ASMLF - ClearBridge Global Growth Strategy Q4 2024 Commentary

2025-03-07 04:35:00 ET

Summary

• ClearBridge is a leading global asset manager committed to active management. Research-based stock selection guides our investment approach, with our strategies reflecting the highest-conviction ideas of our portfolio managers.
• The Strategy outperformed the benchmark for the quarter and full year, supported by strong results primarily from our U.S.-based stable and emerging growth holdings that offset a weak macro backdrop across Europe and a transitional period in Japan.
• We remained active in repositioning the portfolio, adding 11 new positions in the quarter and exiting 12, with a focus on communication services and consumer discretionary companies.
• We see several catalysts that could help international equities close the performance gap in the year ahead, which would offer a long-awaited complement to our majority exposure in U.S. equities expected to deliver positive but more muted performance going forward.

By Elisa Mazen, Michael Testorf, CFA, & Pawel Wroblewski, CFA

U.S. Exceptionalism Offsets Overseas Weakness Market Overview

After robust performance in the first nine months of the year, global equities struggled in the fourth quarter due to a return to narrow leadership in the U.S. and market concerns about tariff wars and potentially other punitive measures that could be levied by the second Trump administration. The stronger U.S. dollar ( USDOLLAR , DXY ) and negative sentiment over the current state of political affairs in Europe also weighed on the largest developed markets outside the U.S. The benchmark MSCI All Country World Index declined 0.99% in the quarter but finished the year up 17.49% on strength among U.S. stocks....

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