Outlook positive for US equities

The US equity market will be the best performer in 2013 according to a survey of leading fund managers.

Fidelity polled 13 fund manager firms and found the outlook to be optimistic for global equities and in particular the USA. Reasons given for this include the shale gas revolution in the US producing low energy prices and re-industrialisation in the US, as well as the impact of low interest rates and quantitative easing, a manufacturing pick-up, and recovery in the housing market. Threadneedle Investments chief investment officer, Mark Burgess, commented: “We expect a relatively strong US economy, which should see significant benefits from likely energy independence. This favours dollar earners and US cyclical exposure in particular. We anticipate online retailing to grow further, at the expense of bricks and mortar, in a similar revolution to Wal-Mart’s achievements in the 1990s relative to their traditional competition.” Another manager, Jacob de Tusch- Lec, fund manager at the Artemis Global Income Fund, commented:

“We are playing the US recovery via a number of stocks, all catering to growth in US domestic demand: either via the housing market, via general corporate activity or outsourcing and manufacturing activity. In our view this approach offer attractive, growing and secure yields – with the potential for good capital growth.” Income was another popular theme among the fund managers, as investors look beyond bank accounts and government bonds for sources of income.