HFXI News and Press, IQ 50 Percent Hedged FTSE International From 06/01/22

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 cle...

Central banks are facing a growth-inflation trade-off. Hiking interest rates too much risks triggering a recession, while not tightening enough risks causing runaway inflation. The Fed has made it clear it is ready to dampen growth. Implication: We are neutral developed market (DM) equiti...

Price pressures intensified on average, thanks in part to higher energy prices. While the China impact was most commonly reported in Japan, the Ukraine war impact was most heavily felt in the eurozone. For all economies, the path of inflation and the cost-of-living crisis remains ...

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 this may n...

We recently cut risk, but stick with stocks over bonds for now. Equity prices now reflect much of the worsening macro outlook and hawkish Fed, in our view. Markets came to grips last week with the trade-off central banks face: choke off growth or live with inflation. Yields fell and s...

Leaving foreign currency exposures unhedged could be an implicit bet that the appreciation of the U.S. dollar is over. Currency hedging using forward exchange contracts is a good way of reducing the unrewarded risk from currency. When investors start thinking about post-pandemic a...

Just when we thought the world economy was regaining its footing, a military conflict in Europe has led us to reconsider our outlook for growth and inflation. In light of Russia’s invasion, we developed a framework for thinking about the economic impact of the conflict on the e...

The map of the Asset Allocation Committee’s market views is a buzz of activity this quarter. Coming into 2022, we anticipated slower growth compared with the steep recovery levels of 2021 and inflation that was declining but persistent—and problematic due to its origins ...

The expected risk premium continued sliding in April for the Global Markets Index (GMI). Tuesday’s revision reflects a drop to a 5.4% annualized increase for the long term – a relatively large cut of 40 basis points from last month’s estimate. The forecast ref...

We don’t see a wage-price spiral. Companies are actually paying less in labor per unit of output, we find. We think wages can rise more without adding to inflation. The S&P 500 plunged to new 2022 lows last week. We remain overweight equities in the inflationary backdrop bu...