Latest news with #ScottBarlow
News.com.au
3 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Ferrari heavyweight replaces Scott Barlow as Sydney FC chairman
Scott Barlow's 13-year tenure as Sydney FC chairman has come to an end as part of an 'evolution' aimed at increasing the A-League club's 'international profile'. Ferrari Australasia president Dr Jan Voss, who joined the Sky Blues board last season, will replace Barlow as chairman. Voss is fluent in five languages – English, German, Italian, French, and Dutch – and 'brings a global perspective and deep experience in brand, performance, and strategic growth' As part of a 'broader strategic restructure', inaugural club chairman Walter Bugno returns to Sydney's board, while technology entrepreneur Sebastian Gray has also been added to the board. 'This is a pivotal moment for Sydney FC,' Voss said. 'I am honoured to be appointed chairman and to work alongside a board that is deeply passionate about football and our club's future.' The club's ownership structure hasn't changed, with the Barlow family remaining as 98 per cent investors, with the other two per cent owned by the Crismale family and two other Australian shareholders. 'With a strong and stable ownership base and a renewed focus on innovation, commercial growth, and elite performance, Sydney FC is more ready than ever to embrace the challenges of the modern football landscape,' Voss said. Barlow has not only departed as chairman but also as board member after two decades of service. 'I wish to thank Scott for his extraordinary leadership and commitment,' Voss said. 'His 13 years as chairman have laid the foundations for the club's next era of growth and international ambition.' Gray – who co-founded Dugout, a digital media company co-owned by a host of top European clubs, including Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, PSG, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Juventus, and Manchester City – will strengthen Sydney's focus on 'innovation, digital engagement, and sustainable investment'. Sydney's board also includes technical director Han Berger, Michael Crismale, Suzie Shaw, and Peter Paradise. The Ufuk Talay-coached Sky Blues failed to reach this season's A-League finals series, finishing seventh on the ladder. They reached the semi-finals of the AFC Champions League Two competition before being knocked out by Singapore club Lion City Sailors.
Globe and Mail
20-05-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Canada ‘avoiding the worst, but far from the best', says BMO strategist
Daily roundup of research and analysis from The Globe and Mail's market strategist Scott Barlow BMO Canadian rates and macro strategist Benjamin Reitzes assesses the domestic economy as 'avoiding the worst, but far from the best', 'Despite the ongoing risks to the economy, we're upgrading the outlook for Canadian GDP growth. For 2025, we are forecasting 1.0% growth, up from 0.7% previously. For 2026, we are forecasting 1.2%, up from 1.0% previously. There continues to be extreme uncertainty around the outlook, and we could see significant revisions in either direction over the coming months. Indeed, we are still projecting negative growth for Q2 and Q3 (though a shallower contraction), qualifying as a so-called technical recession. While we're anticipating modestly stronger growth, that likely won't keep the Bank of Canada from cutting rates again at the next policy meeting in early June. The current tariff backdrop is closer to the BoC's Scenario 1 from the April MPR, though auto tariffs amplify additional downside growth risks. In that scenario, inflation is largely benign (in no small part due to the end of the carbon tax), while a small output gap persists. The latter two factors would usually point to a BoC rate cut. We still get April CPI next week, and March/Q1/April flash GDP at month-end, but we continue to lean toward a rate cut in June' *** Citi head of U.S. equity strategy Scott Chronert sounds downright bearish, 'What stands out this week in the data is that we continue to push the valuation envelope as the macro backdrop underpinning our fundamental outlook weakens. Our market implied FCF growth measure reached a new 15yr high alongside traditional and cross asset valuations all pushing into the top decile. Three important macro inputs to our earnings models released this week have all significantly underperformed our base case assumptions. Earlier in the week, the Fed's Senior Loan Officer Survey showed tightening of credit conditions while banks saw reduced demand for consumer loans. This morning, consumer sentiment fell again with declines in both political party affiliation breakouts. Lastly, import prices increased MoM for April, misaligned with our base case assumption that foreign suppliers will absorb a portion of tariffs by lowering prices. Lags are likely here so we may need another month or two of data to draw a conclusion' *** Equity markets have been climbing despite negative U.S. profit news which is a bit confusing. RBC Capital Markets head of U.S. equity strategist Lori Calvasina says there's more negative profit news ahead, 'The big things you need to know: First, the S&P 500 EPS backdrop has stabilized, but we still anticipate further downward revisions for 2025 S&P 500 EPS. After a preliminary model refresh, we are maintaining our 2025 S&P 500 EPS forecast of $258, which is below the bottom-up consensus of $265. Second, we've updated our S&P 500 valuation model to reflect updated RBC house views on key macro variables like interest rates and inflation. It suggests that last week's gap up in the stock market was largely deserved, but that upside from here may be limited without another major step-up improvement in broader macro expectations. Third, we outline our thoughts on the suddenly sour news flow for stocks'. *** Wells Fargo strategist Austin Pickle recommends selling the rally in emerging markets stocks which is interesting for Canadi9an investors in light of the long term correlation between the (currency adjusted) TSX and MSCI Emerging Markets index, 'The long-term EM equity track record has been uninspiring EM earnings have barely budged since 2007, and index levels remain roughly 15% below their pre-global financial crisis highs. These figures stand in stark contrast to the S&P 500 Index, which has delivered impressive earnings growth and returns over the same period. Meanwhile, a study of volatility reveals that EM experienced nearly triple the number of bear markets defined as drops of 20% or more — during this time. In the case of EM, higher risk has not translated into higher returns these past 18 years. Some core structural issues also help to keep EM a 'show me' story. These include political and economic instability, corporate governance concerns, variable regulatory risks, as well as China's excessive debt, slumping property sector, and slowing growth brought on by the planned shift to a consumer-led economy'. *** Bluesky post of the day: Diversion: 'The economics of sleep' – Marginal Revolution
Globe and Mail
13-05-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Six top stock picks in my favourite sector from BofA analysts
Daily roundup of research and analysis from The Globe and Mail's market strategist Scott Barlow Health care is my favourite sector because I don't have to worry as much about macroeconomic factors and the sector gets free growth from demographics. BofA Securities published a comprehensive health care report, including stock ideas, on Monday, 'Blame it on generalists' interest, ETF/passive inflows, but Health Care stocks are more correlated with one another than ever … Health Care is near a max overweight by active funds vs. Tech perhaps due to China/tariff risks. But the advent of a 'beautiful deal' with China may set the stage for a relief rally in Tech vs. Health Care, especially as Tech EPS revisions have been relatively healthy … Health Care used to have net cash. Now it's as levered as Industrials, and its floating vs. fixed rate risk is the same as that of the S&P 500. More EPS volatility than Financials (another sector shift since the GFC). Health Care's 5yr EPS vol is now in-line with S&P overall, and risk may be mispriced in Pharma/Biotech (lower beta than the S&P 500 but with higher EPS volatility) … still ranks #2 In short-term sector model: Despite the risks above, S&P 500 Health Care ranks highly across valuation, earnings revisions and price momentum. Momentum may be reversing in cyclicals vs. defensives as we saw this week. We remain underweight Health Care in our S&P 500 sector strategy … Secular tailwinds still in force: AI, demographics: GLP-1 was a game changer in 2023 and AI/aging are long-term bullish themes. Aging demographics is the biggest source of increased entitlement spending going forward as retirement age has remained flat since 1983 vs a jump in expected lifespan' The six stocks as chosen by BofA analysts are Cardinal Health Inc. (CAH-N), CVS Health Corp. (CVS-N), Danaher Corp. (DHR-N), Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY-N), The Cigna Group (CI-N) and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (TMO-N). *** The results of BofA Securities' fund manager survey (FMS) are in, summarized by investment strategist Michael Hartnett, 'Pre-Geneva (75% of FMS completed before announcement of US-China talks) investor sentiment glum, especially on US assets; May FMS not as extreme as uber-bearish April FMS (recession seen as less likely, cash levels cut to 4.5% from 4.8%, major tech reallocation), but bearish enough to suggest pain trade modestly higher given positive US-China trade war ceasefire (FMS investors expected 37% tariffs not 30%) … Investors less pessimistic: net 59% expect weaker global growth (vs 82% in April), net 1% say recession likely (vs 42% in April), 'soft landing' (61%) back as consensus outlook (hard landing 26%, no landing 6%) … investors most UW US dollar since May'06, slashed big bond OW to neutral, said gold most overvalued in 20 years ('long gold' = #1 crowded trade), trimmed global equity UW [underweight] via up-in-Europe not US stocks (most UW since May'23); FMS most OW large vs small cap since Jun'22, pre-Geneva big rotation to tech (biggest MoM rise since Mar'13) & industrials, out of staples, healthcare & energy (biggest UW on record). FMS Contrarian Trades: if 'no landing' most +ve for US stocks, EM, small cap, energy and -ve gold; if 'hard landing' most +ve health care and -ve Eurozone & banks' *** Citi U.S. strategist Scott Chronert assesses markets after the U.S. delay in China tariffs, 'In our weekend note, What Q1 Earnings Are Telling Us About Tariff Policy, we stressed the point that earnings growth expectations for the Cyclical and Defensive clusters within the S&P 500 continue to trend lower. On the other hand, the Growth cluster (esp. Mag 7) have continued to support full year index level consensus … our immediate takeaway is to presume a broader sentiment relief with the possibility of the S&P 500 working through our 5800 target. This probably includes some short covering among those parts of the market deemed as most exposed to China tariffs (i.e., Tech and Consumer Discretionary). However, so long as a 10% broad tariff remains an effective tariff line of sight, fundamental pressures should continue to linger. This makes it difficult to push valuations materially higher than the current 22.6x TTM [trailing twelve months] and 20.4x NTM levels … All told, we main constructive on the structural US equity set up, but expect a need to consolidate gains from the post Moratorium Day rally. Our preferred long expression is via Growth per OWs in Tech (esp SW[software] and Semis) and Comm Services' *** Bluesky post of the day: Diversion: 'The Early Returns on NYC's Congestion Pricing Are Pretty Impressive' – Gizmodo
