Why We Remain Pro-risk

We are at an uncertain juncture in markets. Investors are grappling with how to interpret unusual growth dynamics and new central bank frameworks. On the first, U.S. activity looks set to restart strongly this year, powered by pent-up demand across income cohorts and sky-high excess savings. Growth forecasts have been catching up, as the chart above shows, but the magnitude of the restart may still be underappreciated. This is in stark contrast to the repeat growth disappointments seen after the global financial crisis – and reflects the different nature of this shock. We see it as more akin to a natural disaster followed by a rapid “restart” – rather than a traditional business cycle recession followed by a “recovery.” This is why a year ago we warned against extrapolating too much from the steep decline in activity. Now the same is true – but in reverse. U.S. growth will likely peak over the summer but the eye-popping data will be transient: the more activity is restarted now, the less there will be to restart later. We see the rest of the world following the U.S. and reopening as vaccine rollouts pick up pace.

The second dynamic investors are grappling with is new central bank frameworks. Our new nominal theme helps us navigate this environment. The Federal Reserve is building credibility in its new framework and has set a high bar to change its easy policy stance, even in face of higher realized inflation. This has yet to be fully digested by markets, in our view. We see markets still underestimating the potential for the Fed to achieve above-target inflation in the medium term as it looks to make up for persistent undershoots in the past. This is why we think the direction of travel for yields is higher. But we believe the overall adjustment will be much more muted than one would have expected in the past based on growth dynamics – and much adjustment has already taken place.

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BIIM0421U/M-1620917

As a result of these two key dynamics, we maintain our pro-risk tactical view. We remain overweight equities, neutral credit and underweight government bonds on a tactical basis. Yet we have tweaked some of our tactical views given significant moves in market pricing. For example, 10-year Treasury yields have more than tripled from last year’s lows around 0.5%. This leaves less room for further rises in yields on a tactical horizon, in our view. U.S. inflation expectations also have come a long way since we moved to an overweight in U.S. Treasury Protected Securities (TIPS) early last year. As a result, we are trimming our tactical underweight to U.S. Treasuries and closing our overweight in TIPS – even as we see room for yields to push higher and inflationary pressures to build further in the medium term. In a world starved for income, we have upgraded EM local currency debt on attractive valuations and the prospect of a stable dollar as the restart broadens, prefer high yield over investment grade credit and see opportunities in private markets. Within equities we express our pro-cyclical stance through overweights to EM and U.S. small caps as beneficiaries of the vaccine-led restart.

Bottom line: The broadening restart – coupled with our belief that this will not translate into significantly higher rates – underpins our pro-risk stance. Risks remain, however, on the tactical horizon. One is a market overreaction to exceptional growth data in the months ahead. We may see bouts of volatility as markets test the Fed’s resolve to stay “behind the curve” on inflation. Any temporary spikes in rates may challenge EM assets in particular, but we advocate staying invested and looking through any turbulence as our “new nominal” plays out. Want to know more? BII’s Global Outlook (GO) meeting on April 27 is a chance to hear from us directly and ask questions. Contact your BlackRock relationship manager for details.

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