The longest-ever US government shutdown has finally ended, at least temporarily, while negotiations continue over funding of a US-Mexico border wall. While the government will be reopened at least until February 15, the economic implications of the shutdown and the potential for more disruption ahead has become a source of concern to many global investors.
US members of Congress are finding themselves at a stand-off over the creation of a border wall between the United States and Mexico. President Trump’s threats to shut down the government if the bill is not passed raise questions and uncertainty that will contribute to increased political risks for investors to consider. Stephen Dover, Head of Equities for Franklin Templeton Investments, shares his perspective about the potential impacts.
As our analysts and researchers travel the world surveying businesses, they hear a lot about disruption—the ability of new often-technology-backed companies to disrupt the status quo.
Global growth has been accelerating, but there are a few potential headwinds that could cause it to stall. Three of our senior investment leaders—Ed Perks, Chris Molumphy and Stephen Dover—recently participated in a panel discussion on the potential impact of trade tensions, inflation and other issues on their radar.
The first quarter of 2018 started out like a lamb but went out like a lion as long-dormant volatility began to roar. Issues like inflation fears, trade tensions and geopolitical risks contributed to market turbulence, leaving many investors wondering whether these issues will put a damper on global growth—and end the US market’s nine-year bull run.
Growth and value investing are often seen as competing styles, with one outperforming or underperforming the other during different periods of time and market cycles. While the approaches may differ, Stephen Dover, head of equities at Franklin Templeton Investments, and Norm Boersma, chief investment officer of Templeton Global Equity Group, say growth versus value doesn’t have to be an either-or proposition.
While we don’t know when the equity market’s recent volatility will settle down, it’s important to consider the big-picture, fundamental backdrop for the market, and not get caught up in short-term sentiment swings, according to Franklin Templeton’s head of equities, Stephen Dover. And, he believes the fundamental backdrop still looks solid.
Templeton Emerging Markets Group has a wide investment universe to cover—tens of thousands of companies in markets on nearly every continent. While we are bottom-up investors, we also take into account big-picture context.
January is a month of resolutions and predictions, and perhaps more often than not, both tend to be abandoned come spring. While we don’t have a magic crystal ball to predict where the markets may be headed next, we do have a team of respected professionals who recently assembled to discuss whether they think last year’s economic momentum could continue—and where they see potential threats on the horizon.
Since the infamous “dot com” meltdown nearly two decades ago, people have tended to question any sort of extended run-up in technology-sector stocks.
Overall, we believe small-cap stocks in emerging markets offer attractive prospects for active managers. A multitude of mispriced securities, market inefficiencies and a paucity of research provide considerable investment opportunities, in our view.
Despite some uncertainties, economic improvements in developed and emerging markets have supported a positive mood across both equity and fixed income this year.
With markets reacting in part to geopolitical events, it’s hard not to be distracted by news headlines. To help sift through some of the noise, several of our senior investment leaders recently participated in a roundtable discussion of the events shaping the global markets today, the implications for investors and where they see potential opportunities ahead.
The way investors think about emerging markets has been evolving—along with the markets themselves. One thing we at Templeton Emerging Markets Group emphasize is that one can’t consider emerging markets as one asset class; the opportunities are very differentiated between regions, countries and markets, with different fundamentals shaping them.
What’s ahead for emerging markets in 2017? Stephen Dover, managing director and CIO of Templeton Emerging Markets Group and Franklin Local Asset Management, and Mark Mobius, executive chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets Group, present their emerging-market equity outlook.
While the US election uncertainty may finally be behind us, whether and how pre-election rhetoric will ultimately be reflected in policy shifts remains unknown.
