Equities
The current macro environment is a toxic brew of many of the same vulnerabilities that haunted the global economy in the lead-up to past recessions: Rising oil prices, an unsustainable tech capex boom, elevated equity valuations, excessively high homes prices, and brewing stresses in private credit and other parts of the financial system. While global equities look increasingly oversold in the very near term, they will still finish the year below current levels.
Indonesian rupiah will continue to plunge, and its local-currency bond yields will rise materially. Investors should short domestic bonds, currency unhedged.
Although Value has had a meaningful run, the longer-run Growth trend likely remains intact. However, benchmark Growth indices are increasingly concentrated. Sector-neutral and within-sector implementations may allow investors to retain much of the same Growth/Value exposure while reducing dependence on technology and limiting concentration risk.
Forced to choose between growth and inflation, the Fed will save growth and the stock market rather than the 2 percent inflation target and the bond market.
This screener report builds on the macro risk portfolio framework developed in the US Equity Strategy and Equity Analyzer collaboration published on 9 March 2026. Here, we apply the framework to analyze recent Middle East hostilities and identify how bottom-up equity positioning should adapt as the conflict evolves, which we analyzed in a US Equity Strategy report published on 16 March 2026.
Middle East tensions sparked a surge in volatility, yet the S&P 500 decline has been comparatively modest. Across asset classes, moves seem related to risk preferences and near-term inflation concerns. Within equities, some cyclicals are under pressure, but the equity market’s growth view has been resilient, while the inflation view has climbed.
Oil prices will likely rise in the near term, irrespective of developments in the Strait of Hormuz. Given that global share prices have become correlated with crude prices, global stocks will continue selling off. Go short the EM equity index and take profits on our open trades that have benefited from the global risk-on environment.
In the ongoing Middle East crisis, anti-fragile markets will remain relatively resilient while fragile markets will break. We describe how to draw the distinction. Plus, a new trade is a 50:50 combination of long USD/MXN and overweight Consumer Discretionary.
If the 2022 roadmap is any guide, equity markets and cyclical currencies will trough only after confirming that the peak in energy prices is in the rearview mirror. In the very near term, investors should focus on P&L preservation. Reduce exposure to equities, and seek refuge in gold, and inflation-linked bonds (ILBs). Amid a very different demand side than in 2022, today’s supply shock is unlikely to generate lasting inflation, and investors should fade rate-hike odds.
Growth, inflation, and rate risk drive sector returns and fundamentals, but macro’s explanatory power is at multi-decade lows. Long/short industry-group baskets show the equity market has turned pessimistic about growth, a potential opportunity as the macro data firm. The market’s inflation view has climbed, a move that may be harder to fade given rising oil prices.