BUSINESS

Inflation Pressures: U.S Investors Scramble For Survival

<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Inflation Pressures in the U&period;S have ignite desperations<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a> <&sol;strong>gathers that United States of America’s  investors are grappling with the latest stock volatility&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Available evidence of inflation indicate that they are positioning themselves for more unexpected kinks in the road to recovery&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The moves to hold assets that could withstand a prolonged surge in inflation come as data earlier in the week showed <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">U&period;S&period; consumer<&sol;a> prices rose by the largest amount in 12 years in April in a jump that was well above Wall Street’s expectations&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Bottlenecks in global supply chains and scarcity in the labor market were among the reasons for the surge in prices&comma; Labor Department data showed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Another wrinkle for investors trying to navigate the economic reopening is the Federal Reserve&comma; which expects a jump in inflation to be &&num;8220&semi;transitory&comma;&&num;8221&semi; meaning it will be slower to raise interest rates in order to make up for persistently low inflation over the last decade&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;What we&&num;8217&semi;ve learned in the past 24 hours is that the amplitude of inflation is going to be more important than anyone realized and it&&num;8217&semi;s too soon to tell how persistent it will be&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Bob Miller&comma; head of Americas Fundamental Fixed Income at BlackRock&comma; said on Thursday&period; &&num;8220&semi;That will be the debate over the summer&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Miller&comma; who said his firm is holding more cash than it normally would&comma; expects that the combination of the Fed&&num;8217&semi;s policy and signs that inflation may be rising more above expectations &&num;8220&semi;is going to create more financial market instability over the next summer and fall if not dialed back&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There has been evidence of more cautious behavior in recent weeks&period; Investors moved &dollar;57&period;3 billion into cash during the last week of April&comma; the largest inflow to cash since March 2020&comma; and followed that with the largest weekly inflow into gold in three months during the first week of May&comma; according to Bank of America Global Research&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;The inflation bump that we expected will be higher and bumpier than we expected&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said Brian Nick&comma; chief investment strategist at Nuveen&comma; who has been increasing his weighting in small-cap equities and is moving into emerging markets stocks in anticipation that the reflation trade extends throughout the remainder of the year&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We are not dealing with runaway inflation&comma; but we&&num;8217&semi;re dealing with the fact that everyone has a different definition of what transitory means&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2><strong>TRANSITORY TROUBLES<&sol;strong><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Inflation fears have weighed on equities this week&comma; particularly growth stocks&period; Overall&comma; the benchmark S&amp&semi;P 500 &lpar;&period;SPX&rpar; is down about 3&percnt; from its record high hit earlier this month and the Nasdaq down about 7&percnt; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">&lpar;&period;IXIC&rpar;<&sol;a> from a recent peak&comma; partially rebounding on Thursday after sharp falls earlier in the week&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;I think every portfolio manager&comma; every growth equity manager out there&comma; is trying to figure out &&num;8230&semi; are we getting close to the bottom&comma; are we going to retrace another 25&percnt;&quest; It&&num;8217&semi;s why you see the market churning back and forth&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said Brad Gerstner of hedge fund Altimeter Capital at the Sohn conference on Wednesday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Garrett Melson&comma; a portfolio strategist at Natixis Investment Managers&comma; said the reopening of the global economy will most likely take longer than many investors expect&comma; leaving the market&&num;8217&semi;s recent rotation into cyclical shares with a &&num;8220&semi;considerable runway&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Russell 1000 Value index <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;reuters&period;com&sol;quote&sol;&period;RLV">&lpar;&period;RLV&rpar;<&sol;a>&comma; for example&comma; is up 15&period;5&percnt; for the year to date&comma; while the Russell 1000 Growth index <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;reuters&period;com&sol;quote&sol;&period;RLG">&lpar;&period;RLG&rpar;<&sol;a> is up 2&period;8&percnt; over the same time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Some investors concerned about inflation are favoring Treasury Inflation Protected Securities&comma; and yields on 10-year TIPS are close to a three-month low&period; Benchmark 10-year yields &comma; meanwhile&comma; have steadied after rising over the first three months of the year&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;The recent preference for TIPS is an acknowledgement that inflation could potentially pick up and if it picks up it might persist for a longer period of time than what the market or the Fed is expecting&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said Jim Besaw&comma; chief investment officer at GenTrust Wealth Management&comma; which has been increasing positions in commodities and regional banks in anticipation of a long period of higher inflation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Not every prominent fund manager is as concerned&period; Cathie Wood&comma; whose ARK Innovation ETF was the top-performing U&period;S&period; equity fund last year&comma; said in a webinar on Tuesday that continued innovation will make deflation a larger force than inflation in the years ahead&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Indeed&comma; the inflation picture is difficult to read&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It’s kind of hard to ascertain what’s truly happening&comma;” said Gregory Peters&comma; head of multi-sector and strategy for PGIM Fixed Income&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;You have so many supply line disruptions&comma; you have data quirks&comma; you have labor disruptions&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Openlife Reporter

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