Man Group's 2024 Economic Outlook

Discussion in 'Economics' started by algofin, Dec 29, 2023.

  1. algofin

    algofin

    Attaching my notes from Man Group's 2024 Economic Outlook
    Interested to hear thoughts
    Downloadable PDF at the bottom of the post.

    Equities (-0.1%)

    - Wall Street forecasting 5% growth S&P 500 in 2024

    - Man Group believe this is unlikely:

    - As it is following a period of aggressive interest rate hikes at the start of the year and cautious observation following that

    - Most unfavourable credit conditions since 2007, per Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survery (SLOOS)

    - Unemployment on a slight rise

    - Wall Street also projects 140 bps for S&P 500

    - Also believed to be unlikely:

    - Only 3 years of this level has occurred in the last 30 years (1995, 2010, 2021)

    - Wage inflation continuing to stay high

    - CPI continuing to rise

    - Estimate that earnings will be half Wall Street projections

    Bonds (+4.0%)

    - Limited magnitude in either direction expected going forward in the short term

    - 3 Scenarios:

    - Average (35% Probability) -> UST10 @ 4.9%

    - Soft Landing (45% Probability) -> UST10 @ 4.3%

    - Hard Landing (20% Probability) -> UST10 @ 3.3%

    - %'s estimated using different scenarios of interest rate hikes similar to current situation and subsequent 12 month performance

    Credit (IG +2.0%, HY +1.8%)

    - IG and HY spreads both deemed 'unappealing', particularly HY

    - Current spreads are 106 and 387 bps respectively

    - Equates to cumulative 5 year default rates of 0.7% and 12% compared to historical averages of 1.0% and 17%, per Moody's data

    - Historically, flat S&P 500 has correlation with +50 bps of IG and +170 bps of HY

    - This is in line with historical default rate averages, which Man Group suggest is more realistic and corresponds to +2.0%, +1.8% growth respectively


    Additional Notes

    - Bonds are expected to outperform equities and risk parity should be adjusted accordingly

    - Suggested 7 bond to 3 equity units

    - Suggestions to avoid equity risk:

    - JPY -> selling 40% - 50% below value on USD cross, future performance is dependent on Bank of Japan behavior

    - Brent futures -> more in contango, whereas oil is in backwardation. Be wary of demand driven downturn (2008, 2018 cited as examples)

    PDF -
     
    PennySnatch and semperfrosty like this.
  2. Awesome analysis.Thanks for sharing it.

    Is that from Bloomberg? or elsewhere?
     
  3. algofin

    algofin

    semperfrosty likes this.
  4. nitrene

    nitrene

    What was their prediction for 2023? If it wasn't a booming Nasdaq then why would anyone listen to them? Did they also predict an explosion in CLOs & Private Credit?
     
    Zwaen likes this.
  5. Here is a thought from a Man Group shareholder:

    I don´t care about their economic outlook but about their revenue generation!

    A "hedge fund group" with $161B in assets should return more than a LOUSY $1,351B in total revenues and EBIT of $489M.

    It seems, that the portfolio managers over there are not risk takers but pencil pushers.

    Share price development is more than miserable in last 5 years.
     
  6. Overnight

    Overnight

    That's 1 trillion dollars. Typo?
     
  7. ph1l

    ph1l

  8. Well, obviously. Doesn´t change the fact that Man group has become a home for "elderly portfolio managers"! :sneaky: