Senior Portfolio manager Ethna Aktiv fund e cofounder Ethenea Flexibility and active management have characterised the Ethna-AKTIV since its launch in 2002, and today – more than 20 years later – the fund remains popular among investors for its balanced risk profile and flexible multi-asset approach. Looking back, the… Read More »
Artificial intelligence methods in asset management The launch of ChatGPT by Open AI at the beginning of the year highlighted the revolutionary character of artificial intelligence methods. While artificial intelligence was already present in translation services, digital assistants in customer chats, as well as image and speech recognition in medical… Read More »
■ While the Euro area activity dataflow since the start of the war has been mixed, the incoming information points to much higher and more persistent inflationary pressures than anticipated in the March ECB staff projections. We therefore look for the staff projections for headline inflation to rise sharply to… Read More »
■ With inflation running high in the US, rolling back some of the tariffs imposed by former President Trump on Chinese imports has been suggested as a way to cool inflation on the margin. Recent comments from senior US officials had suggested that some further reductions were under consideration, though… Read More »
• We still prefer equities over fixed income on a strategic horizon, but we moderate our stance after this year’s big market moves. • Stocks bounced back on hopes the Federal Reserve can soon pause rate hikes. But we don’t expect a sustained rebound until the Fed takes a clear… Read More »
■ The Chinese economy slowed dramatically in April amid Covid outbreaks and restrictions under the country’s zero-Covid policy. The PBOC has kept interbank liquidity ample and front-end market rates have fallen notably below the policy rate. The same pattern was observed in early 2020 during the initial Covid outbreak in… Read More »
Ukraine’s economy faces a 40% contraction in 2022 amid Russia’s continuing invasion. The country’s future creditworthiness depends on the war’s outcome, the conflict’s final cost and official-sector assistance for long-run reconstruction. Uncertainty around the state of the Ukrainian economy is huge, but we assume output will partially rebound by around… Read More »
• We cut developed market (DM) equities to neutral on a risk of the Fed talking itself into overtightening policy and China adding to a weaker global outlook. • Stocks plumbed new 2022 lows on fears steep rate rises will trigger a growth slowdown. We see a brighter picture, but… Read More »
■ Recent ECB commentary suggests that the Governing Council is very likely to end QE at its June meeting and guide towards lift-off at the July meeting, consistent with our forecast for a 25bp hike in July. The subsequent pace of hikes, however, remains subject to debate given slowing growth… Read More »
Headwinds Are Eroding Credit Buffers On May 17, we announced downward revisions to our global macroeconomic base-case forecasts of between 0.6% and 0.8% in the world’s three major economic regions. We now forecast growth of 4.2% in China, 2.4% in the U.S., and 2.7% in the eurozone in 2022. Underpinning… Read More »