Columbia Threadneedle Investments

As the virus outbreak spreads well beyond China, it is hard to forecast exactly what the economic impact will be, but it’s safe to say that consumption and supply will be significantly affected

Pension schemes have struggled to get to grips with environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. However, 2020 is likely to be the year when the growing pressure from regulators to address these issues becomes an avalanche.

There are several reasons to be optimistic about Japanese equities in 2020. First, consider valuations. Whether on price-to-book or price-to-earnings, Japanese stocks are among the cheapest in all developed equity markets. Take the price-to-book ratio of the MSCI Japan.

Bond market performance in 2019 has been dominated by a theme of central banks pivoting towards easier policy. In particular, the US Federal Reserve has signalled potential interest rate cuts, marking a meaningful shift compared with the hiking cycle of the past three years (Figure 1). This has been a driving force behind double digit returns in many sectors of the bond market in the first half of the year.

Despite it being more than 10 years since the global financial crisis (GFC), the world remains heavily indebted and there is no realistic prospect of that debt reducing in the short or medium term. Barring glaring historical exceptions, sovereign debt levels in many economies are close to all-time highs...