Head of Research and Global Chief Strategist, Steno Research

Andreas Steno

Head of Research and Global Chief Strategist

Macro and Geopolitical Research House

Steno Research

Steno Research is a new macro and geopolitical research house. We are based out of Copenhagen, Denmark, but have an international team and a strong network of sources and partners around the world. The team is lead by Andreas Steno, previous global head of strategy at Nordea Bank, and Mikkel Rosenvold, former chief consultant in the Danish Ministry of Finance.

Cross Asset Strategy

<ul>
<li>Happy Monday, and welcome to our weekly positioning update!Markets seem to be back to normal dynamics, with US indices slowly drifting higher with S&amp;P 500 passing the historic 5000 USD level, despite most economic data prints surprising to the upside, almost forcing risk-asset investors to believe that the economy has survived higher interest rates for good.</li>
<li>Although rates traders have made what looks like a u-turn in the # of cuts priced in for 2024, the promise from central bankers that policy rates will come down has been anchored in expectations, and the cocktail of slightly better than expected economic data and the perception that central bankers will cut interest rates (albeit slightly slower) anyway produces a perfect environment for risk assets to perform and drift higher.</li>
<li>With USD liquidity looking to continue its upward trajectory, equities are still a buy given the current narrative – momentum is king.</li>
</ul>


Happy Monday, and welcome to our weekly positioning update!Markets seem to be back to normal dynamics, with US indices slowly drifting higher with S&amp;P 500 passing the historic 5000 USD level, despite most economic data prints surprising to the upside, almost forcing risk-asset investors to believe that the economy has survived higher interest rates for good.
Although rates traders have made what looks like a u-turn in the # of cuts priced in for 2024, the promise from central bankers that policy rates will come down has been anchored in expectations, and the cocktail of slightly better than expected economic data and the perception that central bankers will cut interest rates (albeit slightly slower) anyway produces a perfect environment for risk assets to perform and drift higher.
With USD liquidity looking to continue its upward trajectory, equities are still a buy given the current narrative – momentum is king.


Positioning Watch – Has the Sudden Change in Rates Pricing Changed Positioning?

Global Multi-Asset Investment Strategist, True Insights

Jeroen Blokland

Global Multi-Asset Investment Strategist

Build Well-Diversified Multi-Asset Portfolios

True Insights

Our research helps investors build well-diversified multi-asset portfolios and profit from market developments. In addition, our unique and proven Macro – Sentiment – Valuation (MSV) investment framework ensures a consistent flow of new investment opportunities. Together with our market views, these opportunities will be reflected in our live ETF-based Global Multi-Asset Portfolios.

<ul>
<li>China is injecting liquidity into the markets, but ironically, with investors sick and tired of negative returns, much of this liquidity is finding its way everywhere except China.</li>
<li>The downturn in commercial real estate is becoming a global phenomenon. A growing number of companies is grappling with bad real estate loans, leading to a sharp increase in provisions.</li>
<li>The most recent Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices (SLOOS) reveals yet another trend that the recession is already behind us.</li>
</ul>


China is injecting liquidity into the markets, but ironically, with investors sick and tired of negative returns, much of this liquidity is finding its way everywhere except China.
The downturn in commercial real estate is becoming a global phenomenon. A growing number of companies is grappling with bad real estate loans, leading to a sharp increase in provisions.
The most recent Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices (SLOOS) reveals yet another trend that the recession is already behind us.


The Weekly Market Monitor – How China Is Pushing Stocks Higher Except at Home

Independent Research, US Dominant Players, Investment Talk

Investment Talk

Independent Research, US Dominant Players

Investment Talk is for readers who wish to learn about companies that are potentially outside of their own circle of research, as well as those who are longing to become part of a community of like-minded investors and learn more about investment research. I would describe myself as a long-term investor who typically takes a 3Y to 5Y outlook, before reassessing once that period matures. I follow the adage that one should research, reach a conclusion, and then verify and continue to hold so long as the thesis remains intact. My own investing style is one that seeks to find dominant players within their respective market who have shown signs of monopoly or oligopolistic behaviour, unlikely to be disrupted, in tandem with discovering market disruptors who have a high likelihood of disrupting their respective market. Equally (and weighted accordingly) I seek to discover more nuanced, misunderstood, situations with a shorter time frame.

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ul><li>As I <strong>reflected</strong> on my performance in 2023, I was reminded that benchmarking can be a brutal process.</li><li>But it keeps you humble. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about my chosen benchmark, the S&amp;P 500.</li><li>I occasionally think as an international investor I should change it.</li></ul>

As I reflected on my performance in 2023, I was reminded that benchmarking can be a brutal process.But it keeps you humble. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about my chosen benchmark, the S&amp;P 500.I occasionally think as an international investor I should change it.

Technical Analyst, Vermilion Research

Joe Jasper

Technical Analyst

Technical and Quantitative Research

Vermilion Research

Vermilion’s objective is to deliver timely, actionable, and unique technical research to professional investors through the application of our various technical indicators.

Our research strategists seek to highlight securities which we believe are at major inflection points, based on our various technical and quantitative indicators, and offer asymmetric risk/return profiles. Our unique research methodology, centered on relative strength, enables our strategists to deliver superior investment recommendations.

Our process begins by organizing the universe of actively traded stocks into discrete sectors, then into industry groups. We then apply our technical and quantitative tools to identify developing price trends. Once attractive trends are identified within a selected sector or group, we screen for individual stocks which we believe offer the best risk/reward profile. We provide a historical perspective that often reveals, through our long-term charts, how price patterns often repeat themselves over time.

Technical Analysis

<ul>
<li>More restrictive Fed policy than expected is disproportionately hitting small/mid-caps which are more sensitive to higher interest rates. This suggests we could see further consolidation for small- and mid-caps.</li>
<li>Large-Caps (SPX, Nasdaq 100, DJI) remain bullish on continued strength from mega-caps (AMZN, META, NVDA,MSFT). Our bullish outlook remains appropriate, but we discuss what would lead us to get cautious.</li>
<li>1-, 2-, and 10-year Treasury yields testing resistance today and failing. U.S. dollar (DXY) also testing key resistance at $104.60. We also push back on the bad breadth argument (again).</li>
</ul>


More restrictive Fed policy than expected is disproportionately hitting small/mid-caps which are more sensitive to higher interest rates. This suggests we could see further consolidation for small- and mid-caps.
Large-Caps (SPX, Nasdaq 100, DJI) remain bullish on continued strength from mega-caps (AMZN, META, NVDA,MSFT). Our bullish outlook remains appropriate, but we discuss what would lead us to get cautious.
1-, 2-, and 10-year Treasury yields testing resistance today and failing. U.S. dollar (DXY) also testing key resistance at $104.60. We also push back on the bad breadth argument (again).


Monitoring Rising Treasury Yields & U.S. Dollar (DXY); What Would Lead Us to Get Cautious?

Macroeconomics

<ul><li>Very interesting dynamics in markets lately, with the NFP report Friday shocking markets at first glance before sending them back into rally-mode, likely a signal that asset pricing will be more about underlying fundamentals and economic data rather than interest rates alone.</li><li>Despite rate cuts being pushed back a bit by both data and central bankers, the US economy is going strong, and the “interest rates work with a lag” arguments have been swept away for now, which leaves us with good news actually being good news.</li><li>This week’s positioning watch is chart-packed with short and concise text – Enjoy!EquitiesRetail Investors’ allocation towards stocks has remained fairly stable since 2022 and has retracted after the boom in late 2023, but despite having a high correlation with the performance in small vs big equities (Russell 2000 vs S&amp;P 500), Large Cap has outperformed Russell 2000 and other small cap indices by MILES since 2022.</li></ul>

Very interesting dynamics in markets lately, with the NFP report Friday shocking markets at first glance before sending them back into rally-mode, likely a signal that asset pricing will be more about underlying fundamentals and economic data rather than interest rates alone.Despite rate cuts being pushed back a bit by both data and central bankers, the US economy is going strong, and the “interest rates work with a lag” arguments have been swept away for now, which leaves us with good news actually being good news.This week’s positioning watch is chart-packed with short and concise text – Enjoy!EquitiesRetail Investors’ allocation towards stocks has remained fairly stable since 2022 and has retracted after the boom in late 2023, but despite having a high correlation with the performance in small vs big equities (Russell 2000 vs S&amp;P 500), Large Cap has outperformed Russell 2000 and other small cap indices by MILES since 2022.

Positioning Watch – Spread-trades are the way to play the current environment

United States

The S&P 500® is widely regarded as the best single gauge of large-cap U.S. equities and serves as the foundation for a wide range of investment products. The index includes 500 leading companies and captures approximately 80% coverage of available market capitalization.

S&P 500 INDEX (SPX INDEX)

Positioning Watch – Has the Sudden Change in Rates Pricing Changed Positioning?

Happy Monday, and welcome to our weekly positioning update! Markets seem to be back to normal dynamics, with US indices slowly drifting higher with...

Steno Research

The Weekly Market Monitor – How China Is Pushing Stocks Higher Except at Home

Is this the start of another Chinese liquidity boom? Meanwhile, commercial real estate loan provisions are spreading across the globe, which is why...

Jeroen Blokland

Picking a Benchmark

I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about my chosen benchmark, the S&P 500.I occasionally think as an international investor I should change it.

Investment Talk

Monitoring Rising Treasury Yields & U.S. Dollar (DXY); What Would Lead Us to Get Cautious?

Monitoring Rising Treasury Yields & U.S. Dollar. 1-, 2-, and 10-year Treasury yields $TNX failing at shorter-term resistances today; $DXY below...

Vermilion Research

Positioning Watch – Spread-trades are the way to play the current environment

Very interesting dynamics in markets lately, with the NFP report Friday shocking markets at first glance before sending them back into rally-mode,...

Steno Research