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Equities | Economy

Allocating Equity Overweights More Broadly

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  • The acceleration of COVID-19 in the US is likely to slow the recovery. While a broad-based, indiscriminate lockdown is not expected across the US economy, a slowdown in reopening activities has resulted in a modest drop in retail spending in employment in affected cities. This follows a strong “reopening” effect during May and June when key economic and employment measures in the US rebounded at a record pace. Globally, Citi analysts have lowered 2020 GDP expectations by -0.2pp to -3.7%, but raised 2021’s forecast by 0.1pp to 5.6%.

 

  • A resumption of impact from COVID-19 was always expected and may be less surprising for markets than the initial shock. Citi analysts see adaptive actions in the economy (such as greater work from home) coupled with strong “bridging” stimulus steps by policymakers keeping a fragile, new recovery intact.

 

  • The Technology sector has been the strongest beneficiary to date as interest rates stay low and significant trends in ecommerce, digital communications, virtual office and cloud usage were sharply accelerated by the social impediments of the pandemic. Digitization” is one of Citi’s unstoppable trends, and while Citi analysts do not see a fundamental reason for an immediate correction, certain elements of the “COVID-19 defensives” rally appear unsustainable and represent a concentrating risk for portfolios. Five US tech-related firms now constitute nearly 15% of global equity market capitalization.

 

 

  • A narrow focus on performance tends to accumulate overweights in the most over-valued assets in time. Given so, Citi’s Global Investment Committee (GIC) is overweight global equity, allocating more broadly across beaten down sectors to increase diversification.

 

  • Overweight on US small and mid-caps (SMID), Emerging Markets (Asia and Latin America), and global Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). Citi analysts expect US SMID to catch up in performance to US large cap shares, despite sector and quality differences favoring large caps to date. Increasingly, SMID is seen as more favorably positioned across the world coming out of the crisis. In Emerging Asia, Chinese shares, particularly those in the technology and internet sector have risen sharply in recent months. While some near-term consolidation could be expected, long-term optimism on Asian consumption, technology and healthcare themes remains intact. Over in Latin America, valuations have improved after a deep selloff. Given the severe underperformance relative to other markets, the region could perform well coming out of the crisis. Citi analysts also hold an overweight in global equity REITs in a special thematic allocation as real estate assets may be pricing in fairly extreme pessimism.

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