Corporate Insights

Amid the holiday shopping season, we can’t talk about consumer spending without talking about demographics. At each part of our lives we spend differently,...

Amid the holiday shopping season, we can’t talk about consumer spending without talking about demographics. At each part of our lives we spend differently,...

In the spirit of the holiday season, I would like everyone to repeat this stat a few times out loud: “Estimated holiday sales for 2019 are expected to be roughly $143 billion,” according to Adobe Analytics.

It’s Black Friday and let the holiday shopping games begin! American shoppers are expected to spend an average of $1,048 during the 2019 holiday shopping season. And how will they pay for it?

As a thematic investor, my job is to identify the most important and prevalent trends here and around the world to invest in through the leaders or “brands” that are most relevant. When I look at the world currently and into the future, here’s the most important investment themes an investor can invest in today.

Growth companies have been significantly outperforming value companies since early 2007 with just a few periods of value relative performance. There are many reasons for this, one of which is the simple concept that when something is scarce — economic growth and corporate growth — people are willing to pay up for it.

Interest rates have gone from 3% on the 10-year Treasury to roughly 1.5% at the lows last month. In addition, mortgage rates have gone from 5.2% last November to as low as 3.4% in late September. The big question is what happens when rates go lower, particularly in an economy out of recession more often than not?

When I got into this business in 1993, the idea that a public company could be worth more than $1 trillion was not even a consideration. In the history of public markets leading up to that time, the prevailing feeling was that since it never happened before, why should it happen in the future?