{"id":1721,"date":"2019-10-15T06:34:40","date_gmt":"2019-10-15T05:34:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sarasinandpartners.com\/za\/think\/market-view-investment-strategies-for-a-slowing-world\/"},"modified":"2020-05-11T17:41:30","modified_gmt":"2020-05-11T16:41:30","slug":"market-view-investment-strategies-for-a-slowing-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sarasinandpartners.com\/za\/think\/market-view-investment-strategies-for-a-slowing-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Market View: Investment strategies for a slowing world"},"content":{"rendered":"

A synchronised global slowdown will likely test the limits of monetary stimulus and argues, in the longer term, for fiscal expansion. This has implications for investment strategy and global asset allocation\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

2019 has dealt investors an unusual combination of outcomes; the politics have been explosive, the economics mildly negative, while the performance of financial markets has been extraordinarily robust. How is this possible?<\/p>\n

The answer, it seems, is that we have entered a political version of a \u2018Goldilocks Market,\u2019 where policy and trade risks are large enough to spook central bankers into easing but the economic fallout is not yet serious enough to trigger recession. The result is ever lower bond yields (as I write around $14 trillion of which are trading with negative yields) but also continued growth in corporate profits and hence dividends. This has tended to drive yield-hungry investors into global equities, alternative assets and even gold (whose zero nominal yield looks comparatively attractive compared to European cash or bond yields). The result has been rises in almost every asset class in 2019, led by world equities, which, for a sterling-based global investor, have returned close to 20% in the year to 30 September.<\/p>\n

Poor politicians and generous central bankers<\/h2>\n

So, can this rather precarious combination of poor politicians and generous central bankers continue and for how much longer? Let\u2019s start with the politics, which to be frank look pretty awful. The China-US trade dispute is unresolved, US-Iranian relations have deteriorated to crisis point, a Brexit agreement remains elusive, while US presidential impeachment (only the fourth attempt in American history) is now openly discussed. Unsurprisingly, measures of trade and policy uncertainty are through the roof1<\/sup><\/span>\u00a0and yes, this is now clearly affecting business sentiment as we saw in last week\u2019s ISM manufacturing survey. From a market perspective though, much is already discounted; almost everyone saw Brexit negotiations running to the wire, China-US tensions are structural and long-term, while the US and Iran have always had a difficult political history. Even the nascent impeachment hearings surprise few who have seen the operating style of the Trump White House \u2013 in short, it seems that markets are happy to discount the worst but then hope for something rather better.<\/p>\n

There is an exception though \u2013 investors are not yet ready for a sharp policy shift to the Left, such as you might see from a Labour majority government in the UK, or say in a Warren or Sanders presidency in the US. In either instance there is the likelihood not just of higher taxes and increased fiscal spend (both are likely and to an extent may even be desirable) but also the risk of a much wider assault on corporate profitability and equity ownership which is not yet priced into markets.<\/p>\n

The twilight of monetary policy<\/h2>\n

From an economic perspective, it is clear we are now entering a synchronised global slowdown, triggered in large part by political and trade uncertainty (chart 1). The OECD projects that the world economy will grow by just 2.9% in 2019, the weakest annual rate since the financial crisis more than a decade ago. Escalating trade conflicts are taking their toll on business confidence with the epicentre of the impact seen in the German export-led economy (German factory orders are down 6.7% year on year). But indicators do not yet suggest a global recession; employment is robust (US unemployment hit a 50-year low of 3.5%) while the service sector has so far suffered only modest \u2018collateral\u2019 damage \u2013 most importantly, in almost all major economies, real wages are growing strongly. So how will central bankers respond?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We are currently assuming a further three rate cuts of a quarter of a percentage point in the US over this year and next. We also see a continuation of the ECB\u2019s bond buying programme and potentially interest rate cuts in the UK on anything, but the most optimistic, Brexit outcome. In the longer term though we are entering the twilight of big policy easing because of growing political resistance in Europe and a reluctance to embrace zero bound rates in the US (chart 2). This sets the stage for a further global pivot from monetary to fiscal policy \u2013 with budget deficits set to rise in the US, UK, China and ultimately Europe (expect Germany\u2019s balanced budget mantra to crumble).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In the immediate future, this argues for lower rates and hence more flows into equity assets. However, over the longer term, if fiscal policy takes up the running then the outlook for asset markets is more ambiguous. Expect more infrastructure spend around climate and alternative energy, greater focus on supporting lower income wage growth and renewed home-building projects to mitigate rent increases. These are all trends that offer potential investment returns but carry with them the risk of substantially higher government borrowing. If growth is already weak then this need not lift bond yields, although countries that are more indebted could be vulnerable to volatile investor flows and potentially weaker currencies.<\/p>\n

What are the implications for investment strategy?<\/h2>\n

So how should investors respond to a world economy that is slowing, where political uncertainty is high and where generous monetary policy is steadily giving way to fiscal stimulus?<\/p>\n