funds

We have been reading the Bible as a moral guide for centuries. More and more people use it for something else: looking for investment funds

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When one puts your savings (many or few) in investment funds what you want are good returns. May your money generate more money. The question is… When pursuing this objective, can any criteria be applied beyond the strictly economic one? Is the search for profitability compatible with a moral approach? There are people who believe that the answer is ‘yes’ and that the financial sector must grow with an eye on environmental ethics or social, what happens, for example, by not supporting polluting companies. In that line, more and more people He decides to put his money in another type of investment funds: those that combine the search for profits with the morality of the Catholic Church. Investments and ethics? Exact. Although investment funds and exchange traded funds (ETF) are tools created to generate money, part of the financial sector has been trying to manage them with an ethical approach. Their idea is very simple: they offer returns, but with the guarantee that their analysts will be as attentive to the stock market as they are to the ESG criteria (Environmental, social and governance). That is, the idea is to bet on companies that in theory apply good practices and are respectful of the environment. What about religion? Among these ‘ethical’ funds, not all of them focus on respect for nature or human rights. There are those who emphasize the spiritual. His idea is that money generates profitability thanks to companies that conform to the precepts of a religion. Said this way, it may sound very abstract, but in practice it is very simple: investors avoid companies that make money through pornography, contraceptives, gambling, drugs, child exploitation, weapons, stem cell research… A clear example is the ‘Islamic EFT’funds that operate with sharia on the one hand, betting on companies that comply with the laws of the Koran. Does it happen with Christianity? Yes, too. In fact, just a few months ago, in februarythe Vatican Bank launched two stock indices that aim to make it easier for those who want to invest their money with a Catholic mentality. To be more precise, the Institute for the Opera of Religion (IOR) presented the Morningstar IOE Eurozone Catholic Principles and Morningstar IOR US Catholic Principles, a sort of S&P 500 and Euro Stoxx 50 ‘Vatican version’. “Both benchmarks are developed following best market practices and in accordance with Catholic ethical criteria. They are designed to serve as a reference for Catholic investments around the world,” explains the IOR. In the case of the European index are included for example, the banks Santander and BBVA, the technology company ASML or the luxury firm Hermes, while other multinationals with defense subsidiaries or presence in the alcohol market are relegated. In the case of the USA, Meta or Amazon appear. But… Do these funds move money? Yes. We know it thanks to a recent analysis of Five Days which confirms that Christian funds are strengthening their footprint globally. And clearly, too. The latest report from the consulting firm Brightlight shows that in the last five years alone they have doubled their assets, going from just over 58.5 billion dollars in the summer of 2020 to more than 115,700 million at the end of September 2025. If we look further back, funds based on Christian principles barely accumulated an asset of 16.5 billion in 2009 or 1,500 in 1990. What do they invest in? The increase in variable income assets stands out above all, followed by fixed income assets. In total Brightlight has identified 166 funds Christians, which is also double the number recorded in 2010. Such an increase is not explained only by the launch of the two indices of the IOR in February. Much earlier, in 2022, the Church already published Mensuram Bonama document with “a set of principles and criteria” aimed at the financial sector. “Investors are increasingly looking for benchmarks that reflect specific value- or policy-based criteria,” defend Morningstar. And how are they doing? Not bad. Although in general investment funds that are guided by ESG criteria have not gone through his best moment (last year they saw capital outflows worth more than $80 billion), the S&P 500 Catholic Values ​​Index has located above of the S&P 500 in recent years. Nothing surprising, moreover, if we see the list of companies on which it focuses. The growth of funds with a Christian focus can be explained, beyond the drift of the stock market, by their own characteristics. Some, for example, donate a part of their commissions to entities linked to the Church. Images | Virgil Cayasa (Unsplash) In Xataka | There is a piece of information that clarifies whether or not the Spanish Generation Z is experiencing an upswing in religiosity: the 29-59% paradox

43% of European funds for batteries

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Spain is trying to create more energy batteries to store surplus renewable energy, something key for the future to achieve energy independence and also to avoid episodes like the April blackout. Although several communities were competing for aid, there is a clear winner: Andalusia. The ERDF are EU funds to encourage energy transformation and in Spain there were several communities in dispute. After the modifications, for state energy storage there was 818 million in aid to be distributed according to the final resolution. Although Andalusia has suffered a cut of 20 million compared to the previous plan, it is still a good pinch considering that almost half of the funds go there. Why is it important. The primary objective of the ERDF program is to strengthen the economic, social and territorial cohesion of the European Union, reducing disparities between regions through investments that boost growth, employment, innovation, the green and digital transition, and territorial cooperation, supporting less developed regions and transforming industries in decline. And this is demonstrated with this definitive roadmap. Why Andalusia. Taking into account economic reasons, it is worth remembering that the IDAE designed the call from the beginning, distributing the budget into regional pools and from the beginning Andalusia received the highest allocation, even after the downward adjustment of the final resolution. Under EU criteria, Andalusia is classified as a “less developed region”a designation intended for those whose GDP per capita is less than 7% of the EU average. In short: it has absolute priority for the distribution of funds. The co-financing rate is higher precisely because of the previous classification taking into account the regulatory bases, which allows us to reach 85% compared to other areas such as Madrid or Catalonia. When faced with similar projects, those present in a less developed region receive more subsidies. But there are also strategic reasons derived from the state’s renewable energy infrastructure and its operation. Andalusia is going to become Spain’s battery: with this aid it will not only lead the generation of clean energy, but will also have the technologies to manage it. Andalusia concentrates some of the projects with the greatest storage capacity of the entire call, such as those from Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure or the Rolwind battery system (ST Palmosilla) one of the largest in the state. Andalusia is the state leader in installed power in photovoltaic solar energy and as points out the PNIECregions with very high variable renewable generation urgently need storage to avoid spills and thus guarantee electrical stability. In figures. The final resolution of the plan is lower than the initial proposal, with a total budget of 818 million in non-refundable public aid allocated to 126 projects (previously there were 133), 2.2 GW of power and a total capacity of 9.4 GWh. All this with September 30, 2029 as the deadline. Three operators concentrate more than 50% of the awarded capacity: Iberdrola with 2,333.7 MWh and 12 projects, Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure with more than 1,500 MWh and eight projects and Rolwind Renovables with 1,225 MWh and 2 large-scale projects. Behind, other relevant actors such as Naturgy, BenBros or Ecoener. Andalusia accounts for 43% of the aid, with 354.5 million euros. It is the area with the most projects and accumulated volume. Galicia and Castilla-La Mancha follow, with 97.2 and 98 million euros respectively. The only Autonomous Community whose budget increases is Extremadura, going from 73 to 91 million euros. In detail. In the list of awarded projects, those hybridized with renewables (the majority, photovoltaic) prevail, followed by independent batteries, thermal storage and pumped hydroelectricity. Spain has achieved very competitive prices compared to other European tenders. Without going any further, according to Strategic Energy The average price for independent storage systems (stand-alone) was €64,933/MWh/year, below markets such as Italy. In Xataka | The solar miracle that went wrong: Spain produces more electricity than it can manage In Xataka | The perfect storm for electricity companies occurs in Spain: daytime solar surpluses, nighttime peaks… and increasingly cheaper batteries Cover | Sungrow EMEA

There are people buying land, farms and pig farms in Spain. And those people are investment funds

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If this were not an article by Xataka, if it were a novel by Michael Ende: the story would begin with a top-down shot of the Segrià fields. We would see farms and more farms, cereal fields, irrigated orchards, roads, the Segre winding through the plain. And, as we got closer to the ground, we would see a flood of little gray men with briefcases full of money. The argument would be obvious: the field is for sale and the funds have gone out to buy. 34 million pig heads. That is Spain: the undisputed leader of European pork, the third producer worldwide. A giant, no matter how hackneyed the metaphor may be, with feet of clay. And the Spanish countryside has many problems, but the most worrying (because it has no solution — neither easy nor difficult) is its exasperating lack of generational change. Thousands of farms are on the brink of disappearance simply because no one wants to take charge of them once the owner retires. And that “nobody” doesn’t include the funds? Not until very recently. Agriculture was an unsexy sector for financial capital, but now the situation has changed. We have seen it with agriculture: aggressive field management can generate a lot of income (even if it is at the cost of large negative externalities). Now, in addition, today two great factors have joined the celebration of capital: the first is that the mass of exploitations without relief is enormous. The second is that the processes of integration of farms with the meat industry have reached a point of no return — “the field” and “the industry” are now almost synonymous. A sea full of sharks. But, if that were not enough, the pressure on aquifers and international volatility are turning the agricultural world into a difficult place for small farms. Only large corporations have the lungs to dive into such tough markets. Is this bad news? If we look at the Spanish movements from a more international perspective, I’m afraid so. The Californian case is a warning for sailors: large funds are buying properties solely and exclusively for your water rights. And so, as seen in the last droughtit’s a huge problem. A problem that adds to environmental conflictsto rent captureto agricultural changesto the industrial dismantling of emptied Spain. A strange future. As I said before, Spain is the great agricultural power of the continent. In fact, little by little, it has become one of the great world powers in the marketing of agricultural products. But it will not be easy to stay there, the financial funds They are the best example and the problem is that everything seems to indicate that, along the way, the Spain we know will not be recognized by “not even the mother who gave birth to it.” Image | Annie Spratt | Markus Winkler In Xataka | The great paradox of Spanish olive oil: although it grows 15% a year, more than 500 olive oil mills will close in the next decade

Ozempic has made thousands of people lose weight brutally. Then they have put their closet funds for sale

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Novo Nordisk, the Ozempic manufacturer, has just presented the results of the first quarter and the data are impressive: we talk about 3,891 million euros, 14% more than last year. And, of course, that He has shot the price of the company. The most interesting, however, is why. And the answer is very simple: the treatments against obesity have risen 67%. It is what allows us to intuit that the Ozempic revolution (and the rest of the GLP-1 agonists go far beyond what we might think. So much so that he is putting up legs The second -hand market. Something is changing. In mid -2024, second -hand sales platforms began to see how the clothes offered in their systems changed. In the previous two years, large -scale women’s clothing ads had grown surprisingly: “A 103% increase in 3xl size ads, 80% in 4xl size and 73% in 5xl size”. Not only that, Poshmark analyzed the ads and discovered “a 78% increase in the new ads that mention ‘weight loss’ in the title or description.” Dressed Collective, specialized in second -hand sale of high quality products, has also detected a similar phenomenon and Goodwillfinds, which reverts donated clothing, says they are increasingly donated. Vinted He has also noticed. How do we know that all this has to do with Ozempic? We can’t be sure, it’s true. But, as they point out in Fortune, one in eight Americans already USA SEMAGLUTIDA OR ANOTHER GLP-1 agonist and the trend has been growing very closely to how the use of these medications grew. And, whatever it is, it is an issue that everyone begins to intuit that is serious. In fact, there are more and more resale programs of the brands themselves. Given these market changes, brands such as Levi’s, Patagonia and Carhartt Wip have begun to mount their own stores that allow them to also be present in this “second life” of their products. After all, As they point out in Vogue Business“The resale has been one of the only retail trade engines in recent years.” In fact, the market has been bent since 2021. However, not all the mountain is oregano. The problem is evident: as thousands of people lose weight significantly and They decide to purge their cabinetsthe stocks of second -hand stores are unbalanced: there is a lot of big clothes to sell and few people who want to buy it. That is, if analysts are right, we are going to A great readjustment of the fashion we produce, sell and buy. In a world pregnant with data and more data, it may seem curious that the first to realize have been Second -hand platformsbut little by that we think it is so predictable that it scares. Above all, To luxury brands. Image | YAP In Xataka | XL models: When you are harassed by your body in real life and influencer admired on Instagram

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