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In this insightful discussion, Monica Defend, Head of the Amundi Investment Institute and a senior macro strategist, shares her expert views on monetary policy and market forecasts for 2026. She predicts two Fed cuts as well as two ECB cuts, linking these to growth and inflation trends. Monica also emphasizes the risks in equity concentration and the need for portfolio diversification amid macro fragilities. Additionally, she highlights emerging markets as a potential bond-focused diversifier, offering a selective approach to investment.

Monica Defend, Head of the Amundi Investment Institute, shares her insights on the macroeconomic landscape and investment strategies for 2026. She discusses how AI will drive growth while creating valuation risks. With central banks expected to adopt different approaches, she outlines monetary policies in key economies. Monica emphasizes the importance of diversification, focusing on emerging markets, gold, and private infrastructure as investment opportunities. Her perspective is both timely and essential for navigating the evolving market dynamics.

In this engaging discussion, Monica Defend, Head of the Amundi Investment Institute, shares insights from recent summits in Washington and Shanghai. She highlights a resilient economic outlook, predicting US inflation to hold around 3% by 2026. Monica explores the fascinating simultaneous rallies in equities and gold, attributing this to central bank policies and reserve diversification strategies. She also delves into Europe's evolving investment landscape, China's promising growth trajectory, and Japan's potential fiscal shifts under its new prime minister.

While Europe headed to the beach, journalists were kept busy with the newsflow out of the US this summer, as central bank independence, new tariff announcements and foreign affairs negotiations continued to make headlines.Swaha Pattanaik and Monica Defend, Head of Amundi Investment Institute, return to their desks to catch-up you up on what all the developments mean for market outlook and how our investment views are evolving to keep pace. This episode takes a closer look at the shifting undercurrents in the US market: tariffs, labour figures, policy and inflation uncertainty. We dig deeper into how the current political pressures are effecting markets, in particular the current challenges to the Federal Reserve's independence and the moves on the US Treasuries yield curve. We also take a closer look at valuations in the US equities markets and see how the Indian and Chinese economies have been holding up against the new tariff announcements.Topics covered: Investment views, markets, forecasts, US economy, US dollar, central banks, Federal reserve, interest rates, monetary policy, tariffs, yields, equities, fixed income, treasuries, GDP, India, China,Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

With summer well underway in Europe, many may be on holiday, but this hasn't done anything to slow the newsflow. In particular, announcements from the US are keeping analysts busy. Swaha Pattanaik and Monica Defend, Head of the Amundi Investment Institute, get together to work out what the latest developments mean for the markets and share their investment views for growth, inflation and asset valuations. With a new US budget agreement and continued threat of new tariffs we debate their impact, both realised and potential, on growth and inflation in the US and elsewhere. The independence of central bank decision-making has also been a big topic of the month as the Fed has been facing continued political pressure over its interest rate decisions, which is rattling US assets. What might be the consequences for the US dollar and US treasuries? Finally, we look at whether this earnings season is offering any early warning signs of things to come and we drill down into our investment views and outlook for the main asset classes and markets. Topics covered: investment views, markets, macroeconomics, central banks, Fed, growth, inflation, interest rates, tariffs, US budget, US dollar, US treasuries, fiscal policy, monetary policy, economic forecasts, emerging markets, Asia, equities, fixed income, credit, earnings, Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

The first six months of 2025 brought many unexpected events and shocks that rocked financial markets and complicated the task of economic forecasters. As we enter the second half of the year, what has changed and what might this mean for the economic outlook for the rest of 2025?Swaha Pattanaik sits down with Monica Defend, Head of the Amundi Investment Institute, to get her view on the growth and monetary policy outlook for the remainder of 2025. They discuss the impact of tariffs and geopolitical shifts on growth prospects in the US, China and beyond. They consider which areas might benefit from a weaker US dollar and where yield curves might be heading next. Finally, they examine the areas of resilience in the markets that could still offer opportunities to investors. Topics covered: Investment outlook, macroeconomics, forecasts, monetary policy, growth, interest rates, yield curves, bonds, equities, emerging markets, US dollar, China, US, Europe, Fed, debt, valuations, stock market, tariffs, geopolitics, volatility, AI, defense, Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Join our host, Swaha Pattanaik, as she sits down for her regular catch-up with Monica Defend, Head of the Amundi Investment Institute, to give our perspective on the markets, analyse the trends and share our investment views for the weeks ahead. In this month's review, we discuss what's been driving the rise in yields on longer maturity US and Japanese bonds in recent weeks. Do we expect this trend to continue and what does this mean for fixed income markets more broadly? We also consider the outlook for inflation and monetary policy in the major economies around the globe, look more closely at the US market in particular, and examine how the uncertainty around tariffs has been impacting the equity markets. Finally, we drill down into the areas and asset classes that could be most appealing to investors, across developed and emerging markets.Topics covered: Investment views, investment convictions, financial markets, macroeconomics, monetary policy, fiscal policy, inflation, growth, interest rates, central banks, fixed income, yields, US, Japan, equities, bonds, emerging markets, tariffsHosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

The spring meetings in Washington are a useful platform to gauge opinion of policymakers, economists, bankers and investors from around the world. In this latest edition of our monthly investment views podcast, Monica Defend, Head of Amundi Investment Institute, catches up with Swaha Pattanaik on her return from the US to share Amundi’s latest investment views and talk about the mood in Washington, and what this might mean for the markets. They discuss the impacts of US tariffs and the retaliatory measures on the global economic outlook, looking particularly at the consequences for growth and inflation expectations. They also consider what’s next for central bank moves and Amundi's forecasts for interest rates.  Finally, they wrap up with the main convictions for some of the major global currencies, as well as the equity markets and some of the big things to watch in emerging markets.Topics covered: Investment views, global outlook, growth, inflation, forecasts, economics, equities, tariffs, US, Europe, emerging markets, Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Against a backdrop of extraordinary global uncertainty, Amundi's 2025 capital market assumptions report explores the game changers that are shaping investment decisions and asset class return expectations. Join Giulio Lombardo as he speaks to Monica Defend, Head of the Amundi Investment Institute, and John O’Toole, Head of Multi-Asset Investment Solutions, to discover this year's main findings and what's changed since last year. Identifying three major themes for this year, Amundi's 2025 capital market assumptions takes a closer look at new socio-economic scenarios with their higher geopolitical fragmentation and tariffs, it explores the impact of a delayed transition to net zero, and assesses the impact of artificial intelligence at a regional level.  We dig deeper into these big transformative trends, including the macroeconomic and technological shifts, more frequent extreme climate events, and a slow transition, and look at how they are impacting our expectations for long-term returns for different asset classes globally. We also analyse how they're affecting long-term projections for growth and inflation.  Finally, we look at how these developments may drive investment opportunities, particularly in Europe, and how investors can adjust their strategic asset allocation to incorporate these return expectations in their portfolios. Topics covered: markets, investment, economic, finance, capital market assumptions, return expectations, forecasts, trade, inflation, growth, GDP, central banks, Europe, tariffs, portfolios, asset allocation, equities, fixed income, emerging markets, real assetsHosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

In the fifth and last episode of our series on Shareholder Stewardship, Caroline Le Meaux, Global Head of ESG Research, Engagement, and Voting, and Edouard Dubois, Head of Proxy Voting, engage in a dynamic conversation on voting at annual general assemblies and how it is most effective when coupled with engagement with companies. Dialoguing with companies is very important in the voting activity: it can lead to improvements in companies strategies before or after the AGM has taken place. This episode will explore what proxy voting is, and why it is important in an overall stewardship strategy of an asset manager. Many themes will be touched upon, including board compensation, Say on Climate resolutions, and filing shareholder resolutions to accelerate improvements in the climate strategy.Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.