Corporate earnings in the US, Europe, and Japan will weaken and stock market volatility will increase, according to a majority of investment professionals surveyed in New York, London, Melbourne, and Tokyo by AXA Rosenberg in October and November 2007.
Respondents also showed particular wariness of the US equity markets and a belief that Japan’s equity market was the most undervalued.
AXA Rosenberg, an AXA Investment Managers company specializing in quantitative active global equity asset management, polled 196 investment professionals, including institutional pension fund sponsors, consultants, and other financial professionals, across the US, Europe, Australia and Japan, representing over $4 trillion in assets under management, as part of a series of client conferences.
“If predictions for a challenging economic environment and continued heightened volatility come to pass, investors who refocus their attention on stocks with sound fundamentals and portfolio risk control are likely to be rewarded. We also expect that growing interest in innovative equity products that help navigate this volatility will continue well beyond 2008,” says Stphane Prunet, CEO, AXA Rosenberg.
Mr. Prunet continued, “We were struck by the degree of similarity in opinions about which economies, markets, and currencies will be the strongest and weakest across the globe. Not 100 percent agreement, but enough to suggest that we really do live in a globally interconnected economy.”