Aquinas Year-End 2025 Market Update for Faith-Based Investors

Welcome to Aquinas’ Year-End 2025 Market Update and Outlook for the coming year. In this internal conversation, we reflect on key moments from 2025—including periods of market volatility and recovery—and what they reinforced about disciplined investing for people who want their portfolios to align with their faith.

We also discuss core fundamentals that matter in any market environment—risk tolerance and time horizon—along with broad themes we’re watching as we move into 2026.

(Please Note: This update is educational in nature and not investment advice.)

Key Takeaways

  • 2025 included meaningful volatility (including an April pullback) followed by recovery, reinforcing the importance of discipline.
  • Faith-aligned investing continues to gain interest, including among both individuals and institutions.
  • Risk tolerance and time horizon remain foundational—especially when aligning values and investing principles.
  • Building faith-consistent portfolios is possible across sectors—including areas some investors assume are difficult to align.
  • We’re watching multiple themes heading into 2026, including sector breadth beyond mega-cap tech and the downstream infrastructure supporting AI growth.
  • Corporate priorities and governance discussions have evolved in recent years, influencing how some companies communicate and allocate resources.

Why This Matters for Faith-Based Investors

Year-end market reviews are useful because they separate headlines from outcomes. Markets rarely move in a straight line, and 2025 was a reminder that short-term pullbacks can test conviction—especially when commentary becomes emotionally charged.

For faith-based investors, the goal isn’t simply to react to what the market is doing. It’s to maintain a disciplined approach grounded in time horizon and risk tolerance, while also seeking alignment between investments and deeply held beliefs. This update reflects that balance: staying focused on fundamentals while thoughtfully evaluating how values-based considerations fit into long-term financial planning.

Common Questions

Can faith-based investing be diversified across sectors?
Yes—values-aligned investing often starts with clear screening principles, then applies disciplined portfolio construction across sectors where alignment is possible.

What matters most when markets feel uncertain?
Two fundamentals matter in every environment: understanding your risk tolerance and your time horizon, then staying consistent with a disciplined plan.

Did 2025 change the core approach to investing?
Market cycles may change, but the fundamentals generally don’t. The year reinforced the role of discipline through volatility, rather than constant reaction to headlines.

What themes are you watching heading into 2026?
We discussed watching multiple areas—including sector breadth beyond mega-cap leadership and the infrastructure and energy demands linked to AI growth.

Transcript

So welcome to the Aquinas year end 2025 market update and outlook for the coming year. We made it—great year. What an incredible year. Where we were in January, there was tremendous fear and trepidation about the broader markets. We saw an April downturn and thought perhaps this is it, perhaps it’s time to head to the hills. And here we are—we’ve seen a recovery, particularly as the “Magnificent 7” kept dragging everybody along.

As we look at the markets broadly, especially for investors of faith, we’re seeing renewed interest in faith-based investing. People want to understand what companies are doing with the funds they’re invested with. It’s a blessing to look at this globally and see how we can invest concurrently with faith.

The fundamentals remain the same: we have to understand our risk tolerance level and our time frame. When we add to that making sure we’re investing in companies that are consistent with our faith and not doing things contradictory to deeply held beliefs, we can build portfolios people feel good about.

In every sector—including the tech sector, which some might suspect is least consistent with faith—we’ve found we can invest consistent with faith and build appropriate models aligned to risk tolerance.

We’ve seen change in the boardroom compared with five years ago. Some corporate activism has faded. Companies have focused more on core business and on returning profits to shareholders in the form of dividends, allowing shareholders to make decisions about what they support.

As we think about 2026, we’re watching areas like industrials and real estate. We’re also watching the tech sector and AI-adjacent sectors—how data centers are powered and where they are built—along with energy and other supporting themes. We’re also thinking about broadening beyond “Mag 7” and looking at areas like healthcare, real estate, energy, and banking in a faith-based way.

Greg Dukes, Executive Vice President for Aquinas Wealth Advisors… thanks for taking the time and look forward to next year.

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