Research and Commentary

FIS Group Archive | A Clear Perspective

About Global Market Outlook Reports

About Global Market Outlook Reports

Our CIO, Tina Byles Williams, publishes our market outlook on a quarterly basis, based on research that examines market conditions over a three- to six-month period. These quarterly analyses serve as key inputs to our fund construction process, which incorporates strategic tilts to the market segments we believe will outperform over a six- to 12-month time frame. For global equity portfolios, these tilts incorporate regional, sector, and capitalization strata as well as investment process and style factors. For U.S. equity portfolios, tilts include sector, capitalization strata, investment process, and/or style factors.

Our objective is to construct a portfolio of “best in class” investments with weightings consistent with our overall investment strategy.

FIS Group Global Market Outlook Reports


Too Good to Be True: The Failure of Defensive Managers During Recent Inflationary Shocks

Too Good to Be True: The Failure of Defensive Managers During Recent Inflationary Shocks

The failure of the returns-based approach, along with some interesting dynamics observed in factor contributions, opens an extremely interesting avenue for future analysis. What role did the macroeconomic regime (inflation, top line growth, and interest rates) play in the “defensiveness” of strategies, and what can be done to avoid misclassifying strategies during sharp regime changes?

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U.S. Fixed Income: Q4 2023 Update

U.S. Fixed Income: Q4 2023 Update

The 4th quarter Treasury and spread rally rescued the broad fixed income market from another year of negative or barely positive (depending on sector) returns. In traditional bond market fashion, however, we find much to worry about with stretched valuations in most of the spread sectors and an uncertain path forward for the economy and interest rates.

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Systematic Global Equities: Q4 2023 Update

Systematic Global Equities: Q4 2023 Update

As 2023 drew to a close, the financial markets began to manifest the early signs of a soft-landing scenario, marked by a robust rally in equity markets in the fourth quarter, showcasing double-digit gains. This period was characterized by broadening of market strength, with notable outperformance by small-cap stocks, heavily shorted names, lower-quality companies, unprofitable tech, and a mix of long-duration, meme, cyclical, and value stocks.

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Time for a New China Strategy? The Case for Decoupling Asset Allocation in Chinese Risk Assets: Q3 2023 Market Outlook

Time for a New China Strategy? The Case for Decoupling Asset Allocation in Chinese Risk Assets: Q3 2023 Market Outlook

Already responsible for an estimated $5 billion in stimulative consumer spending – the equivalent of the entire annual earnings of Starbucks, American Airlines, or FedEx – the Taylor Swift ‘Eras’ Tour is doing more than its part to save the global economy. However, the economic phenomenon being dubbed ‘Swiftonomics’ will forsake China, as the pop legend’s tour plays four dates in Japan and a record six dates in Singapore, but not in the world’s second largest economy.

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Shades of Value: Navigating the Nuances of Value Index Differences

Shades of Value: Navigating the Nuances of Value Index Differences

In this update we review the results of the most recent Russell 1000 Large Cap Value annual Style Index rebalance that occurred on June 23rd. We also compare the exposures of the Russell 1000 Value index versus the S&P 500 Value index at 06/30/23 and consider the potential impact of factor and sector differences between the indexes on investors targeting large cap value exposure.

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Market Insights Alert

Papers: FIS Group Proprietary Research


Allocators Are Derisking

Allocators Are Derisking

Global institutional investors are selling public equities in favor of so-called safety assets, such as bonds and real assets. This rebalancing activity is driven by signs of an aging economic cycle and bull market (U.S. and Canadian investors) as well as elevating...

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Whither the GEM manager?

Whither the GEM manager?

The global integration of Chinese equity markets portend a significant structural transformation in the way allocators and managers approach global emerging markets investing over the next five years. In this next Market Insight Alert, we look at: The future...

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Momentum: Beware of the Double-Edged Sword

Momentum: Beware of the Double-Edged Sword

This paper analyzes situations where momentum can be either a significant tailwind or exacerbate risks and undermine portfolio diversification. The Special Report looks at historical data and focuses on four key points.

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Videos And Webinars

Market Outlook and Research Webinars


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