Edward Lloyd

We maintain a modest underweight to global equities given the exogenous shocks of tariffs and fiscal budget constraints. While the US administration has rowed back on the worse of the tariff policies, they still remain considerably higher than at the start of the year, with the effects yet to show up in the hard data as companies prioritise inventory destocking. Given the recovery in markets, valuations are expensive and justify taking a more cautious stance. The same is true for corporate bonds where we remain underweight, given the tightness in credit spreads. Our overweights are towards cash and gold with the latter supported by central bank buying and its store of value at a time of fiscal largesse.

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