June 2015 Archives - Beyond Bulls & Bears

Eurozone Contagion Fears Flare as Greek Crisis Enters Crucial Phase

We should not forget the long-term focus of our investments. The overall fundamentals in Europe haven’t changed, and remain positive in our eyes.

June 30, 2015

In the Know: Fed Policy and Fixed Income

As fixed income investors, we have to build more tools and use different types of tools when managing our portfolios, allowing ourselves to remain more liquid in some of our short-term investments in order to keep what we believe to be a prudent level of risk given the changes in liquidity in the marketplace.

June 30, 2015

Are European Profits Poised for a Comeback?

I believe the positive (earnings) trend will continue due to a handful of macro factors including labour reforms, lower borrowing costs and, especially, the depreciated euro, which all could help companies grow their profits.

June 29, 2015

Unconstrained Global Investing in an Extraordinary Monetary Policy Environment

As we see it, it is only a matter of time before US wages start to rise to levels where inflation is triggered. Using the Fed’s own estimates, we are quite close to what’s considered to be full employment. To us, this does not justify 0% interest rates.

Michael Hasenstab, Ph.D. | June 24, 2015

Looking Beyond the Babble over Bubbles

Longer term, we do not think an increase in interest rates would necessarily be a negative for equity markets, particularly because a return to normal rates would be regarded as a sign of the Fed's confidence in the strength of the US economy and its belief that the economy could stand on its own.

June 23, 2015

Global Economic Perspective: June

In spite of lingering concerns about Greece’s fate, the European economy would appear to have hit a sweet spot marked by steadily improving growth and inflation figures along with declining unemployment.

June 18, 2015

Rising Rates and the Rebirth of Global Stockpicking

Once the efforts of various central banks start to bear fruit and the global economy becomes healthier, we expect to see a potential reduction in the pursuit of unconventional monetary policies. That should enable equity markets to return to what we view as a more rational level of behavior.

June 16, 2015

Two Pillars Support US Growth: Consumers and Corporates

While we believe the current strength in the dollar will likely persist going forward, we don’t see it as a meaningful detractor from earnings growth for many companies over the long term.

June 12, 2015

Bears Gather around the Goldilocks Eurozone

The eurozone is currently offering what we would regard as an ideal environment to generate growth, so we’d certainly be slightly concerned if the economy there was not growing.

June 09, 2015

A Look at South Korea

As long as the global macro environment remains stable and the South Korean government continues enacting pro-growth policies, we think the outlook appears bright for South Korean equities for the rest of 2015.

June 08, 2015

Why Oil Price Rally Isn’t a Surprise, but Iron Ore’s Price Should Stay Low

While oil has dealt with a relatively recent increase in supply, iron ore has been suffering through a long-term glut. And, based on our analysis of future supply/demand trends, we expect the abundance of iron ore to continue—and possibly increase.

June 04, 2015