Schroders' Shatney on a US utopia for equity investors

ON NORTH AMERICA

Schroders' Joanna Shatney, head of large-cap US equities, describes the environment for US equity valuations.

The US scenario is almost a utopia for equity investors, as corporate strategies around revenue, margin and cash redeployment should allow companies to outperform general market conditions. With this in mind, stockpicking should be important in 2013, which plays into our core competency as fundamental investors. This is in contrast to periods such as 2011, when macro concerns drove market direction and the correlation of stocks was at all-time highs.  While US fiscal worries linger, we see the cuts as manageable and expect the multiplier effects to be muted.  As long as risks remain, ...