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.
Recommended for you
Selfwealth has provided an update on the status of its scheme implementation deed with Bell Financial Group as well as whether rival bidder Svava remains in the picture.
Magellan Financial Group has reported its first half FY25 results while appointing a new chief financial officer and promoting Sophia Rahmani to chief executive.
Schroders Australia has launched two active ETFs and plans to further expand its listed range over the year ahead.
Platform Netwealth has reported its financial results for the first half of FY25, reporting an 80 per cent increase in net flows, with its CEO viewing a “huge opportunity” from private assets.