Janus Henderson multi-asset managers Dean Cheeseman and Nick Watson have moved back overweight in US equities in September.
“The course of the summer felt like markets had got ahead of themselves a bit, and there were still issues around trade wars that markets weren’t necessarily paying too much attention to,” Watson said. “So, we moved from being a neutral stance on our equities down to around 3% or 4% underweight which was rented partly by US equities, but also through more cyclical regions.”
But, speaking to Portfolio Adviser in September, he said: “Over the past week, we’ve rebuilt those back up towards a small overweight. That’s by adding to emerging markets, and by adding to the US.”
Improving economy
Watson said: “If you really squint, and I mean really squint, you can see improving economic data. You can see that some of the macro slowdown we’ve been experiencing is stabilising a bit.
“You’ve got to rummage around a bit in order to get these comforts, but there are a few green shoots. It’s not to say that we’re expecting a strong-bind economic recovery, but there’s enough out there in order to hold off a recession as a 2019, possibly even a 2020, event.”
He said the team plans to rebuild risk over the next couple of months, predominantly through emerging markets.
A profile of the Janus Henderson multi-asset team features in the latest issue of Portfolio Adviser
