Franklin Templeton

Despite recent underperformance of small- and mid-cap UK equities, Martin Currie UK Equity Team’s Richard Bullas and Dan Green share reasons to be optimistic about the long term. They also discuss where they are finding opportunities and the qualities of companies to look for.

Infrastructure has recently seen increased attention as broad equities have been weaker in 2022 due to inflation, rising interest rates, global supply chain disruptions from COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine. Shane Hurst, Portfolio Manager with ClearBridge Investments, discusses the opportunities and potential income benefits for investors in the space today.

Dan Green is tapping into four key long-term investment themes - the first of this four-part series is the UK Digital Economy.

The Fed raised interest rates by 75 basis points in its June policy meeting, acknowledging continued upside surprises on inflation, inflation expectations and wage growth. It also de facto abandoned forward guidance. It was a reminder that economic data eventually rule the day, says Franklin Templeton Fixed Income CIO Sonal Desai. She argues this is a welcome but only partial move to a more realistic stance, and discusses why further hawkish surprises likely lie ahead.

Remaining popular with investors not least due to the low level of returns available on traditional sources of income, equity income investing offers a unique opportunity to benefit from both a company’s dividend yield as well as their long-term capital growth.

Despite concerns about rising interest rates and stock market volatility, there are reasons to be optimistic about the outlook for UK equities.

After a record year in 2020, Korean equities have been trending downwards, but it may be a candidate for a rebound.

Despite increased market volatility, compelling opportunities remain within high-quality technology companies in an increasingly digital world.

The Franklin Templeton Fixed Income Central Bank Watch is a qualitative assessment of the central banks for the Group of Ten nations plus China and South Korea.

Russian President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has resulted in an unexpected response: a more united Europe. This week, Chief Market Strategist Stephen Dover discusses Europe’s near-term challenges and why you should not discount its resilience.

Despite the pressures on household finances, there are encouraging signs for continued UK economic growth—and attractive market valuations.

Franklin Equity Group’s Jonathan Curtis suggests that the digital transformation seen during the pandemic for a subset of companies and themes will broaden and extend as the world re-opens.

The US Federal Reserve finally acknowledged inflation is not a “transitory” problem and signaled a greater degree of concern; but investors seem to think that the Fed will blink when markets balk.

While UK equities have faced a number of headwinds in 2021, there are reasons to be optimistic about the year ahead, according to Ben Russon and Will Bradwell of our Franklin UK Equity team. They discuss the economic recovery from COVID-19, inflation, the state of the consumer and why stock valuations look attractive.

Franklin Equity Group’s Matt Moberg and his team highlight three reasons we may be experiencing the demise of mean reversion investing and how we may be at the beginning of a period in which growth outperforms value.