Jeroen Boogaard

“As corporate profits are rising much faster than expected, high valuations in the equity market are falling fast. Equities therefore remain attractive,” said Natasha Ebtehadj, global equities portfolio manager at Columbia Threadneedle, in a recent conversation with Fondsnieuws, Investment Officer Luxembourg’s sister publication.

The Mint Tower Arbitrage Fund aims for a positive absolute return under all market conditions, and has managed to do so since its inception. This makes the hedge fund an ideal shock absorber in investment portfolios. 

This is what partner Marcel Voogel (photo, left) and head of investor relations Bart Bijmolen (photo, right) of Mint Tower Capital Management said in conversation with Fondsnieuws, Investment Officer Luxembourg’s sister publication.

Green indices reduce the carbon footprint of investment portfolios, but their added value is currently limited in terms of managing the financial risks of climate change. Only in the event of a disorderly climate transition would there any demonstrable outperformance.  

The US asset manager expects inflation to be slightly below 2% for developed economies over the next 10-15 years, despite the unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus. ‘We expect a lot of volatility in the short term, with inflation possibly temporarily exceeding central bank targets. But in the medium term, we will return to the pre-pandemic structural trends,’ says Vincent Juvyns, macro strategist at JP Morgan AM. 

Disruption is wiping out entire sectors and companies. While winners are hard to predict, using megatrends such as digitalisation and ageing to identify the losers in advance is the best approach, says Henk Grootveld, head of trend investing at Lombard Odier IM.

Shares of companies that are good for the world often manage to strengthen their competitive position at the expense of unsustainable companies. Their growth potential is often still underestimated by the market, according to Hendrik-Jan Boer, senior portfolio manager of Neuberger Berman’s Global Sustainable Equity strategy.

Expensive US growth stocks need not suffer from reflation and rising interest rates. On the contrary, they will thrive thanks to their pricing power, says Ton Wijsman, senior portfolio manager at AllianceBernstein and former director at W.P. Stewart.

Strong inflows into clean energy ETFs have pushed valuations of the various subsectors higher. To mitigate downside risks, a broader perspective on the sustainability theme is needed. Semiconductor manufacturers in particular are interesting, says Thiemo Lang, manager of the RobecoSAM Smart Energy Fund.

The share prices of European banks have been rising in recent months, and their rally has further to go. In the long term though, structural underperformance will continue, believes Jonathan Fearon (pictured), investment director European Equities at Aberdeen Standard Investments.

Despite its recent slide, the US dollar is still overvalued. In time, the greenback could go much lower. This has positive implications for European, Japanese and EM equities, but is a bad prospect for Wall Street, according to Michael Devereux, multi-asset fund manager at Schroders.