asset allocator header image

Asset Allocator

from Asset Allocator

Robeco ditches UK as election ‘honeymoon’ ends

As we covered not long ago, the Robeco multi-asset team is no stranger to making election-based investment calls. 

Last time out they closed their underweight position in Europe right as French election volatility began to take hold. 

And this time out they’ve closed their overweight in UK equities as they see Sir Keir Starmer’s election honeymoon coming to an end. 

In practice this translated to selling up their FTSE 100 tracker and adding to a few of their in-house global equity funds, Robeco Global Stars and Robeco QI Climate Beta. 

They also sold up their broad-basket commodities ETF and switched to gold, as concerns around an economic slowdown continue to grow. 

They’re also feeling particularly 'meh' about "eye-wateringly high" US valuations. 

Robeco head of multi-asset Colin Graham said: “For US small-caps, we are still avoiding due to our views that rate cuts will not be large enough to help the funding situation, and for large caps we tilt toward quality growth with a healthcare overlay."

But he added it was difficult to avoid long equity positioning in North America due to its index weight and US exceptionalism. 

Another asset class he's no fan of is high yield debt, which Graham sees as ‘priced for perfection’ and disregarding any concerns about recession and the debt maturity wall.

Fixed income in general looks like it’s in for a busy few months as allocators prepare for those rate cuts that they’ve been so lovingly promised for so long. 

Indeed Omnis is another allocator taking a somewhat pessimistic view of the economy, having recently established positions in long-dated Treasuries and global inflation-linked bonds across their Agility range.

Until such a time, however, all DFMs can do is study Jerome Powell’s body language for hints.

Get the story behind the stories
The daily newsletter for fund buyers