Market Perspectives
Zevin Asset Management
Q3 2024 Market Outlook

Maybe it really is different this time. A typical business cycle usually consists of an overheating economy followed by higher policy rates imposed by central banks. This eventually leads to a slowing economy, and in 6 out of the last 7 monetary tightening episodes in the U.S since 1970, the economy has fallen into recession. Higher lending rates slow consumption, leading to layoffs, which further slows consumption and more layoffs, and so on. However, this cycle has been different so far. When the Fed began raising interest rates in 2022 to fight inflation, the personal consumption response was much more muted than usual, thanks to previous emergency pandemic stimulus. The U.S. economy has slowed somewhat in response to tighter monetary policy, but employers have been mostly reluctant to implement significant layoffs with the fresh and painful memory of the 2020-2021 pandemic reopening when consumer demand rebounded sharply but employers had a hard time finding workers to satisfy demand. So-called “labor hoarding” has become a significant attribute of the current economic cycle, which has contributed to the relative strength in the labor market, consumption, and the economy in general.

Impact Reporting

Q3 2024 Impact Update

This quarter, Zevin Asset Management continued to share our perspective on racial equity investing, filed our first resolution of the season, and sent letters to pharmaceutical companies and their trade associations to advance health equity. In other news, we continue to defend corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives against political headwinds and have joined global efforts to protect our fragile biodiversity.

Q2 2024 Impact Update

This quarter, we published our fourth impact report, a collection of our firm’s advocacy activities, results, and reflections on the past two years. As we look to this past quarter and wrap up the proxy season, we also carry forward the progress we have made in several areas, while doubling down on corporate workforce issues. As ever, our analysis of corporate environmental, social and governance-related risks is informed by stakeholders on the frontlines of the impacts.

Impact Report 2024

Zevin Asset Management proudly publishes our fourth comprehensive review of the positive impact we have contributed to creating on behalf of, and thanks to, our clients during the reporting period (the 2022-2023 proxy seasons). We invite you to download Impact Report 2024 to learn about Zevin Asset Management’s authentic approach to impact, how we have helped advance urgent issue areas — such as climate change, racial equity, and corporate lobbying alignment — and much more.

Q1 2024 Impact Update

This quarter, investors grappled with the long-awaited, but ultimately underwhelming, climate disclosure rule adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The watered-down rule comes to the relief of corporate management and their trade associations, who lobbied to weaken it. The rule is not the last word on climate disclosure, as standards evolve, but the impacts of delayed action also bear a social and environmental cost.

Q4 2023 Impact Update

Despite two ongoing wars, devastating extreme weather events, and a clearer sense of the magnitude and speed of biodiversity loss, we enter the new year encouraged, nonetheless, by positive learnings from the past year and confident in the long-term impact of our advocacy efforts. As we enter a possibly tumultuous election year, we are emboldened by recent union-led wins, the rising voices of workers, and reminded of the importance of fortifying our democracy.