Strategist Not Sold on U.S. Equities

J.P. Morgan Investment Management Inc. chief investment strategist Chris Durbin recommended Tuesday selling bonds and U.S. stocks and buy stocks in Japan, Europe and emerging markets.

“We don’t like the U.S. equity market from a macro standpoint,” Durbin told reporters.

J.P. Morgan’s strategy has been to invest “where growth is surprising” and to sell “where growth is a negative, and that’s where we see the U.S. transitioning today.”

He said he expects the U.S. Federal Reserve to start trying to put the brakes on the U.S. economy over the next year, and that the federal funds rate a year from now will be a full percentage point higher than it is today.

“Given the events of 1998, who would have guessed that the best performing major global equity market would be Japan?” he said. The Nikkei-225 stock average is up about 20% in dollar terms this year.