Fidelity International fund manager Jochen Breuer stated that artificial intelligence will remain a key theme for 2026, with market focus on the most beneficial segments. He noted that Asia and Europe host a significant portion of the global AI value chain's critical components. Combined with corporate governance reforms being driven in major markets such as China, this is expected to lead to superior performance. Fidelity International indicated that investor optimism is likely to persist into 2026. However, despite the dominance of U.S. equities and mega-cap tech stocks leading the rally, the upward trend is broadening to other markets; for instance, European equities have delivered U.S. dollar-denominated returns comparable to those of U.S. stocks. He advised that, amidst high valuations, increasing geopolitical noise, and shifting macroeconomic signals, investors should enhance portfolio resilience. This includes prioritizing companies with robust balance sheets, predictable cash flows, and management teams whose interests are aligned with minority shareholders; maintaining valuation discipline; adopting a yield strategy that seeks sustainable and growing dividend sources rather than merely chasing high yields; and utilizing tools such as options. Regarding U.S. equities, he pointed out that while AI remains a key theme, market focus is concentrated on the most obvious beneficiaries. Valuations for these companies already reflect expectations for extremely high returns on capital expenditure and sustained demand, assumptions which may be overly optimistic. However, the foundational elements supporting the global AI value chain—such as chip manufacturing, data storage, testing equipment, and hardware infrastructure—are predominantly located in Asia and Europe. Coupled with corporate governance reforms in key Asian markets, including improvements in governance and shareholder returns in mainland China and Singapore, this helps investors explore broader investment opportunities. On currencies, the prevailing market expectation is for a weaker U.S. dollar, which typically benefits emerging markets and non-U.S. dollar assets. Combined with relatively reasonable valuations in markets outside the U.S., opportunities appear to lean clearly towards Europe and Asia. Furthermore, companies in sectors such as electronic payments, travel technology, memory, contract manufacturing, industrial automation, and hardware supply are primarily located outside the United States. These firms continue to demonstrate solid fundamentals while trading at relatively moderate valuations.
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