Principal Asset Management

2026 Mid-Year Update: Inside Real Estate Outlook - Resilient Recovery

Principal Asset Management reviews the 2026 commercial real estate recovery amid geopolitical volatility and shifting macro conditions. The outlook highlights a recovery that remains intact but uneven, creating opportunities for alpha through careful property, market and fund selection.

Five Forces Shaping the Data Center Investment Landscape

Data center investment is being shaped by rising demand, limited supply, longer pre-leasing commitments, earlier capital needs, and the growing importance of power and permits. Principal Asset Management explains why experienced partners and disciplined risk management are becoming more important in this complex market.

Rising Global Bond Yields: The Test for Risk Assets

Principal Asset Management examines the sharp global bond market sell-off and the forces pushing long-end yields higher, including inflation pressure, resilient U.S. growth, hawkish policy repricing, fiscal concerns and geopolitical risk. The article explores what could trigger a sustained bond rally and how investors may think about equities, duration, inflation hedges and portfolio resilience.

Analyzing the Wall of Maturities: The Plural of Anecdotes is Not Data

Where Real Estate Meets Infrastructure: The Evolution of Data Center Investing

Data centers have become a key part of the global economy as cloud computing, AI, and digitalization drive demand for more capacity. Readers will learn why power availability, location, tenant quality, and debt market support are shaping data center investing as real estate and infrastructure continue to converge.

Fixed Income Perspectives

Principal Asset Management reviews the fixed income outlook for the second quarter of 2026, with a focus on geopolitical risk, inflation pressure, credit fundamentals, and Fed policy uncertainty. Readers will learn why the team sees opportunities across investment grade credit, high yield, securitized debt, municipals, emerging market debt, and private credit, while emphasizing active selection and disciplined risk management.

2026 Private Infrastructure Outlook

2025 posted the highest deal volumes for private infrastructure in history.  We expect continued heightened levels of activity in 2026 for both private infrastructure equity and debt investors.

Private Real Estate Debt: A Banner 2025, With More Room to Run

We believe CRE debt offers compelling risk-adjusted returns in today’s environment, find out why.

Middle Market Direct Lending: Finding Opportunity on the Horizon

The improving and supportive market and economic backdrop, coupled with appealing credit structures, may create an environment ripe with attractive investment opportunities in 2026. Explore what’s ahead in our 2026 Direct Lending Outlook.

1Q 2026 Fixed Income Perspectives

Resilient markets, selective opportunities Entering 2026, the fixed income landscape is increasingly being defined by a combination of sustained economic growth and the Federal Reserve’s anticipated slow drip rate cuts. With U.S. inflation elevated, the Fed faces the challenging task of balancing persistent price pressures against a cooling labor market, but with healthy growth in the background. This situation is likely to result in fixed income returns aligning more closely with long-term averages, particularly in higher-quality segments such as investment-grade and securitized credit, which are known for their sensitivity to interest rate movements.

2026 Perspectives: Discipline in an Age of Disruption

Innovation, volatility, and structural change define the road ahead. Our global investment leaders share where they see risk, and opportunity, in a complex 2026.

The AI Boom: Bubble Risk or Durable Cycle?

Few technological revolutions have rivaled AI in scale and speed since the dot-com era of 1995- 2000. The launch of ChatGPT in late 2022 unleashed a wave of excitement around a technology that promises to supercharge productivity and economic growth but also carries echoes of past bubbles.

Powering the Digital Age: Data Center Trends and Opportunities

Data centers remain underrepresented in many institutional real estate portfolios despite strong historical performance in both the public and private markets. They offer stable, long-term cash flows, relative insulation from economic cycles, and strong growth potential driven by cloud adoption, AI, and the explosion of digital data.

U.S. Commercial Real Estate Market Overview

The global commercial real estate (CRE) market is emerging from a two-year, capital market-driven correction. Nowhere has this been felt more acutely than in the U.S., where high inflation and aggressive interest rate normalization have disrupted clarity around pricing and investment flows in private markets.

CRE in an Easing Cycle: Why Long Rates Matter More Than the Fed

With the Fed embarking on a new rate cutting cycle, some investors are left wondering what impact it might have on commercial real estate markets.

The Case for Industrial Development in the Next Cycle

The U.S. industrial sector has moved beyond its 2022–23 correction and is showing early signs of recovery. Values declined less than other property sectors during the downturn, and operational metrics—particularly net operating income growth—remained resilient.

Steady Returns, Strong Foundations: The Case for Commercial Real Estate Debt

In both our annual and our mid-year Inside Real Estate outlooks, we highlighted private debt real estate is one of the most attractive opportunities across the four quadrants. We argued that higher interest rates and elevated debt maturity schedules are creating a favorable environment for lenders. Current pricing remains attractive relative to other risk assets and lending standards are stable. In this report, we dig further into our thesis.

2025 Mid-year Update: Inside Real Estate Outlook

We entered 2025 on a wave of optimism, but policy and geopolitical shifts have once again altered market dynamics, pushing investors to brace for a risk-off environment.

Behind the Numbers: Insights from Quant Experts at Principal Asset Management, StepStone Group, and Fidelity Investments

Discover how quantitative methods are reshaping portfolio construction, liquidity management, and private market strategies for insurance asset managers on the InsuranceAUM.com Podcast.

Uncovering value in investment grade private credit

Michael Zorich, CFA, is the Managing Director and Head of Investment Grade Private Credit at Principal Asset Management.

CIO Spotlight: Michael Goosay, CIO and Global Head of Fixed Income at Principal Asset Management

Michael Goosay is the CIO and Global Head of Fixed Income at Principal Asset Management.

CLOs: a critical market to insurance investors

Kevin Farley is the Managing Director and Structured Credit Portfolio Manager at Post Advisory Group, a subsidiary of Principal Financial Group.

Data centers: What is driving the surge in demand and how can insurance investors benefit?

Jeff Menz and Casey Miller are Managing Directors of Portfolio Management at Principal Real Estate Investors.

Executive Spotlight: Ken McCullum, Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer of the Principal Financial Group

Ken McCullum is the Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer of Principal Financial Group.

Navigating the Current Preferred and Capital Securities Landscape with Phil Jacoby, Executive Director and CIO of Spectrum

Phil Jacoby is the Executive Director and Chief Investment Officer at Spectrum, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Principal.

Why private real estate debt can benefit insurance investors

Join host Stewart Foley on the InsuranceAUM.com Podcast as we explore the benefits of private and public real estate debt for insurance investors, including diversification, inflation protection, and yield enhancement.