BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, raised its investment opinion on emerging market

Anthropic integrated its AI assistant, Claude, with Charles Schwab and BlackRock platforms on September 14, enabling financial advisers to access client and portfolio data for meetings and reviews. Schwab's 16,000+ RIAs can connect Claude to its Advisor Center, potentially enhancing platform stickiness. BlackRock provides portfolio analytics, aiming to widen its distribution. Both companies benefit without developing their own AI models, though interoperability and adviser adoption remain key fa

BlackRock received approval from Hong Kong’s SFC for its first tokenized fund, the BlackRock HKD Digital Liquidity Fund. Standard Chartered will serve as custodian and tokenization partner. The fund will invest in short-term HKD money market instruments, with subscriptions and redemptions in fiat or digital cash, including HKDAP stablecoin. This expands BlackRock’s tokenized MMF suite to four currencies.

BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) saw $1.08B inflows over 20 days, while Grayscale's Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) had $254.7M outflows. IBIT now holds 785,000 BTC with $60B AUM, while GBTC holds 130,000 BTC with $10B AUM. IBIT's lower fees (0.25% vs. GBTC's 1.5%) drive the shift, with US spot Bitcoin ETFs holding 6% of Bitcoin's total supply.

BlackRock upgraded emerging market equities to overweight, citing deleveraging in South Korea and strong earnings growth. The firm highlighted Korea and Taiwan's role in AI supply chains and Latin America's potential gains from AI infrastructure. Emerging market stocks are valued at 10x forward P/E, 50% below US equities, with projected 34.2% earnings growth over 12 months.

BlackRock submitted a comment letter to the OCC, urging the removal of a 20% cap on tokenized reserve assets, arguing that risk is determined by credit quality, duration, and liquidity. The firm has a direct stake as its BUIDL fund holds $2.6B in assets backing stablecoins. BlackRock also sought clarification on ETFs as eligible reserves and supported a principles-based reserve diversification standard.

BlackRock's private credit fund saw fewer redemption requests in Q3, with 11.5% of shares sought, down from 13.3% in Q2. The fund will repurchase 5% of shares, or $600 million. This suggests easing redemption pressures in the private credit industry, according to a regulatory filing.