Technology
Dear Client, I am on the road this week meeting clients. Instead of our regular Weekly Report, we are sending you a piece written by my colleague Brian Piccioni, head of our Technology Sector Strategy Service. In this Special Report Brian discusses how…
Highlights Eurostoxx50 versus S&P500 boils down to a simple choice: Banco Santander, BNP Paribas and ING; or Apple, Microsoft and Google? Right now, we would rather own the three tech stocks than the three banks - which necessarily means…
After an M&A driven outperformance phase, semiconductor stocks appear to be putting in a major top. M&A activity has plunged, warning that deal premiums are likely to be removed from valuations. The recovery in global chip sales growth also looks…
Data processing stocks have been in a consolidation phase, but this increasingly appears to be a trend change rather than a continuation pattern. The economic backdrop is no longer conducive to capital inflows. Data processing companies enjoy hefty…
Highlights Portfolio Strategy The market has quietly adopted a less cyclical sectoral tone since yearend, a trend that could amplify over the coming months, even if overall appreciation persists. Defense stocks have grown into previously extended…
Highlights Portfolio Strategy Add the S&P asset manager & custody banks index to the high-conviction overweight list. Prospects for higher interest rates bode well for a catch up phase with the rest of the financials sector. Initiate a long S…
Highlights Key Portfolio Highlights Improved world economic growth and rising inflation expectations have buoyed global equities (Chart 1). The downside is that financial conditions are tightening and U.S. dollar-based liquidity is contracting, which is…
The previous Insight showed that the broad tech sector will have trouble if overall inflationary pressures continue to build, sustaining upward pressure on bond yields. The communications equipment sub-group should be somewhat immune to these forces,…
An Insight on December 13 showed that the tech sector and the U.S. dollar have historically been positively correlated during the initial phase of a currency bull market, but that correlation reverses in the latter stages. The loss of competitiveness and…
Feature Which of the following activities requires more brainpower: beating a grandmaster at chess, or cleaning the table underneath the chessboard? The answer is cleaning the table. This explains why Artificial Intelligence (AI) can now trounce the best…