Nikko AM less than optimistic about US stocks
Nikko Asset Management is reducing its overweight stance on global equities to neutral, as its Global Investment Committee (GIC) takes a pessimistic view on the outlook for corporate earnings and share prices in the US.
GIC head and chief global strategist, John Vail, said the company had readjusted its outlook after experts from the committee forecast that US equities will underperform over the next six months.
"We calculated that global equity valuations are at reasonably fair levels and that stocks can rise in Europe, Japan and Australia, but because we are less optimistic on the US, we do not think it is worthwhile, especially with the recent increased volatility, to be aggressive on global equities overall," he said.
"We have been overweight global equities for US dollar-based investors, except for one neutral quarter, since September 2011, but we now believe that neutral is the proper stance."
While Vail flagged concerns about the performance of US equities going forward, he predicted that "Eurozone equities prices should rebound after two quarters of weakness, with rising corporate earnings and continued regional economic growth being the main factors".
He also said "Abeonomics is working well" and forecast that Japanese equities would continue to perform strongly over the next six months.
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