Insights
Entering 2020 there were a variety of indicators—including massive sovereign and corporate debt balances, the continued debasement of man-made money, and heightened political tensions.
While it’s true a large proportion of the “new economy” names that dominated markets in recent years call the US home, there is no shortage of companies worldwide whose combination of scarce assets
Portfolio Managers Matthew McLennan, Kimball Brooker
The emergence of the novel coronavirus and the economic impact of efforts to contain its transmission led to a deep, sharp repricing of risk assets during the first quarter as liquidity concerns emerged across financial markets. The first-quarter market rout began as a typical flight to safety, with risk assets declining sharply while traditional safe havens rallied.
The price of gold was volatile in a momentous first quarter that saw both the emergence of a global health crisis and a significant correction in global equity markets, though the metal very much served its purpose as a potential hedge against extreme outcomes.
Global equity markets ended a robust 2019 on a high note, with a strong fourth quarter rally adding to already impressive yearto- date gains. Performance over the last several months of the year was driven mainly by sectors of the market, such as technology and health care, thought to have good long-term growth prospects.
In our year-end 2019 commentary we talked about the importance of portfolio balance given our wariness of the indicators suggesting 2020 could be a very good year for equities. While we noted that an exogenous shock could throw upbeat market calculations askew, neither we nor anyone else anticipated the emergence of a global pandemic that would exert a powerful impact on markets and economies.
The emergence of the novel coronavirus and the economic impact of efforts to contain its transmission led to a deep, sharp repricing of risk assets during the first quarter as liquidity concerns emerged across financial markets.
On April 7, 2020, we spoke with Idanna Appio about recent market developments and the potential short- and long-term macroeconomic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
Investors initially downplayed news of the novel coronavirus outbreak in China, and equity indexes continued to press higher for the first weeks of 2020 as they did for much of 2019, led by growth-
Though equity indexes have bounced off their worst levels of 2020, Matt McLennan, head of First Eagle’s Global Value team, appeared on Bloomberg TV to caution that the full impact of the pandemic’s
The co-managers say times like these make the case to own gold strategically as a potential hedge and not as a bet for higher prices.
The coronavirus outbreak represents a significant shock to both supply and demand in China and is likely to have repercussions for both Chinese and global economic growth.
Renewed easing by central banks worldwide was the defining move in financial markets during 2019, instigating a robust rally that left a number of major equity indexes at or near all-time highs by
Watch Matt McLennan alongside Evercore ISI's Ed Hyman as they discuss what has changed in financial markets over the last year and what that means for the US and Global economies.
Equity markets have overcome their end-cycle anxiety to deliver impressive gains thus far in 2019. Given the magnitude of returns across stock markets globally, it is perhaps not surprising to see widespread reports of FOMO among investors.
"If you're a long-term investor, it matters less what's happening to the markets as a whole, and matters more what you can find bottom up. At the end of the day, we're not betting on being all into markets. We're selectively buying into markets around the world and I think that's the key distinction."
The use of gold as a potential hedge against extreme market outcomes has long been a key tenet of First Eagle’s investment philosophy.
At First Eagle, we’ve long held that the United States does not have a monopoly on good companies. While we think most market participants would agree with this sentiment, asset allocation data suggest US investors in general continue to be significantly underexposed to international equities relative to their share of the global opportunity set.
“One of the things that's important that we do a little bit differently at First Eagle, is we don't define value just in purely statistical terms."
Though the current business cycle—the longest in US history—is showing signs of age, the potential timing of and impetus for its end remain uncertain.
Conventional wisdom dictates that everyone should save as much as they can, as early as they can, for as long as they can in order to live a dignified life in retirement.
The long-simmering trade dispute between the US and China has intensified in recent days.
Nurtured by ever-cheaper computing power and the datafication of modern life, the rate of advancement in technologies based on artificial intelligence (AI) and offshoots like machine learning has a
It’s by design that companies in Matthew McLennan’s portfolios aren’t exactly those that set investors’ hearts racing with excitement. “We’re happy to own businesses with what we consider a gradual positive drift to them,” he says. In this article, Matthew McLennan and Kimball Brooker describe how they assess “fade risk” in a number of industries, what makes them uneasy about the state of the world today, why their exposure to gold is higher than normal, and why they see mispriced value in Fanuc, Orkla, Schlumberger, Jardine Matheson and Weyerhaeuser.
The timing and conditions of Brexit remain unclear, but most estimates suggest that both the UK and EU economies will suffer as frictions are introduced into their economic connection.
Investors and consultants frequently ask for the Global Value team’s views on sustainable investing. While we do not offer strategies that focus in this area, we do pay close attention to issues of sustainability because they may be a key to a company’s resilience over the long term. Some investors see the energy sector as the antithesis of sustainability, but we see things differently. In this interview, Benj Bahr, energy-sector analyst on the Global Value team, explains why.
First Eagle’s Global Value team has adopted the value investment philosophy first developed by Benjamin Graham and later refined by Warren Buffett.
Since Joseph Engelberger, “the father of robotics,” developed the world’s first industrial robots in the 1950s and installed them in a General Motors plant in 1961, the robotics industry has made tremendous advances. Today, there are about 1.9 million industrial robots deployed worldwide across a wide range of applications in fields such as manufacturing, logistics, consumer services, defense and healthcare.
Rising volatility spurs many investors to sell indiscriminately and, in particular, to flee stocks they see as underperformers. This fear-driven flight may send share prices down into bargain territory, where value investors can acquire them.
Managers who are given the flexibility to go anywhere and own out-of-benchmark stocks and who make independent investment decisions, in our view, are more likely to outperform over the long term.
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