The U.S. dollar has been red-hot lately, and some of the drivers behind its ascent may be in place for the longer term. That could mean good times for US small-cap stocks, Validea CEO John P. Reese writes in a recent column.
Top-rated economist Francois Trahan is sounding very bullish on stocks — particularly small stocks — and the big reason is the US’s positioning relative to the rest of the world.
Top economist Nancy Lazar and top strategist Francois Trahan, who recently teamed up to form their own macro-focused firm, are finding opportunities in a new ’emerging market’ you might be overlooking: Middle America. Lazar tells WealthTrack’s Consuelo Mack that “U.S.-based industrial companies” are her top place to look for investments right now, because she expects them to benefit “not only from potentially stronger domestic revenue growth but also the potential for mergers amongst them and/or… Read More
Highly-rated strategist Francois Trahan says that “deflation” is not a dirty word, and that the Federal Reserve could help the economy by allowing deflation to stem commodity price inflation that is “eroding people’s pockets”. Trahan says Fed members and other policymakers and economists are relying on economic principles that aren’t relevant right now. Three main things are making the economy fundamentally different today than it was years ago, he says: consumers are deleveraging; governments are… Read More
In a new interview with WealthTrack’s Consuelo Mack, ISI Group’s Francois Trahan and Ed Hyman — two of the top-rated strategists in their fields — offer their takes on where the market and economy will head in 2010. Trahan, ISI’s chief investment strategist and Institutional Investor magazine’s 2008 top-ranked investment strategist, told Mack that he thinks 2010 will involve a shift from a broad market rally to a stock-picker’s market. “I think it’s going to… Read More
ISI Group’s Francois Trahan — Institutional Investor magazine’s top-ranked strategist — says we could be headed into a “fun phase” for the markets, but that the economic rescue plans are putting us on track for another asset bubble. At the State of Wisconsin Investment Board’s recent annual reception, Trahan said that the massive capital injections into the economy have increased the money supply so that it is now above where it was in the 1970s,… Read More
When it comes to recessions, particularly bad ones like that which we’re seeing now, the strong survive. Good companies persevere, and pick up market share from their weaker rivals, which can lead to big stock price gains — or so the theory goes. But Francois Trahan, the chief investment strategist at International Strategy & Investment Group, tells Barron’s that his research finds that’s not necessarily true. ISI’s study of the top 1,000 U.S. companies divided… Read More
As stocks have surged over the past two-and-a-half months, the dollar has tumbled. And, according to Francois Trahan and ISI Group’s Portfolio Strategy Group, you can reap the benefits of both. On Barrons.com, Randall W. Forsyth writes that Trahan’s group says investors bullish on U.S. equities should buy stock in big, global companies that may be based outside the States, but compete in the same markets as American firms. Trahan’s group feels that “if you… Read More
Three top market strategists — Francois Trahan of ISI Group, Dennis Stattman of the Blackrock Global Allocation Fund, and John Dorfman of Thunderstorm Capital — had some encouraging views on the stock markets on Consuelo Mack’s WealthTrack recently, though they think the U.S. economy could be in for a long haul in righting itself. Trahan noted that the current bullish turn is the fifth 10%-plus rally we’ve seen in the past year, but the first… Read More