Carter (pictured) joins from Charles Stanley as investment manager and has more than 25 years’ experience in financial services. Rivers has more than 10 years’ experience in the industry and was previously an investment manager at Rathbone Investment Management.
Both will be based in the firm’s Hampshire office.
Howard Crossen, senior investment director and head of Brooks Macdonald’s Hampshire office, said:
“We are delighted that Jennifer and Johnathon have joined us at an exciting time for the office. Their considerable investment experience will aid the team in continuing to deliver a high level of client service across Hampshire, Dorset, West Sussex and Wiltshire, while also helping drive our growth efforts.”
Meanwhile, Brooks Macdonald released its asset allocation update and macroeconomic outlook. Edward Park, investment director, said the firm’s core outlook for equity markets remains “intact”, including its poor outlook on UK domestic equities.
“We see controlled global inflationary pressures, low but stable GDP growth rates and strong earnings growth as creating a positive backdrop for global equity markets,” he said.
“The major events of the last month have not materially impacted the status quo and the Vix index has fallen to new lows despite changes in leadership at the Federal Reserve, rate hikes at the Bank of England and quantitative easing tapering in the eurozone.”
That said, “we remain cautious with regards to the UK consumer outlook (c 60% of UK GDP) due to negative real wages and lower consumer confidence”, he continued.
“Looking at the Q3 results for the retailers it is sometimes difficult to differentiate between the theme of shopping moving online and generally weak retail sales but the leading data suggests to us that demand will be weaker over the next 6/12 months.
“We have already seen this in Q3 earnings for domestic focused companies and CEO guidance for future quarters has been less optimistic.”
The firm said fixed interest investments remain relatively unattractive as “credit spreads across investment grade and high yield are approaching levels last seen in 2006/7, at the same time as the risk-free rate remains at very depressed levels.”
Park said: “We do retain exposure to some UK fixed interest investments, which are predominantly investment grade, in order to provide some diversification to portfolios in the event of a down-tick in global growth.”
