Key takeaways: • After a strong first half of the year for equity markets, we believe that there are 5 key themes to watch in the coming months: 1) Normalisation of global economic growth; 2) Labour market normalisation; 3) Central banks kicking off their easing cycle; 4) The normalisation of the equity market leadership and; 5) A pick-up in volatility. • On a more tactical basis, our view on risk assets remains constructive but there are indeed a few indicators which lead us to become slightly more prudent as we head into Summer. As such, we have been rebalancing our clients’ portfolios to reflect our neutral view on equities. We recently decreased our slight tactical overweight on equities back to neutral. We remain underweight fixed income and overweight alternatives and Gold. We also decided to downgrade our view on the JPY from NEUTRAL to negative vs USD and all major currencies. We remain positive dollar against EUR, GBP and CHF.
Semiconductor stocks have started correcting and the Mag7 are engaging in stock buybacks, while US debt produces less GDP per borrowed dollar than it used to. Each week, the Syz investment team takes you through the last seven days in seven charts.
Economic growth is soft, external challenges rise, but China stays the course. This is essentially the conclusion that can be drawn after the Third Plenum and the most recent economic data. The focus of Xi Jinping is not on trying to maximize short-term economic growth, but rather on continuing the transformation and modernization of the economy. As Donald Trump looks set to return to the White House with a new set of tariffs in his MAGA cap, as Europe eventually raises trade barriers of its own, as sanctions on Russia redefine energy and commodity trade flows, China is central to the ongoing emergence of a new world economic order.
At its core, Avalanche is an open-source platform engineered to support decentralized applications (dApps) and enterprise blockchain solutions within a singular, interoperable, and scalable ecosystem. Its inception was motivated by the desire to overcome certain challenges inherent in Ethereum, particularly the slower transaction times and the one-size-fits-all nature of its blockchain structure. Avalanche’s founder envisioned a platform that could cater to diverse needs through modular design, leading to the development of subnets. These innovations have attracted a range of diverse companies such as Visa, Amazon, JPMorgan and CitiGroup to consider and explore implementing Avalanche’s technology.
One of the spiritual fathers of behavioral finance passed away in March this year. Below, we pay tribute to Daniel Kahneman by highlighting 10 of his main empirical studies in the field.
Good inflation figures are raising hopes for a new rate cut by the FED as soon as September. Small and mid-caps are reaping the benefits of the shifting tides, while Biden’s odds have taken a turn for the worse. Each week, the Syz investment team takes you through the last seven days in seven charts.
Slow food for thought
Insights and research on global events shaping the markets
Through his speeches and writings, Warren Buffet's late ‘right-hand man’ left a legacy of real life and investment lessons. Excerpt below (source: Compounding Quality on X)
Key takeaways: • After a strong first half of the year for equity markets, we believe that there are 5 key themes to watch in the coming months: 1) Normalisation of global economic growth; 2) Labour market normalisation; 3) Central banks kicking off their easing cycle; 4) The normalisation of the equity market leadership and; 5) A pick-up in volatility. • On a more tactical basis, our view on risk assets remains constructive but there are indeed a few indicators which lead us to become slightly more prudent as we head into Summer. As such, we have been rebalancing our clients’ portfolios to reflect our neutral view on equities. We recently decreased our slight tactical overweight on equities back to neutral. We remain underweight fixed income and overweight alternatives and Gold. We also decided to downgrade our view on the JPY from NEUTRAL to negative vs USD and all major currencies. We remain positive dollar against EUR, GBP and CHF.
Straight from the Desk
Syz the moment
Live feeds, charts, breaking stories, all day long.
Fast food for thought
Insights and research on global events shaping the markets
Semiconductor stocks have started correcting and the Mag7 are engaging in stock buybacks, while US debt produces less GDP per borrowed dollar than it used to. Each week, the Syz investment team takes you through the last seven days in seven charts.
Stocks were volatile this week with continued rotation in market leadership to small-cap and value shares. U.S. markets initially rallied to new-highs but faded toward week's end, led by weakness in the tech sector. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed lower on the week, while the Dow posted a solid gain. Value stocks outpaced growth stocks by 477 basis, as measured by Russell indexes—the largest divergence since March 2023. The week was also notable for a widespread global disruption to computer systems early Friday due to an error in a vendor’s security update to some users of the Microsoft operating system.
Crypto corner
A monthly deep dive into crypto assets
AI Insights
Hand-curated selection of the latest developments in the AI world
Investing with intelligence
Our latest research, commentary and market outlooks