Perspectives Pictet

Meetings on Capitol Hill in mid-May with a series of top (mostly Republican) officials, congressmen and economic advisors provided insight into where the Trump presidency is going, trade tensions and the November mid-term election .*With apologies to Frank Capra.Christophe Donay, Head of Asset Allocation & Macroeconomic Research, Pictet Wealth Management.Meetings  I had in Washington in May touched on four main themes: i) economic policy; ii) trade policy; iii) US politics; and iv)...

The CIO office’s view of the week ahead.Last week was eventful, with Italian bond spreads rising sharply on the threat of fresh elections and then partially recovering when a government was eventually formed. We do not think that the crisis engulfing Italy has ended. After the summer, the new populist government’s unfunded fiscal plans could put Italian bond yields under renewed pressure. In spite of the downfall of Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy, there is less to worry about in Spain...

Research at MIT’s Media Lab is analysing the climates and environmental conditions that produce the most tasty and nutritious foodstuffs, with the aim of replicating them anywhere in the world – including in fast-growing cities.The Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is not an obvious place to launch a revolution in agriculture. But since it describes itself as an ‘antidisciplinary research lab’ working to reinvent a long list of human activities by the application of...

Pictet Wealth Management's latest positioning across asset classes and investment themes.Asset AllocationOverall, we remain cautiously optimistic about risk assets. We expect economic growth to rebound after a ‘soft patch’ and corporate profitability remains strong, as revealed in Q1 earnings reports.But we recognise that the environment is becoming more challenging for investors. The current environment requires active managers’ heightened sense of adaptability.While we are bearish on euro...

The May nonfarm report shows the labour market remains in fine fettle, even though wage gains are still not broad based.The May employment report showed that the US labour market – and the US economy more broadly – remains in great shape, with non-farm payrolls growing by 223,000 last month. The 2018 year-to-date average, at 207,000, is above last year’s 182,000. This strength is reassuring news, especially given the erratic course of US trade policy. The US labour market’s strength was...

Amid domestic political uncertainty, Spanish growth remains strong.This week saw the final release of Spanish GDP growth for Q1. The economy again managed to post robust growth, the highest among the four largest euro area economies (+0.7% q-o-q versus 0.4% q-o-q for the euro area). The breakdown of figures showed that domestic demand was once again the main growth driver. The carryover effect for 2018 reached 2.8%, meaning that even with zero growth in the remaining three quarters of 2018,...

[embedded content] The fifth edition of the Latam Family Office Master Class took place in Nassau in April 2018, with more than 60 guests attending. This year the focus was around geopolitics, digital revolution, alternative investments and family governance. Among the speakers, we had the pleasure of welcoming Alec Ross, Former Senior Advisor for Innovation to Secretary Hillary Clinton; Argentina’s one-time Minister of Economy, Alfonso Prat-Gay; Ernesto Zedillo, Former President of Mexico,...

Download issue:English /Français /Deutsch /Español /ItalianoThe latest issue of Perspectives is a special edition devoted to Pictet Wealth Management’s (PWM) analysis of expected returns across 35 asset classes over a 10-year investment horizon, as well as the secular economic and market trends that will underpin those returns. This special edition resumes the more detailed analysis contained in our annual publication, Horizon.Simply put, PWM expects the major asset classes to deliver lower...

THE ROLE OF REAL ASSETS IN A VIRTUAL WORLD? The fifth edition of the Latam Family Office Master Class took place in Nassau in April 2018, with more than 60 guests attending. This year the focus was around geopolitics, digital revolution, alternative investments and family governance. Among the speakers, we had the pleasure of welcoming Alec Ross, Former Senior Advisor for Innovation to Secretary Hillary Clinton; Argentina’s one-time Minister of Economy, Alfonso Prat-Gay; Ernesto Zedillo,...

Italy finally has a government, but its public finances are likely to be soon back in the spotlight.Following a spectacular U-turn, the Five Start Movement (MS5) and the League reached a deal to form a government under their original candidate for prime minister, Giuseppe Conte.Both parties agreed on a new finance minister, Giovanni Tria, while Paolo Savona, who was blocked by President Mattarella last Sunday, will be minister for EU affairs. M5S leader Di Maio will be minister for labour...