the world. Technological innovations in…