Lisa O’Connor is the Head of Global Macro Portfolio Management at State Street Global Advisors, managing a portfolio across equities, rates, commodities, currencies, and credit. In this Opalesque.TV video interview she discusses key global macro themes that she is seeing and that investors should carefully consider. She highlights specific themes and opportunities, among them the ramifications of the demographic shifts of aging populations in developed markets, which has the potential to create aggregate demand shock and significantly slow down growth in developed markets like Europe, Japan, and to some extent in the US.
Slow growth has recently kept inflation low, as central banks ease rates to adjust for the magnitude of the demographic shift, and often weaken their currency so they can tap into a higher export market. These diverging central bank policies in developed markets are driving a “Currency War”, especially in Asia, and presenting opportunities from competitive devaluation that can therefore yield opportunities in currency markets.
- Demographic shifts driving aggregate demand shock in developed markets
- Central bank easing and diverging policies driving a “Currency War” in Asia, presents opportunities from competitive devaluation.
- Why investors are looking at global macro
- Valuations are stretched due to recent market success
- The reduction of tail risk has led to lower correlations, yielding valuation opportunities
- Discretionary element in such a policy driven market makes sense for flexibility
- SSgA Global Macro idea generation
- Looking for catalyst driven top-down opportunities and valuation opportunities
- The SSgA Global Macro team philosophy across a variety of asset classes
Lisa Mears O'Connor is a Managing Director of SSgA and the Head of Global Macro Portfolio Management. Ms. O'Connor has over twenty years in finance and investment management. Prior to assuming her current role, Ms. O'Connor was a Managing Director at BNY Mellon Group's Mellon Capital Management where she was Head of the Active Fixed Income group. In that role, Ms. O'Connor managed a team of portfolio managers and researchers who invested approximately $7 billion in active strategies across global fixed income markets, including $2 billion in emerging market debt investments and more than $3 billion in hedge fund strategies.
Ms. O'Connor also served as a co-portfolio manager for over twelve years on the BNY Mellon's Mellon Capital Management Group's flagship global macro fund since helping to launch it in 2001. She joined State Street in 2013. Ms. O'Connor received a B.A. in International Relations from University of California, Davis and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley.
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Lisa O’Connor is the Head of Global Macro Portfolio Management at State Street Global Advisors, managing a portfolio across equities, rates, commodities, currencies, and credit. In this Opalesque.TV video interview she discusses key global macro themes that she is seeing and that investors should carefully consider. She highlights specific themes and opportunities, among them the ramifications of the demographic shifts of aging populations in developed markets, which has the potential to create aggregate demand shock and significantly slow down gro
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