Asset Allocation
The equity bull market is getting long in the tooth. Bonds should perform well once economic growth begins to slow. The dollar will strengthen over the coming months before resuming its downtrend. While crude has likely found a near-term floor, we favor metals over energy in the long run.
On Friday, the MacroQuant equity z-score fell to -1.01, below the critical -1 threshold that often coincided with bear markets in the past. With that in mind, today, I am downgrading stocks to a slight underweight on both a 3-month and a 12-month horizon.
So far most of the value in the AI supply chain has been captured by hardware companies. However, as model providers shift to usage-based pricing, value will begin to accrue to models and applications. Communications Services and Software should benefit from this shift. This broadening of the AI story, along with solid economic momentum should keep the rally going for the rest of the year. Remain overweight equities. Downgrade Energy to Neutral. Buy Software.
MacroQuant recommends a slight underweight position in equities, favors a below-benchmark duration stance in fixed-income portfolios, is very positive on the US dollar, downgrades gold to underweight, upgrades copper to overweight, and remains very bullish on oil.
In Private Markets, yesterday’s winners often see outperformance fade. Top-quartile managers often regress toward the median as fund series mature. For investors evaluating the next Real Estate or Private Equity manager: Bias toward underweighting Funds V and beyond.
