Multi-asset investors optimistic on US
Multi-asset investors have said they are optimistic the US economy can deliver positive results in spite of the turmoil in Europe.
Trevor Greetham, portfolio manager on Fidelity’s multi-asset funds, said he is “pessimistic” about the euro area, adding the weak purchasing managers index data released last week points to a “longer recession than the shallow, two-quarter affair economists have pencilled in”.
“In contrast [to Europe], fiscal and monetary policy remain loose in the US and a normal recovery is under way with the Federal Reserve’s senior loan officer survey picking up an easing in financial conditions,” he said. “As a result, we are seeing the most pronounced economic divergence between the US and Europe since the German reunification boom in the early 1990s, this time in America’s favour.”
Meanwhile, Richard Bonnor-Moris, head of multi-asset solutions at Newscape Capital Group, said the US is protected from Europe because its banks have little exposure to European debt.
However, Mr Bonnor-Moris did acknowledge neither the US nor other economies could escape investors’ aversion to risk.