Inigo Fraser Jenkins

Defends US equity exceptionalism and recommends a strategic overweight to US equities within a global equity portfolio. The US is better positioned to exploit AI and IT productivity, has labor flexibility to rationalize workforces, has better demographics than Europe or China, and has benefited from decades of rising profit share of GDP supported by falling effective corporate tax rates. Returns may be lower than history, but still positive in real terms and better than alternatives.

AllianceBernstein has been strategically overweight gold. Gold is no longer a commodity but money in this environment, benefits from desires to diversify away from the dollar, and has maintained roughly zero correlation with equities across inflation regimes. He uses a long-run real return assumption of about 1% plus support from BRICS and especially Chinese official buying, and sees gold as a key diversifier now that bonds no longer play that role.

Healthcare is attractive strategically because it sits at the nexus of diversification, demographics, AI, and valuation. Demographics support demand and sticky pricing power, healthcare is a plausible AI beneficiary, and the sector's P/E relative to the market is low compared with its 20-30 year trading range. Policy uncertainty is a different risk from the AI trade, so healthcare offers defensive equity diversification.

There is a strategic case for commodity exposure, including energy and base metals, as a source of real return and inflation protection. Exposure can be gained through direct commodities and through equities linked to those commodities. Energy equities stand out for income and free cash flow. This is separate from gold, which he now treats as money rather than a commodity.

There is a strategic case for commodity exposure, including energy and base metals, as a source of real return and inflation protection. Exposure can be gained through direct commodities and through equities linked to those commodities. Energy equities stand out for income and free cash flow. This is separate from gold, which he now treats as money rather than a commodity.

Copper is at all-time highs but not widely discussed. It has structural demand from AI physical capex and the energy transition. Base metals are also part of the portfolio response to expected higher inflation volatility from deglobalization and geopolitics, which should create more supply shocks over time.

Silver deserves a small allocation as part of a non-fiat allocation dominated by gold. It is not a fundamental standalone bullish call, but silver is differentiated because investors play a much smaller role in that market than they do proportionally in gold, providing diversification within the non-fiat bucket.

Bitcoin should be a small part of the strategic non-fiat allocation, dominated by gold. He changed his view during COVID from seeing no role for Bitcoin to accepting a limited asset allocation role. More regulatory and custody clarity could bring in additional investors.