Every quarter, all the Wall Street firms analyze the economic landscape and provide recommendations on where to invest. Many smart folks dedicate significant time to this process. The thing is, the insights often conflict and are filled with complex jargon, making them difficult to interpret.

Fortunately, Emmy Sakulrompochai, head of Arta’s investment advisory practice, brings her expertise as a former private banker to the table. Fluently speaking "JSL" (Jargon as a Second Language 😉), Emmy's ability to navigate and translate dense financial lingo allows her to extract meaningful themes and actionable insights from a sea of analyst reports.

Drawing from top-tier sources like JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and BlackRock—collectively dubbed "J.P. Goldrock"—Emmy recently shared a market overview to help us all make sense of the current financial landscape.

Among the more interesting themes this quarter:

Inflation has been stickier than expected

Inflation has been stickier than expected, leading the Fed to delay a rate cut and markets to adjust their expectations. Markets started the year with expectations of up to seven rate cuts for 2024, but the Fed still hasn’t cut.

Question to consider

How long should you anticipate keeping your allocation as is?

The US stock market rallied ~10% in Q1

The US stock market rallied ~10% in Q1, led mostly by the tech sector. However, Japan was actually the best-performing market during the same period.

Question to consider

Are there interesting opportunities off the US path?

The Magnificent 7 stocks

The Magnificent 7 stocks, which make up 34% of the S&P 500 and were up 13% in Q1.

Question to consider

Where do we go from here, and how should members who are already heavily concentrated in tech explore further diversification?

Most bank outlooks were bullish on fixed income

Most bank outlooks were bullish on fixed income at the beginning of the year, but the broad bond market was actually down in Q1.

Question to consider

Is it time to rethink your current allocations across equities, fixed income, and alternative assets?

With rates in a “higher-for-longer” environment

With rates in a “higher-for-longer” environment, private credit continues to shine. At the same time, private equity fund managers with lower leverage are well-positioned to take advantage of lower valuations in the private markets.

Question to consider

What role should alts – private credit and private equity – play in your portfolio?

Here’s Emmy’s recent info session if you’d like to hear more details.

You can also schedule time with Emmy to talk through these themes directly. And, as always, feel free to contact us at membership@artafinance.com with any other questions!