We take recent opinion polls for each political party in each country in the EU and compare them with the share of vote and the number of seats they won in the EU Parliamentary elections in 2014. We conclude there is a good chance that Eurosceptic parties may form the largest single grouping after the elections in May 2019. We believe that this scenario has not even been considered by most investors and that it has significant shock value. Some may even regard it as a black swan.

We have two clear signals that investors – both international and domestic – should take another look at Japanese equities. Our argument is that Japan has better momentum and less risk than other regions, apart from the US where we are maxed out.

There is a fundamental conflict between the bearish sector stance of our Chinese equity sector model and the bullish positioning of the US model. We don’t think it is possible for these two sets of sector recommendations to remain unchanged without having an impact on each other or the rest of the global equity universe. On balance we think it is more likely that the US will come to resemble China, rather than the other way around.

Our new stock-specific models cover the US, UK and the Eurozone and they have an uncomfortable message regarding the outlook for global equities. We looked at eight companies in the US and the UK, whose profits are geared to global equity markets. Seven of them have a very low probability of beating their host index on a risk-adjusted basis, and their scores are lower than the Financials sector as a whole. Equity investors appear to believe that the outlook for equities is difficult and that agrees with our top-down models

Many clients are surprised by our low exposure to US Equities given the strong dollar and their performance relative to global equities. It’s a direct consequence of the way we structure our asset allocation model. We could use a currency-based rather than an asset-class approach, but it doesn’t perform as well over the long-term and it doesn’t offer as much downside protection in the event of a correction. In any case, the risk-adjusted returns from US Equities have been bit underwhelming in 2018 to date.

All four defensive sectors in the US have generated relative buy signals in the last three months and as a group they are starting to outperform the index. This may or may not be an indicator for the equity market as a whole; that is for the future to decide. Right now, investors should be reducing the beta of their equity portfolio, no matter what their macro-outlook. And the same applies to European portfolios as well

Because of the strong dollar, European investors have a chance to buy emerging market exposure without competition from US investors. EM Bonds already offer attractive risk- adjusted returns when measured in euros or pounds. There may also be an opportunity in selected equity markets like Mexico, India and Israel, even if the overall index is unattractive because of its large exposure to China and the threat of a trade war.

Technical analysts are waiting for US equities to hit a new all-time high. Our model suggests that they have already broken above an important moving average relative to the total returns from cash. In local currency terms, the Eurozone, the UK, Switzerland, Australia and Canada have all done the same in the last month. Alas, Japan, China and most EMs are still a long way from the level.

Our models suggest that investors have decided to use Japanese rather than Eurozone Equities, as a way of funding their increased exposure to US Equities. US High Yield may be about to lose its #1 position in fixed income. Healthcare is about to be upgraded to overweight in the US and Europe. It is largely unaffected by the threat of a trade-war.