2020 EarningsMatthew Miskin, co-chief investment strategist at John Hancock Investment Management, says he has spotted a big blind spot.
“The biggest risk we see right now is the expectations of earnings growth that is being baked in by the Street for the S&P 500 for 2020, which is remarkably high,” Miskin told MarketWatch in an interview earlier this week.
How high? Wall Street analysts are
expecting 10.5% earnings growth in 2020 for the S&P, he says, adding that we’d “need to see a significant change in the macro backdrop to achieve that type of earnings growth.”
And that’s as 2019 is only expected to produce earnings growth of 1%, after a pretty flat couple of quarters so far this year.
Expectations for a ramp-up of earnings in the third quarter and blowout gains in the fourth quarter are also dubious, he says.
Having said that, he does prefer U.S. stocks—technology, health care and companies that represent the things and services consumers can’t do without, the staples.
As we move into that 2020 election year, he thinks investors are blind to another sector that could benefit from fiscal stimulus plans or discussions. Think utilities, pipelines, electrical grids—global infrastructure plays, which are underrepresented in investor portfolios, he says.
“It’s what people need versus what they want. If you saw an economic slowdown, people are still going to need their water, they’re still going to need to turn on the lights…they’re still probably going to be on their cellphone,” said Miskin.
In other words, these are the last things consumers will spend money on, making for another solid defensive play if the global economy is headed for tough times.
“If governments start to spend more on it, it could be a growth asset class,” he adds.
Source: Market Watch
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/inves ... yptr=yahoo
It's all about "how much you made when you were right" & "how little you lost when you were wrong"