Energy

This report looks at investment implications, for Norwegian assets, given the recent meeting, from the Norges Bank. 

Stocks will continue to struggle in the second quarter as President Trump tries to implement tariffs. Tax cuts will only temporarily dispel growth fears, if at all. Middle Eastern instability will add oil price surprises to an environment that is looking fairly stagflationary.

Despite our bearish predisposition towards stocks, we are open-minded to anything that could challenge our thesis. As such, in this report, we review five upside scenarios for equities.

Colombian financial markets have rallied on the expectation that a right-wing government will be elected in 2026. We take a contrarian bearish stance on the nation's financial markets. Colombia is suffering from two structural macro issues – unsustainable public debt and plunging energy exports – that will not be easily solved by a conservative administration in 2026. Continue underweighting Colombia within EM equity and fixed-income portfolios, continue shorting the COP versus the USD and the CLP, and bet on yield curve steepening.

Interest rates will decline if the disinflationary trend continues, deficits are reduced, or economic growth falters. Oil prices are likely to spike over the short term, but the long-term outlook is unfavorable. Not all GenAI investments will pay off, and GenAI-induced productivity improvements do not justify current valuations.

President Trump is negotiating a ceasefire in Ukraine. This will be a marginal headwind to some commodities which benefitted from the conflict like natural gas and wheat, and will be a marginal tailwind for European assets, specifically EM Europe. Use Trump’s tariff shock as an opportunity to buy European assets.