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Investment Outlook Q1 2026: Resilience in a Transforming World

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QIO
US
AI
China
Multi-asset

Resilience in a Transforming World

Nov 20, 2025

Heading into 2026, innovation—especially AI-led—will remain the primary engine of global earnings growth.

In our view, pessimism around AI returns or US growth is exaggerated, with the US economy underpinned by strong earnings, pro-growth policy, robust capital-market activity, and continued AI-related investment. And we see these benefits spreading through all sectors of the global economy.

We maintain our US equity overweight, but recently trimmed it slightly after a strong earnings-driven rally in 2025. We still favour Tech and Communication Services but broaden our opportunity set to Utilities and Industrials which benefit from AI-driven power demand, and automation. We also add Financials to diversify tech-heavy growth portfolios.

Asia offers a widening runway of opportunities from strong domestic demand, AI-linked innovation, policy support, and attractive valuations. We adopt a barbell approach that pairs innovation leaders with quality income.

In the credit space, tight high-yield spreads tilt our preference toward quality through global investment grade and EM debt to reinforce stability and diversification.

To manage volatility, we complement equity exposure with a muti-asset approach with allocations to private equity, private credit, infrastructure, hedge funds, and we retain gold as a tail-risk hedge. We also diversify our FX exposure through partial USD hedging in EUR and GBP portfolios.

In this video, Willem Sels, our Global CIO highlights our investment priorities and high-conviction themes shaping our move into 2026’s broader, more resilient opportunity set.

Investment Outlook Q1 2026: Resilience in a Transforming World Watch the video: Investment Outlook Q1 2026: Resilience in a Transforming World
Discover our latest in-depth investment views and insights in our video with Global Chief Investment Officer, Willem Sels.

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