Daily Brief Financials: Qbe Insurance, Stellantis NV, Brunner Investment Trust PLC and more

• QBE Insurance is seeing a deteriorating combined operating ratio, in part due to CAT events and it unclear to us how underwriting, exposures will immediately improve
• Net profit is nearly static, USD750m in FY21, USD770m in FY22. USD400m profit in 1H23 may note repeat in 2H23, due in part to USD700m more debt in interim.
• North America net earned premiums are seeing far more distribution toward Commercial, where the COR is especially poor at 109% in 1H23

• Our overall outlook remains largely unchanged; we remain bullish on global equities as long as the MSCI ACWI (ACWI-US) is above major $93 support.
• We also discussed that if the 10-year Treasury yield remains below 4.35% and the DXY is below $105.70, we would continue to expect $93 support on ACWI-US to hold.
• The 10-year Treasury yield is attempting to break above 4.35% and this could create a problem for ACWI-US; we will continue to monitor closely.

The Brunner Investment Trust’s (BUT’s) two co-managers, Christian Schneider (deputy CIO global growth) and Julian Bishop (global equity specialist) are supported by deputy managers Marcus Morris-Eyton (European equity specialist) and Simon Gergel (CIO UK equities). BUT can be considered as a global equity fund for all seasons given its steady trend of outperformance in recent years despite volatile share prices and changes in stock market leadership. The trust stacks up well in both absolute and relative terms with double-digit annual NAV total returns over the last decade and above-average returns within the AIC Global sector over the last one, three and five years. BUT’s dual mandate of income and capital growth means it should appeal to a broad range of investors.