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Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them.
A SEASON OF THANKS AND HOPE
As 2018 inches towards close, many investors, such as those sitting on 16-percent losses on emerging market stocks, will be looking forward to turning the page on the year. Ditto for those who bought Italian bonds and found themselves 12 percent in the red. Buyers of U.S. equities, on the other hand, with 6 percent-plus returns, will have something to be grateful for at Thanksgiving.
As for 2019, where exactly should the canny fund manager go? Some clarity may emerge in coming days as investors start to detail investment bets for the year ahead, including at Reuters' annual asset allocation summit which runs all week in London, New York and Singapore. More than 30 hedge fund managers, stock and bond investors, short sellers and macroeconomists managing tens of trillions of dollars will lay out their vision for 2019.
We hasten to add that the events of 2018 wrong-footed some summit attendees from last year, not least on emerging markets and Italy. Others correctly called a Turkish crisis and stuck to holding U.S. tech, despite pricey valuations.
The summit coincides with a tricky investment landscape - will equities remain the go-to sector as the sugar-rush of President Donald Trump's $1.5 trillion stimulus starts to wear off? Will European growth and profits buck up? Tech - this year's "most crowded" trade - shows signs of exhaustion. As for China? Anyone's guess.
Watch this space.
