Portfolio

European euphoria is overdone. The most exceptional asset class in Europe is Infrastructure, but granular opportunities span other asset classes by sector and country. Venture Capital is a North America and Asia-Pacific play. We downgrade Private Credit, and upgrade Global Buyouts. Time to take profits on Long-Short Equity Hedge Funds.

Special Report

Our latest report analyzes home bias in bonds and equities across 15 countries. The verdict? Hedged international bonds outperform domestic peers, especially during high inflation. In equities, even top markets like the US have had multi-year periods of underperformance. Allocators should leave patriotism aside when running their portfolios.

Special Report

Private Infrastructure is superior to Public in both operational efficiency and inflation protection. However, current valuation spreads favor incremental Public deployment. Investors should consider a balanced approach between the two.

The US economy is not in recession, but is suffering from a post-pandemic stimulus hangover. The cure: lower interest rates. We expect the Fed to start lowering rates, which will benefit both equities and bonds. We upgrade stocks to neutral and downgrade cash to underweight. We also upgrade duration to overweight. The US dollar will continue to weaken, so favour Europe and China within equities.

MacroQuant’s US equity z-score is dangerously close to the -1 threshold. Moves below that threshold have reliably coincided with equity bear markets in the past. As such, MacroQuant recommends an underweight on stocks, offset by an overweight on bonds and cash.

While the US is the pioneer, Europe will follow suit—more rapidly than expected. It is not a question of if GenAI will boom in Europe, but when. Europe’s Data Center growth is already strong today, but a US-style boom is just around the corner.

In our Beta report, we focus on our decade view. Many of our global allocator clients are scrambling to incorporate geopolitics into their strategic asset allocation. For most, this means thinking about war… or about future end-states. This is a mistake. We consider the next five years (maybe a decade) as the transition to the new era, a transition away from American unipolarity. And the transition itself is investment relevant. A transition to a multipolar world – which we think is occurring – will crush the USD and favor non-US assets. A transition to a bipolar world – not our base case, but still possible – would do the opposite.

Fiscal policy, not tariffs, is now driving markets as Congress advances the One Big Beautiful Bill. The Senate cannot afford to remove the spending cuts in the bill, as they risk sparking a bond market riot. Even with this more modest bill, US interest rates are already pressuring housing and labor markets. US assets are also losing their defensive tilt. Better opportunities for both equity and fixed income investors are available internationally. We conserve our defensive stance but do not want to be dogmatic. Sentiment is more cautious than last year, and the US economy is not showing signs of imminent collapse. We remain underweight the US dollar and US equities. Upgrade Communication Services and downgrade Consumer Staples. Upgrade the CNY and EM currencies to neutral.

MacroQuant warns that US equities are pricing in very little economic risk. The model is shunning equities and recommends a large overweight to cash.

Private Credit return expectations edge lower. Middle Market Direct Lending remains attractive, rivaling Middle Market Buyouts.