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July 15th, 2015

Global Strategy Review

Global Equity and International Fund Strategies Second Quarter 2015 Review

Global Review

We spent the past quarter running hard but not going anywhere. The Central banks on a global scale continued to bring down interest rates in an effort to reflate their respective economies. Yet, the markets were consumed by headlines brought on by Greece and the drama associated with not paying their loans to the IMF on time.

Based on our recent meetings at a CEO conference in Europe and additional meetings with investee company management teams, our sense is that the European market is in launch mode but has not experienced take-off yet. Despite the market’s anticipation of the stimulative impact of the weaker Euro and lower oil prices, it will still take some time for European companies to fully realize the positive impact in their operations. However, the current environment is certainly better than it was a few years ago and Spain is cited as showing an improvement from its low base. The consensus remains that the U.S. is still the strongest and this bodes well for our European holdings as they are overweight in their U.S. exposure. Emerging markets remain subdued with Russia and Brazil considered to be in a recession and there is concern over China’s slowing growth rate.