February edition: Latest poll on Fed rates, market update podcast, Mercer Global Investment Forums near you and get to know Julius Bendikas.

Welcome to our February edition of Navigating Investments, a monthly newsletter bringing you our best investment and research ideas addressing key themes facing professional investors like you.

We hope the content helps you invest with confidence.?

Nearly 500 of you took our recent LinkedIn poll, with only a quarter expecting the Fed to cut rates in 2023. We share that view and believe that if 2022 was the year of aggressive monetary policy tightening, 2023 is the year to pause and assess the impact, as we noted in our 2023 economic and market outlook.

Resilient growth, overheated labor market and above target underlying inflation certainly don’t warrant interest rate cuts at this stage. As we write, the market expects the Fed to get to 5.25-5.5% by mid-year, with a modest 0.25% cut priced by year end. However, the Fed has remained steadfast in their guidance to not expect any cuts in 2023.?

Market update: charting our future course

2022 will go down in history as unpredictable and unprecedented.

Rachel Volynsky, Mercer Canada CIO, hosts this episode of Critical Thinking, Critical Issues where Cameron Systermans and Rupert Watson share their perspectives on how #markets are shaping up for 2023.?

Listen to a short clip:?

Click here to listen to the entire episode and subscribe to Critical Thinking, Critical Issues podcast series.?

The enduring uncertainty in the market and challenging investment landscape make a compelling case to convene the investment community to learn from each other, share new ideas, and connect and form new partnerships; the opportunities are out there. We’re planning an ambitious agenda to draw together expertise and diverse views from across the investment world

- Jo Holden, Global Head of Investment Research, Mercer

The Mercer Global Investment Forums 2023 are held in-person in the five locations listed below. Along with keynote speakers and panel discussions, focused streams and dedicated “deep dive” sessions will tackle the issues facing defined contribution and defined benefit pensions, insurance and not-for-profit investors, from sustainability to inflation. Our agenda delivers the quality thought leadership and networking the investment community expects from our Forums, and for 2023, we have added more content, more interaction and the flexibility to customize your own schedule across the different days.

A highlight of the London Global Investment Forum in March is a real estate site visit behind the scenes of the Canary Wharf estate, one of the most dynamic and iconic commercial real estate assets in the UK, jointly with their first stakeholder, Brookfield Asset Management.

There will also be plenty of opportunity to discuss the key issues of interest to investors across infrastructure, private equity, private debt and real estate. Follow the link to register today!

This month, we’re delighted to feature Julius Bendikas, Multi Asset portfolio manager at Mercer Investments based in London.?He spends his days generating tactical investment ideas such as being overweight high yield bonds in mid-2020 or being underweight sovereign bonds in early 2022. He also enjoys sitting down with clients to discuss markets & economics, monetary policy in particular. Julius believes that investing in young talent, building a robust governance process and collaborating across lines of business are the key ingredients to success.

In his free time, Julius enjoys spending time with his family, skiing and ten pin bowling where he is happy to teach you how to throw 9 strikes in a row. Make sure you ring his “follow bell” to keep up with all of his content, perspectives and conversations on LinkedIn.

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Thanks for reading the Navigating Investments newsletter and let us know in the comments below what topics you’d like to see in our next edition.

Important Notices and Disclosure ??