- The $1 trillion asset manager Natixis recently surveyed two dozen strategists, economists, and fund managers on their outlook and investing recommendations for 2020.
- They distilled their views to a ranking of asset classes that they find most and least desirable right now.
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The end of a spectacular year across asset classes has investors wondering what might happens next.
To help answer this question, Natixis surveyed 24 strategists, economists, and portfolio managers to glean their investment preferences for the year ahead. The firm manages just over $1 trillion in assets.
Stocks ranked highly across the board as a place to invest in 2020. David Lafferty, the chief market strategist, attributed this to the fact that recession fears have faded and investors are more willing to venture into riskier waters.
European stocks were seen in a much more favorable light following the Dec. 12 UK election that provided a clearer pathway for Brexit. However, the Natixis experts were mostly neutral on US stocks due to valuation concerns and the uncertainty surrounding the presidential election.
In order to further distill these views into concrete takeaways for clients, Natixis formulated a bull-bear score from its experts' responses.
Each asset class was first ranked on a scale of 0-10, with 0-4 representing bearish sentiment, 5 as neutral, and 5-10 as bullish. Afterwards, the weighted sum of bullish minus bearish ratings was calculated to arrive at the final bull-bear score.
The top-five outliers on either side are listed below, ranked from the least bullish/bearish score to the most bullish/bearish.