Asset Allocation

Treasuries appear overbought in the near-term, especially given evidence of a rebound in global manufacturing, but we would need to see evidence of a sustained re-synchronization of global growth before advocating a shift to below benchmark duration on a 6-12 month horizon.

A lack of confirming growth indicators puts the equity advance at risk. Lift hypermarkets to overweight, stick with homebuilders and fade any small and/or mid cap relative strength.

We are confident that the reward/risk tradeoff to holding equities and high-yield corporate bonds is deteriorating and that rallies in these assets are high-risk affairs.

These general themes - along with our assessment that markets were overestimating downside price risk and underestimating upside risks arising from supply destruction and geopolitical instability - supported the best-performing strategic recommendations we made last quarter.

The ECB's intended purchases of corporate bonds will not sustainably lift the asset-class. But we have found a compelling long-term opportunity in the sovereign bond market, and a way to hedge Brexit risk.

Gold seems to be leading global share prices. Gold prices have rolled over since March 10. Hence, odds are that the U.S. dollar is about to bottom, and that global and EM stocks, as well as commodities prices, are about to relapse. We recommend two new trades in central Europe: Go long central European banks / short euro area banks and buy 10-year Polish domestic bonds.

Some tentative signs of life in the global manufacturing data suggest that Treasury yields have some room to move higher in the near term.

We continue to recommend a cautious investment stance, staying at benchmark duration, as the recovery in risk assets looks more like a counter-trend rally than the start of a new bullish run.

We are sending you the Q2 <i>Global Investment Strategy Outlook</i>, which discusses the ten predictions we expect to drive global financial markets throughout the rest of the year.

Fed dovishness is weakening the U.S. dollar. As the ECB and BoJ move to the sidelines and the Fed remains reluctant to hike rates, the euro and Japanese yen should continue to recover versus the greenback.