Dr. Henry Ma, CFA, PhD, President and CIO of Julex Capital, was a panelist on a Morningstar Webinar on “Positioning Your Portfolio for 2015” on December 16, 2014. Following are highlights of some of the views shared by Henry during the webinar:
- Our 2015 economic forecast for U.S. growth is a bit more rosy that consensus at about 2.5%-3.0% with some stimulus coming from lower energy prices and increased consumer spending.
- In terms of investment themes for 2015, we expect a continuation of the divergence between U.S. equity markets and the rest of the developed world with dollar strengthening and we expect the Fed to tighten with short rates rising in the second half of 2015 prompting a yield curve flattening.
- In terms of asset allocations for 2015, we favor U.S. equities compared to fixed income due to relative valuations. On a historical basis U.S. equities are not cheap, but are favorable compared to fixed income.
- We think there is good potential for good performance in the financial and technology sectors due to their lower relative valuations as we enter 2015.
To hear the full webinar and all of Henry’s and the other panelists’ comments, please click the link below: