Trustnet Magazine 57 December 2019 | Page 40

In focus 40 / 41 [ 2020 OUTLOOK ] Despite the length and maturity of the bull run, Adam Lewis finds fund managers and analysts in cautiously optimistic mood in his outlook for every major region in 2020 Ageing bull A n all-English Champions League Final, England triumphant in the Cricket World Cup and a runners-up medal for the England rugby union team certainly made 2019 memorable from a sporting point of view. However, from an economic perspective, 2019 repeated much of what has come before, with the UK paralysed for large parts by Brexit and political uncertainty and the US and China remaining at loggerheads in terms of trade deals. There was a change in direction of global monetary policy, with the US ending a period of quantitative tightening and cutting interest rates three times, indicative of a trend in global central banks trying to wrestle back control of growth in the economy. At the same time, if 2018 was remembered as the year volatility returned to global stock markets, the buzzword for 2019 was very much liquidity, with the closure of Woodford Investment Management dominating the headlines. But what does next year hold? Here we look at what investment trust managers expect from 2020 and which funds seem appealing. TRUSTNET trustnet.com