The global economy has shown synchronous growth since early in the year. Surprises are especially positive in Europe, where the peripheral countries contribute to this growth. Now that the spectre of victories of “Eurosceptic” countries has passed, specifically in France, the path toward good news seems clear.
The U.S. economy continues to show healthy growth despite president Trump’s learning curve. In 2017, the Canadian economy should post one of the highest growth rates of the G7 countries; Canada already has an extremely strong first quarter in the bag.
Strategy
In this context, we will continue to anticipate positive returns in the stock markets, especially in Europe and Asia. Despite the strong performance of the U.S. market since the low point of 2009, certain sectors, including the IT sector, offer attractive prospects. To conclude, we still prefer underweight* bonds given low interest rates.
* Underweighting: An investment strategy where the portfolio manager allocates a weight for a given portfolio that is less than the weight of the benchmark portfolio.