“If the trade discussions don’t go well then very clearly you want to be in duration and that’s going to help your portfolio,” Karen Ward, chief EMEA market strategist at JPMorgan AM, told Bloomberg, revealing the asset managers have been increasing its duration bets via Treasuries.
The bevy of concerns are already being calculated into forecasts for the year, with the International Monetary Fund cutting expectations for global growth for this year to 3.5%, its weakest level since 2016. China has been a particular cause for concern as the emerging economy registered its slowest expansion since 2009 over the fourth quarter.
“The U.S., Europe, China – all of those will be experiencing a greater level of slowing, probably a great level of disappointment,” Billionaire Ray Dalio said at the Fox Business Network panel at the World Economic Forum.
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