Grantham Forecasts Rough Seven Years for Equities, Bonds

(Bloomberg) -- Jeremy Grantham isn’t shaking his reputation as a perma-Bear.

His firm, Boston-based GMO, is out with its latest seven-year outlook and it doesn’t make for happy reading. GMO expects the annualized, inflation-adjusted return for U.S. stocks to be negative 4.2 percent over the period. U.S. bonds are forecast to lose 0.5 percent a year while emerging-market stocks, long a GMO favorite, are expected to climb 1.9 percent annually.

“To us, the opportunity set for equity investors looks pretty clear: favor non-U.S. markets, especially value stocks in emerging markets,” said John Thorndike, GMO asset allocation team member. “Additionally, with the Fed continuing to raise short-term interest rates and the potential inflationary effects of tariffs and trade wars, we think investors are well served to keep their duration short.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Charles Stein in Boston at cstein4@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Margaret Collins at mcollins45@bloomberg.net, Alan Mirabella

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