Invesco’s Kristina Hooper believes Wall Street’s preoccupation with the global growth slowdown is misguided.
But she understands why there’s worry.
According to Hooper, significant shifts in central banks’ monetary policies are fanning those fears instead of giving the market confidence. She suggests it’s creating more questions than answers — and that’s a problem.
“I don’t think the slowdown is going to be that bad as we sit here today, and certainly that’s not what we got from the ECB [European Central Bank] in terms of their downgrade of growth forecasts,” the firm’s chief global market strategist said Thursday on CNBC’s “Futures Now.” “We’re not seeing any kind of major turmoil at this point.”
The latest shift came last week when the ECB slashed its growth forecasts and issued a warning about the “threat of protectionism.”
“Don’t forget that just a few months ago we heard from Jay Powell saying that balance sheet normalization would remain on autopilot. He changed rather dramatically,” said Hooper. “Now that we have the European Central Bank piling on, that raises questions about what’s going on. What are central banks worried about that is causing them to make rather dramatic pivots?”
Despite the Street’s negative reaction to the latest ECB’s growth comments, Hooper isn’t alarmed.
“Investors that have a long-term time horizon should use this as an opportunity,” she said.
She sees emerging markets catching a bid from more accommodative central bank policies. Hooper particularly likes emerging markets in Asia and China is a big piece of that despite the U.S. trade tensions.
“China is employing a lot of stimulus both monetary and fiscal,” said Hooper. “We could actually see signs of some improvement in economic data in China.”
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