Commentary
US and European equities closed the week with modest gains, while China and Japan declined. In the US, all sectors except for Utilities and Real Estate rose during the week. Meanwhile, mid-cap growth and large-cap value outperformed other categories.
From last week’s most traded stocks, analysts expect the best performance from Intel (INTC), Exxon Mobil (XOM), Cisco (CSCO), and Alphabet (GOOGL).
Meanwhile, BlackRock Investment Institute maintains positive outlook for US tech stocks. Despite a significant outperformance in past years, BlackRock analysts still expect technology stocks to deliver gains. Major reasons underlining this view are healthy profit margins, high proportion of free cash flow to sales, and most importantly, promising outlook for the pace and extent of AI adoption.
Lastly, BlackRock also favors Healthcare and Industrials in comparison to remaining S&P 500 sectors. On average, wall Street analysts expect roughly 11% gains for both sectors during the next twelve months. Importantly, Charles Schwab has a differing view, favoring Financials, Materials, and Energy, while being neutral on Healthcare and Industrials.
