Investing

Traditionally, the first outlooks for the coming year trickle in from September onwards. With sometimes a quarter of a year still to go, strategists start relating their vision of the economic and financial themes that await investors in the next calendar year. The big question is which investors have actually hit the mark in their outlook for 2021. The reckoning. 

European equities are very attractive right now with a risk premium of around 7 per cent. To navigate in this environment, a barbell strategy between long and short duration equities is appropriate. In this way, one can intelligently combine growth and value.

Pascale Nachtergaele, manager of the Nagelmackers European Real Estate Fund, finds real estate still interesting given the low interest rate environment. Her preference continues to be for logistics property, but she also sees potential in other segments.

Every year, thousands of new investment funds see the light of day. A catchy name, an attractive website and a slick factsheet tout a new, seemingly well-thought-out investment strategy that offers investors a unique opportunity to respond to current investment themes, making use of the proven expertise of fund houses. However promising new investment funds are presented, many do not survive the test of time. 

The current inflation surge is similar to the one after World War II. It then took two years for inflation to cool. Long-term interest rates should start to rise, according to the online Outlook 2022 conference organised by Candriam. Anton Brender and Florence Pisani, both economists, conducted the webinar.

Quintet Private Bank has become more positive on Asia, both strategically and tactically. In the short term, the bank said that it believes that Asian high yield bonds currently offer better risk-adjusted returns than either China or Asian equities. The bank’s Bill Street said this on Tuesday during an outlook presentation and in a reply to additional questions from Fondsnieuws, Investment Officer Luxembourg’s sister publication.

For five years, a group of students from Erasmus University in combination with three Robeco researchers scoured hundreds of financial newspapers from 1866 to 1926. They looked for prices, dividends and market capitalisations of almost 1500 American shares. Based on the entirely new dataset this led to, Robeco now concludes that the momentum, value and volatility (beta) investment factors also existed during those 61 years. 

Just a few weeks after the UN climate conference COP26 in Glasgow, one of the European Commission’s most important initiatives in recent years is under fire: the “EU Taxonomy”. The reason is a number of EU Member States that want to admit natural gas - and even nuclear energy - to the list of green energy sources. Europe suddenly risks becoming “the laggard of the world”, critics have warned.

Saxo’s traditional “Outrageous predictions” for 2021 were right on target, suggesting an extreme rise in inflation in 2021. For next year, the bank is betting on a 15 per cent inflation rate in the US through wage-price spirals. What other self-styled outrageous, striking, bizarre predictions does Saxo have in store for next year? 

The base case for AG is one of “normalisation of the economy”, moving from a recovering economy to strong GDP growth, rising purchasing power and increased investment, while keeping admittedly higher inflation under control, according to the 2022 Outlook hosted online by AG Insurance and hosted by chief strategist Olivier Colsoul (pictured) and CIO Wim Vermeir.