US futures were relatively unchanged as investors monitored US-Iran negotiations. This comes after the S&P 500 index hit an all-time high in trading on Friday, marking its sixth consecutive week of positive gains for the first time since October 2024. European stocks are struggling to find direction, with oil and gas stocks outperforming as oil prices remain high amid uncertainty over the situation in the Middle East. In Asia, South Korea’s Kospi continued its recent gains, hitting another record high, led by semiconductor makers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Here are three investment strategies that can help you cut through the noise, heard from CNBC’s Singapore and London studios on Monday. Weaker US dollar opens door to emerging markets Colin Purdy, global chief investment officer at Manulife Investment Management, said the group was investing aggressively across its portfolio and was “very positive” across Asia. Purdy said his long-term view on the dollar “tends to be relatively bearish,” adding that he expects the dollar to be “weaker over the next few years” and opportunities for emerging markets. “If you look at the emerging markets space, whether it’s fixed income or equities, not everything is created equal. There are different trends and different influences in each of these markets right now, so it’s important to pick your spots carefully,” he added. South Korea’s Kospi ‘still has a long way to go’ Timothy Mo, chief Asia-Pacific equity strategist at Goldman Sachs, told CNBC that raising his firm’s Kospi target to 9,000 shares is conservative and that strategically it has “a long way to go.” Mo acknowledged the rise in the Kospi in recent months, but said there was a “perfect positive storm” for Korean companies. He cited strong profit growth and “very strong earnings dynamics,” adding that companies in the memory sector are experiencing “rapidly” accelerating demand, giving them strong pricing power. “The main debate in the market is how long the current ultra-normal profit cycle for semiconductors will last, but I believe that what is still being mispriced in the market even after a strong run is the duration of those profits. If the rate of increase can continue for three to five years, I think the market will rise further,” he said. Anna McDonald, director of investment strategy at Hargreaves Lansdown, said the FTSE 100’s relative lack of tech companies offered an attractive alternative to AI trading. MacDonald cited energy and mining stocks, financial services stocks and pharmaceutical stocks as constituents of the index. She said: “In practice, the approach of selecting a decentralized UK index that is less concentrated within AI allows us to have a very broad brush.”
