• The latest “Big Money Poll” published by Barron’s shows that 50% of institutional investors are bullish on stocks for the next year while only 12% are bearish. Despite this optimistic finding many of the respondents do expect increased volatility in the near term, with 79% stating that they believe the market will have a correction of at least 10% in the next 6 months.
• Two decades ago alternative investments, such as private equity, composed just 8% of public pension fund portfolios. Today that number has grown to 24%. This growth directly correlates with a decrease in pensions’ exposure to traditional stocks and bonds, which dropped from 89% to 71% over the same time period. Some analysts now worry that this has increased the risk and decreased the liquidity of pension portfolios.
• During the pandemic consumers in Europe and the US saved an extra $2.7 trillion. Many economists have been surprised that this money has not been spent as quickly as originally expected. One reason for this is that 68.8% of all US assets are held by individuals over 55 years old. This age group is significantly less likely to spend each additional dollar they save given that they are close to entering or already in retirement. 
• Last week JP Morgan released a survey that showed that 42% of respondents believe the US may be heading towards a stagflationary environment with slow economic growth and rising inflation. Since 1960 there have only been 41 quarters when this occurred. Yet, during those quarters the S&P500 had a real total return of -2.1% (compared to +2.5% for all quarters).