Market Forecast: Turbulent Times

Despite years of unprecedented sums of money being pumped into the global economic and financial systems, uncertainty continues to roil the world markets. Driven by numerous global macro issues, wild swings in the financial markets accompany the continuing unsettled state of global economic affairs, thereby making the job of managing one’s assets all the more difficult.
 
In such a climate, investors are faced with many challenging issues such as:

• Will the multiyear deleveraging process derail the global growth story?
• Can highly profitable corporations maintain their strong financial condition?
• Will overheating emerging economies achieve a hard or soft landing?
• What effect will politics have on the economy and markets as the US enters a presidential election year?

To address these and other issues, NYSSA has assembled a panel of experts to discuss and debate the economic, financial, and geopolitical environment facing investors.

Biographies

Peter Boockvar is currently the equity strategist at Miller Tabak + Co., LLC in addition to his role as a salestrader on the equity desk. He is a CNBC contributor and is frequently quoted on Reuters, Dow Jones Newswires, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and The Associated Press. He joined Miller Tabak + Co., LLC in 1994 after working in the corporate bond research department at Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette. He is on the board of directors of Ameritrans Capital Corporation, a publicly traded business development company. He is also president of OCLI, LLC and OCLI2, LLC farmland real estate investment funds. Boockvar graduated magna cum laude with a BBA in finance from George Washington University.

Daniel Clifton is a partner and the head of Strategas Research Partners’ DC office. He directs its legislative and public policy research efforts. Prior to joining Strategas, he served as executive director of the American Shareholders Association (ASA), a non-partisan, non-profit organization which analyzes public policy affecting shareholders. His research and political analysis on the interaction between legislation, policy and equity markets has been widely cited in the media. Prior to joining the ASA, Clifton served as chief economist and federal affairs manager for Americans for Tax Reform and as a senior staff member in two gubernatorial administrations working on economic issues. He received a MS in economics and public finance from Rutgers University and a BA in urban planning and policy development also from Rutgers.

Mujtaba Rahman is an analyst in Eurasia Group's Europe practice. His primary areas of expertise are European political economy, European economic and monetary integration, and political and economic developments in Central and Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans. Prior to joining Eurasia Group, Rahman worked for Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Previously, he worked at the European Commission's Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs, and at the UK Treasury. Rahman received master's degrees in international affairs from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, and in European political economy from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He received a bachelor's degree with honors in European economics and French from the University of Nottingham Trent, UK.

Glenn Reynolds, CFA is the CEO of CreditSights, Inc., an independent credit research firm that primarily focuses on the credit markets but also serves a wide range of equity-oriented clients. The company has grown to over 100 employees since its founding in October 2000, with main offices in New York and London. Previously, Reynolds was a managing director at Deutsche Bank, serving in a number of roles including director of global credit research and head of global credit strategy. Before joining Deutsche Bank, he was a managing director at Lehman Brothers, where he worked in variety of positions including director of global credit research and chief credit officer. Reynolds has testified before various Senate and House Committees and the SEC on credit-related topics including the Enron collapse and credit rating agency reform.

Philip J. Orlando, CFA, serves as Federated’s chief equity market strategist, senior vice president and senior portfolio manager. With 29 years of industry experience, he is responsible for formulating and articulating Federated’s opinions about the equity market as well as positioning strategies for the firm’s products. He serves as chairman of both the Macro Economic Policy and the Prism Asset Allocation committees, and additionally as head of the balanced/macro team within Federated’s equity group, where he is the senior portfolio manager on Federated’s Stock & Bond Fund. Orlando has been a contributor to CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” “Squawk on the Street,” “Power Lunch,” “Closing Bell” and “The Kudlow Report” programs, as well as PBS’ “Nightly Business Report,” Fox Business News, Reuters, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times, among others. He was previously selected for five consecutive years by BusinessWeek to participate in their prestigious year-end Market Forecast Survey and was identified as a top investment strategist in 1999 for providing the most accurate forecast that year. He received his MBA in economics and his bachelor’s degree in journalism, both from New York University.

Sam Stovall, CFP, chief equity strategist of S&P Capital IQ, serves as analyst, publisher, and communicator of S&P’s outlooks for the economy, market, sectors, and stocks. He is the chairman of the S&P Investment Policy Committee where he focuses on market history and valuations, as well as industry momentum strategies. Stovall is the author of The Seven Rules of Wall Street (2009) and the now out-of-print book, The Standard & Poor’s Guide to Sector Investing. He writes a weekly investment piece on S&P’s MarketScope Advisor platform, focusing on market and sector history and industry momentum. His work is also frequently found in S&P’s flagship weekly newsletter The Outlook. Stovall joined Standard & Poor’s in April 1989. Prior to S&P, he served as editor-in-chief at Argus Research. Stovall received an MBA in finance from New York University and a BA in history and education from Muhlenberg College.