Insurance

Highlights Portfolio Strategy A battle between tighter monetary conditions and the anticipation of fiscal largesse will be a dominant market theme this year. Our high-conviction equity allocation calls do not require making a major directional global economic bet, or second guessing the Fed's…

Recently, the insurance group has enjoyed yet another mini relative performance burst of strength, supported by the modest uptick in bond yields. However, we doubt that a sustainable outperformance phase can ensue. Pricing power momentum has rolled over. Total home and auto sales growth has…

Stocks are flirting with new highs, courtesy of a gradualist Fed and the reduced threat
of incremental near-term U.S. dollar strength.

Investors have embraced renewed Fed hawkishness as a vote of economic confidence and confirmation of analysts' rosy earnings forecasts, but the bounce in financials looks unsustainable, outside of REITs. Hang on to gold shares.

Within an overweight allocation to Euro Area corporates versus U.S. corporates, favor single-B rated Euro Area High-Yield and Euro Area Investment Grade sectors that offer higher duration-adjusted spreads.

The insurance industry is battling generationally low interest rates, which has created a deep undercurrent of pessimism toward related equities. That is borne out by extremely cheap valuations, as measured by relative price/book value ratios (bottom panel). However, such a low expectations…

The self-driving car, or Autonomous Vehicle (AV), will have a profound impact on a variety of industries. However, expectations for the timeframe of commercial AV availability are too optimistic. The greatest near-term impact is likely to be from advanced safety technologies developed on the path to full autonomy. In today's <i>Special Report</i>, we discuss our expectations for the timeframe of AV development, and the effect of advanced safety technologies on the Insurance, Health Care, Semiconductors, and Automotive industries.

The self-driving car, or Autonomous Vehicle (AV), will have a profound impact on a variety of industries. However, expectations for the timeframe of commercial AV availability are too optimistic. The greatest near-term impact is likely to be from advanced safety technologies developed on the path to full autonomy. In today's <i>Special Report</i>, we discuss our expectations for the timeframe of AV development, and the effect of advanced safety technologies on the Insurance, Health Care, Semiconductors, and Automotive industries.