Money, religion, and politics: all dinner table no-nos. But what about an investing strategy that combines them all?

A growing number of asset managers are picking investments based on the specific ideological, religious, or even political leanings of their investors—and making a profit to boot.

The biggest faith-based fund manager on the market is Inspire Investing. The firm screens for investments based on an “Inspire Score,” which it calculates “based on their alignment with biblical values and the degree to which they operate as blessings to their customers, communities, workforce and the world,” according to its website. That means screening out companies with any involvement in what it calls “violations,” such as embryonic stem cell research, gambling, tobacco, abortion rights, and IVF.

The firm’s largest fund, the $331 million Inspire 100 ETF (BIBL)—regardless of how you feel about this topic, you must admit that’s an apt ticker—is made up of the 100 largest “biblically aligned” companies in the United States.

Meanwhile, some asset managers are catching the conservative wave that is currently sweeping over corporate America. One expressly political conservative fund is the $87 million God Bless America ETF (YALL)—again, incredible ticker—which is for “god-fearing, flag-waving conservatives,” according to its website. These flag-wavers had a good year: The fund beat the S&P 500 in 2024.

Many faith-based asset managers, such as GuideStone Funds, which has $24 billion in assets under management, are using their stakes in major companies to pressure them to end policies such as covering employee travel costs to get abortions. While these funds don’t hold large enough stakes in massive corporations to pull off a successful activist campaign, they can still mount public pressure to push them in the direction of the fund’s values.

Value investing

Investing based on personal values isn’t a new phenomenon. Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing, for example, swept the asset management world in 2021, before losing popularity among retail traders and institutional investors alike.

And Christian-based investing certainly isn’t the only form of faith-focused finance. There are forms of faith-based investing centered on other religions, such as halal investment screening.

A key job of financial advisors is to help clients invest in line with their values regardless of whether they fall into any specific ideology or religion. That could include screening out investments in countries with human rights abuses, or publicly traded companies that collaborated with the Nazis in World War II, for example.

The bottom line: Investing is personal for everyone, whether you’re looking at a company's labor policies or its balance sheet. Ultimately you must choose what’s best for your conscience—and your profits.—LB

Investors sometimes forget that the stock market isn’t the economy—which is understandable, considering that when the economy experiences a recession it tends to drag the market down with it. But not always.

In a note yesterday, Deutsche Bank Macro Strategist Henry Allen pointed out something we’ve been pounding the table on lately: Market valuations are sky-high. But with the US economy looking strong, it doesn’t seem like there’s much reason for investors to worry about a market downturn.

Yet downturns do occur without a recession, albeit rarely—only eight times since the 1960s, in fact. Usually, there’s two factors involved in these sell-offs: The Fed is hiking interest rates, and slower economic growth raises fears of an oncoming recession that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“So if growth remains strong and the Fed doesn't start hiking rates again, it’s not implausible that elevated valuations continue for some time,” Allen concluded. “But history demonstrates that if signs of a slowdown do emerge or rate hikes move back on the table, then it's possible for equities to experience a notable decline, even without a recession.”

If you feel unsettled by the image of your cat driving a Cybertruck that your 12-year-old nephew created with Midjourney, just think about how freaked out decades-old corporations are by all the nascent tech out there.

That’s probably why some legacy companies are teaming up to weather the AI revolution storm. Just this week, Getty Images announced it was merging with former rival Shutterstock to create a new $3.7 billion stock-image behemoth to cut costs and beat out competitors—such as Midjourney itself.

Investors seem to think the two photo giants will make a picture-perfect couple: Shutterstock is up TK% since the news, while Getty has risen TK% since the deal was announced.

Every company is an AI company now

Shutterstock and Getty aren’t the only companies looking for ways to prevent themselves from becoming obsolete as more and more industries implement AI technology.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, that giant information bible your third-grade English teacher plopped onto your desk, is seeking a whopping $1 billion in an IPO planned for this summer. The 250-year old-publisher has shifted away from print over recent years, and toward AI-learning tools, specifically with its subsidiaries Melingo AI and Britannica Education.

But just because a company can embrace AI, should it? Industries like healthcare, cybersecurity, and financial services have more obvious uses for automation upgrades. But even sectors like manufacturing are leveraging machine learning to cut costs and streamline logistics.

Experts emphasize that we’re still in the early innings of AI adoption, and that there might be use cases that surprise us, as well as some hyped-up applications that don’t end up panning out. Only time will tell which is which.—LB

• Homebuyers beware: The rate on a 30-year mortgage is hovering just below 7%.
• Indian companies are going public at record rates, and the hot IPO streak is expected to continue this year.
• 694 companies filed for bankruptcy last year, the highest level of closures since 2010. Why?
• Dockworkers and port owners reached a deal and avoided another work stoppage.
• Amazon’s advertising business is one of the company’s fastest-growing segments, which is why the online retailer is doubling down.
• Want 100% of bitcoin’s profits but none of its risk? Try this ETF.

This week wraps up with a bang: the US jobs report tomorrow morning. If you’ll recall, this is the same monthly, all-encompasing labor market breakdown that surprised investors to the downside so badly last August that the entire stock market temporarily tanked. Economists are hoping that December’s numbers don’t surprise to the downside once again—although with the likelihood of more rate cuts in 2025 continuing to dwindle, maybe some bad news would actually be good news for investors.

Finally, we’ve actually got a few earnings announcements worth watching as the first numbers of the new season begin to trickle in.

Before the open

Delta Air Lines’ announcement tomorrow should benefit from a comparison to its previous earnings report, in which the massive CrowdStrike outage took a toll on the company’s bottom line. With that out of the way, a quarter-over-quarter improvement is almost guaranteed. But there are still plenty of question marks management will have to be ready for: volatile fuel costs, inclement weather and subsequent cancellations, and the impact of sticky inflation on revenue. Consensus: $1.74 EPS, $14.64 billion in revenue.

Constellation Brands, like all alcoholic beverage companies, has a problem: Americans aren’t drinking beer the way they once did. Attempts to pivot to canned cocktails and THC-infused beverages have fizzled, and now the company has another problem: tariffs. Trump’s proposed 25% tariffs could take a serious toll on a company that produces brands like Corona, Modelo, and more in Mexico. Shareholders will want to hear a gameplan for how the beer and booze company plans to endure all these headwinds. Consensus: $3.32 EPS, $2.54 billion in revenue.