Stockholm (Ekonamik) – Ahead of the Midsummer holiday and amid geopolitical uncertainty and central bank meetings, we peeked into asset managers’ views of equity markets.
Tensions between the USA and Iran came to a head this week, with the USA aborting plans to bomb three Iranian sites before reverting to more a dovish position, emphasising sanctions and the need for talks. Central Banks remained on hold except in Norway, where rates were raised to 1.25%.
Flash estimates of June Composite PMIs for the Eurozone and the USA showed both economies continued to lose momentumNegotiations for the new leadership of EU institutions remained locked while Italy and its Mini-BOTS continued to be a threat to the stability of the Eurozone, according to the CEBR.
Equity markets generally rose during the week. The short end of the US Treasury yield curve fell leading to some flattening of the curve while its Chinese counterpart steepened.
IN FOCUS: Equity Markets
This week, Ekonamik focused on Equity Markets. In an interview, Jonas Thulin, the Head of Asset Management at Erik Penser Bank, discussed his contrarian, data-driven, bullish view of equity markets. On the other side of the market, Absolute Return Partners’s founder Niels Jensen also told us how demographics, productivity and debt dynamics make him bearish about equity markets’ performance over the next decade.
We also caught up with Niels Bjørn-Andersen, Professor Emeritus at the Copenhagen Business School at a presentation where he discussed “Ambient Organisations“, digital disruption, the rise of outsourcing, cloud computing and the gig economy. On the theme of technological disruption, we also took a deep-dive at Facebook‘s suggested cryptocurrency, the Libra, its feasibility and implications.
Our review of Asset managers insights showed analysts at Blackrock, ACATIS Investment, Man Numeric, Schroders, Pictet Asset Management and Robeco, considering the underperformance of value against growth investment strategies over the last ten years. With the end of the economic cycle coming to an end, some wondered whether now is the time to get back into value stocks.
We have also started publishing a series of articles with reading suggestions for the summer holiday. Should you be curious about empires, we have you covered, be it with novels, history books, podcasts or academic research.
Last but not least, we also wanted to thank Feedspot, for including us in their list of the Top 20 Macroeconomic Websites.
