May was a month of market resilience rather than macro comfort. The US-Iran conflict remained an important source of uncertainty, particularly for oil prices and inflation expectations, while central banks continued to face a difficult policy backdrop. Yet equity markets advanced, helped by the combination of AI-related optimism, resilient earnings and improving hopes that the immediate energy shock could fade.

Global equity fund selection has become harder in markets dominated by a small number of mega-cap, AI-linked companies. The challenge for allocators is not simply active versus passive, but whether each global equity fund has a clear role, credible differentiation and evidence that its active risk is worth the governance burden.

UK SDR labels provide a clearer starting point for sustainable fund assessment, but they are not a substitute for allocator judgement. A label frames the claimed sustainability objective. Selectors must still test the formal objective, portfolio alignment, evidence standard, KPIs, stewardship, risks, trade-offs and monitoring triggers, and connect these to the fund’s intended portfolio role.