November 2018 – Historically, the US stock market has undergone three to four corrections of 5-10% per year, but on average has still produced a positive annual result of 7-8%. However, in the days before the advent of the now commonplace high-speed algorithmic trading by hedge funds, corrections were less rapid. While October has historically been the most volatile month in the stock market calendar, the fourth quarter as a whole has also been the strongest-performing quarter for US equities. 

Given all the political uncertainties in the world right now, it is easy to become pessimistic – perhaps too easy. In fact, the fundamentals suggest the market decline in October should be categorized as a classic autumn correction, not a recession-induced bear market. But geopolitical developments, above all the US-China conflict over trade but also other unresolved issues, can be expected to keep global financial market volatility (on both sides) higher than normal.

August 2018 - We would like to elaborate on our focus on US equities and explain why we remain overweight in this segment compared to global equities. Even if it loses some momentum over the next few months, the US economy continues to exhibit above-average growth. US corporate earnings have once again exceeded the market's high expectations for the second quarter, with more than 80% of companies surprising on the upside. Valuation methods do not suggest US equities are overly expensive, particularly not in relation to US bonds. The American stock market can therefore cope with higher interest rates – as long as these are accompanied by solid economic growth, as this would have the effect of boosting corporate earnings. Our US equities module offers promising performance and a diversified way of gaining exposure to the world’s leading equity market, which also boasts the strongest earnings growth of any region.