Asset Allocation

US stocks are historically expensive. But this applies in particular to large caps. Small caps are still cheap, despite a strong price rally in the past six months. ‘On average, the companies in our portfolio trade at around 11 times earnings,’ says Blake Harper, one of the managers of the Orchard US Small Cap Value Fund.

Growth in the Asian stock market no longer comes from big tech companies. The best growth opportunities now lie in young, smaller technology companies and in the rapidly emerging healthcare sector, says Albert Kwok, manager of the PGIM Jennison Emerging Markets Equity Fund.

Elon Musk’s announcement by tweet that Tesla’s customers will soon be able pay for their car in bitcoin has triggered a discussion about the viability of the digital currency between investment banks and asset managers. Should bitcoin be included in investment portfolios or shouldn’t it?

Investors have always worried about what rising bond yields mean for markets. But today, such fears appear unfounded, argues Daniele Antonucci, Chief Economist at Quintet Private Bank.

Small caps have shown stellar performance this year, helped by an improved economic outlook. Valuations have risen, so are there still opportunities for investors? We asked Jan Willem Berghuis, head of small caps at Kempen Capital Management.

In recent weeks, the €1.2 billion Kempen Global Smallcap fund has taken profits on the biggest risers, adjusted weightings and spent time on new investment ideas, says Berghuis.

The rally in commodity prices has only just started and has much further to go, according to Phillippe Gijsels, head strategist of BNP Paribas Fortis. This is due to a powerful combination of increasing demand and supply constraints due to years of underinvestment in the sector.

Pets are not just fun to have around, they are also an excellent investment. ‘The pet economy is growing faster than the economy as a whole every year, because it benefits from a number of megatrends that are converging,’ according to Andreas Fruschki, manager of the Allianz Pet and Animal Wellbeing fund.

Looking for companies that can contribute to the decarbonisation of the European economy. That’s the mission of Echiquier Climate Impact Europe, a new impact fund of la Financière de L’Echiquier (LFDE). Remarkably, the fund mostly invests in established European companies.

Positive returns on investment-grade bonds have been hard to come by in the West. The Nordic market is one of the few exceptions, says Michael Weidner, head of European fixed income for global asset manager Lazard Asset Management. He especially likes Danish mortgage bonds.

‘Nordic bonds are a market segment with high credit quality, high liquidity and some extra yield without additional risk,’ he says. For Weidner, this market is one of the ultimate safe havens for risk-sensitive bond investors.

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.