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The Fed’s rate cutting path was already uncertain heading into this latest US government shutdown. Compounding the increasing weakness in the US job market, this shutdown may have a more severe impact on the US job market. On balance, we believe that should this shutdown drag on and federal workers are indeed laid off, the Fed may well err on the side of caution and deliver another 25-bps rate cut.

We upgrade Equities to Overweight from Neutral; position for favorable seasonality effects in the next six months and use dips to accumulate quality stocks. We stay Neutral on Fixed Income given asymmetric risk-reward with immensely tight credit spreads and recommend an average duration of 4-5 years. We remain Overweight on Alternatives as less correlated assets offer diversification benefits. We maintain Neutral on Money Market with an eye for fresh capital deployment on technical pullbacks.

We remain Overweight on US equities. While we continue to favor quality AI/growth stocks, investors should diversify some exposure into the “Next20” after Mag7 within S&P 500. We stay Neutral on European equities against a backdrop of tepid growth outlook and prefer selected opportunities in banks, industrials and defence stocks amid expectations for incremental monetary and fiscal policy loosening. We remain Neutral on Japan’s equities and reiterate our preference for quality companies with strong IP/brands, selected tech stocks and corporate-reform beneficiaries. We remain Overweight on Emerging Asia equities as a weaker USD and Fed easing may drive more foreign inflows into EM Asia against a backdrop of relatively undemanding valuations.

We stay Overweight on Developed Markets (DM) IG as a defensive hedge which comes with still attractive coupon carry. We stay Underweight on DM USD HY as risk-reward remains asymmetric, with credit spread widening posing a huge downside risk. We stay Overweight on Emerging Markets (EM) which offers both stability and diversification, supported by a broad investor base, a stable credit environment and favourable EM trends. We stay Neutral on EM HY and see better value in ‘BB’ rising star credits.

Since the successful technical breakout above USD 3,500 / oz, gold has rallied strongly over the past month. We raise our positive gold forecast further amidst the strong surge in retail interest. We forecast gold price to reach USD 4,200 / oz by 3Q26. OPEC+ will continue its eager resumption of supply cuts, capping any significant upside in crude oil price and we reiterate our cautiously neutral forecast of USD 70 / bbl for4Q25 and USD 60 / bbl for 3Q26.

Amidst a steepening yield curve, the broader medium-term USD downtrend remains intact as the Fed is expected to be increasingly dovish relative to its G10 peers. Overall, our DXY forecasts are 96.2 by end-2025 and 93.8 by 3Q26. As for front-end rates, we forecast the 3M compounded in arrears Sofr and Sora to decline to 3.83% and 1.23% by 4Q25 while, we now see 10Y UST yield ending 2025 lower at 4.10% while 10Y SGS yield will ease further to 1.90% by end 2025.
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