Rob Lovelace, Jared Franz, Lara Pellini, Mark Casey, Cheryl Frank and Graham Holloway

January 16, 2025

As we enter 2025, market optimism is high amid a strong US economy, interest rate cuts and advances in artificial intelligence. The landscape continues to evolve, presenting challenges and opportunities for investors.

The S&P 500 Index ended 2024 up 25% in US dollar terms, after topping 26% in 2023. But whether this year will be a three-peat of gains hangs on factors beyond investors’ control; instead, we advocate a long-term approach and a “stay invested” mindset.

Against this backdrop, our latest 5 keys to investing report highlights some interesting takeaways about the current environment and shares potential actions to consider as investors evaluate the year ahead.

As Capital Group’s Rob Lovelace highlights in his introduction to the report, the global economic outlook is improving, particularly in the US. Investors from around the world are attracted to the US given its many advantages, including an entrepreneurial spirit, access to capital and the kind of robust infrastructure needed to support growth.

This environment has fostered incredible innovation, especially related to artificial intelligence and drug discovery. We call them megatrends, and they have started to create opportunities in a host of other areas, from industrial companies to the energy sector.

Staying focused on the fundamentals with a multi-year horizon will be key to successfully navigating these changes.

Rob Lovelace is an equity portfolio manager and chair of Capital International, Inc. He has 39 years of investment industry experience (as of 12/31/2024). He holds a bachelor’s degree in mineral economics from Princeton. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Jared Franz is an economist with 19 years of investment industry experience (as of 12/31/2024). He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Northwestern University.

Lara Pellini is an equity portfolio manager with 23 years of investment industry experience (as of 12/31/24). She holds a master’s degree in economics of labor & industrial relations from the London School of Economics and a laurea in public relations and economics of information from the IULM University, Milan.

Mark Casey is an equity portfolio manager with 24 years of investment industry experience (as of 12/31/2024). He holds an MBA from Harvard and a bachelor’s degree from Yale.

Cheryl Frank is an equity portfolio manager with 27 years of investment industry experience (as of 12/31/2024). She holds an MBA from Stanford and a bachelor’s degree from Harvard.