As featured in Pensions & Investments, Mondrian’s Brendan Baker, Senior Portfolio Manager on the U.S. Small Cap Equities team, shares his thoughts on why the low interest rate environment has resulted in more loss-making within U.S. small-cap companies. Mondrian believes that U.S. small cap continues to be an inefficient and attractive asset class with long-term upside potential, but that careful analysis of companies is important for defensive investors.
To date, it would be fair to say that the resilience of economies and of the broader financial system to the breakneck speed of monetary tightening has come as a positive surprise.
The start of the year brought with it renewed optimism about Emerging Markets (EM), given the re-opening of China’s economy. However, markets retraced somewhat as the geopolitical backdrop remained challenging.
After a challenging few years, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February made it clear that 2022 would not mark a return to the low interest rate and low volatility, post-GFC paradigm.
Against a difficult backdrop, there was no place to hide in public investment markets in 2022. Inflation and interest rates were on the rise and large blow-ups such as Credit Suisse, Tesla, FTX and the broader crypto-sphere dominated headlines.
2022 was a challenging year for the global economy and stock markets. The desperately sad war in Ukraine caused havoc on global commodity markets, further pressurizing inflation that was already on the rise.
Mondrian is an employee owned investment management firm with offices in London, Philadelphia and Singapore. We are value investors across the globe in both equity and fixed income asset classes. Founded in 1990, we have employed a rigorous fundamental research process that is the foundation of our success. Mondrian’s well resourced investment team manages assets on behalf of over 250 institutional clients.
© 2024 Mondrian Investment Partners Limited is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority – Firm Reference Number 149507. All information is as of December 31, 2023 unless otherwise noted.
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