A revisit to our global equity views

by Kurt Reiman, Senior Strategist, North America, Blackrock

Where do we stand on global equities after their rebound from late-March lows? Kurt explains.

Global stocks have come a long way since the sharp selloff in February and March. In fact, since late March they have recovered more than half of the loss. Interestingly, this rally has taken place alongside a sharp contraction in economic activity and corporate earnings. Where do we expect equities to go from here? We see the unprecedented policy response to cushion the pandemic’s blow as key to support global equity markets–against a backdrop of historic uncertainty for activity and earnings. As a result, we still prefer an up-in-quality stance and like economies with ample policy room, as we stay neutral on global equities overall.

Global equities found their footing in late March – thanks to a swift and overwhelming fiscal and monetary policy response led by the U.S. Yet under the hood of the impressive rally lies a large dispersion in regional and style factor performance. The chart above zooms in on the sources of total return in key regional stock markets since the market troughed in late March: The U.S. and Asia ex-Japan markets have outperformed broad emerging markets, the euro area and Japan–and this aligns with our overweight in the two front-runners. An expansion of valuation multiples from cheaper levels has driven the rally across markets, even as earnings expectations contracted everywhere. Lower-for-longer interest rates mechanically increase the present value of estimated future cash flows, making equities more valuable–and relatively more attractive on a cross-asset basis.

A key feature of the equity market rally is its narrowness. The out-performance of U.S. equities so far this year is largely a function of strong gains by a handful of mega-cap technology stocks, extending a multi-year trend. The five companies with the largest market value in the S&P 500 Index account for over 20% of the index’s total market capitalization. This is the highest since the tech bubble in 2000 – and potentially a warning sign. Yet these market leaders–with businesses in e-commerce and online search – are poised for better earnings as they have strong long-term growth prospects, robust financial metrics, and business models benefiting from pandemic-spurred behavioral shifts. In contrast, cyclical sectors such as energy, financials, consumer discretionary and industrials, have reported poor earnings–and challenging outlooks.

We have seen nothing short of a policy revolution in response to the pandemic–in terms of speed, size and monetary-fiscal coordination. Measures to bridge cash flows to households and businesses through the shock should limit the cumulative economic loss over time as economies reopen, even if the recovery proves slow and uneven, in our view. Effective execution of these policies is critical, as is avoiding premature policy fatigue. And poor near-term earnings prospects mean that further equity market gains are dependent on more multiple expansion. This tilts risks to the downside, keeping us neutral on global stocks over the next six to 12 months. A re-flaring of tensions between the U.S. and China is another reason for caution. We favor credit over equities over the time horizon, given central bank asset purchases and bondholders’ preferential claim on corporate cash flows.

The bottom line

We still hold an up-in-quality stance in equities. This includes a preference for the U.S. market’s relatively high concentration of quality companies and sectors set to ride long-term structural growth trends. We also favor Asia ex-Japan on the expectation that many countries in the region, especially China, have more policy room and have demonstrated their strength in containing the virus spread. We are underweight the euro area and Japan, as they are more dependent on foreign trade and have less willingness or capacity to engage in policy stimulus. From a factor perspective, we still favor exposure to quality and minimum volatility for their relative defensiveness during periods of slowing economic activity and heightened volatility. We stay underweight value–a factor that typically fares poorly during periods of decelerating growth and has extended its under-performance of the past three years.

Kurt Reiman is Senior Strategist for North America at the BlackRock Investment Institute. He is a regular contributor to The Blog.

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This material is not intended to be relied upon as a forecast, research or investment advice, and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy. The opinions expressed are as of May 2020 and may change as subsequent conditions vary. The information and opinions contained in this post are derived from proprietary and non-proprietary sources deemed by BlackRock to be reliable, are not necessarily all-inclusive and are not guaranteed as to accuracy. As such, no warranty of accuracy or reliability is given and no responsibility arising in any other way for errors and omissions (including responsibility to any person by reason of negligence) is accepted by BlackRock, its officers, employees or agents. This post may contain “forward-looking” information that is not purely historical in nature. Such information may include, among other things, projections and forecasts. There is no guarantee that any forecasts made will come to pass. Reliance upon information in this post is at the sole discretion of the reader. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Index performance is shown for illustrative purposes only. You cannot invest directly in an index.

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This post was first published at the official blog of Blackrock.