again for what it's worth ... from
(snip)As we head into the artificial investing horizon of year-end, sell-side research is compelled to offer its best-guess at what will be key for the year ahead. We certainly head into 2012 with considerable potential downside risks - US recession?, breakup of the Euro?, hard-landing in China? - and BofA Merrill Lynch's RIC Report bears these in mind as it suggests investors position for these ten key macro themes (some positive, some negative) from slower global growth to a weakening US consumer and QE in US and Europe. Starting from a neutral equities, long gold, long US corporate bonds, they favor growth, quality, and yield in one of the more complete summaries of expectations we have read.
1. Slower global economic growth
2. The US consumer will weaken again
3. A soft landing in China
4. Quantitative easing in the US and Europe
5. Negative returns for holders of US Treasuries
6. Yield and income will remain paramount
7. Modest upside for equities
8. Large-caps should outperform small-caps
9. Emerging Market rate cuts support EM assets and commodities
10. Stock picking opportunities likely to emerge
The good news is investor sentiment is more defensive today than 12 months ago, and central banks are once again demonstrating they will do everything they can to prevent systemic financial market turmoil. The BofA ML base case is that policymakers will once again succeed in avoiding the abyss in 2012. As a result, the RIC believes 2012 offers many investment opportunities, as well as threats.(snip)
For anyone with serious interest, the linked article also discusses underlying reasoning and potential investment options to 'cash in' on these expected trends.



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