Connected Investor - The Brunner Investment Trust PLC Podcast

US company executives can tend to be ‘hardwired’ for optimism but, after the Trump rally at the end of 2024, euphoria has given way to an environment of disruption and uncertainty. Portfolio managers Julian Bishop and James Ashworth discuss how this is impacting global equity markets thus far this year, how it differs substantially from 2024 and what that might mean for the rest of the year.

The US has shown unprecedented dominance in stock market terms for many years, and 2024 was no exception. In this latest podcast episode we look at the factors behind this, the composition of returns from various markets for UK investors, and whether the team believes this dominance can continue into 2025. Also, at the genesis of Trump 2.0, how could tariffs – or the threat of them at least – impact investors?

As stock pickers, the managers of The Brunner Investment Trust are looking for what they believe are great companies which can grow and deliver returns to shareholders. Whilst this may sound obvious, just what exactly are the common factors in the DNA of a “great” company? Joe Lynam quizzes portfolio manager Julian Bishop on how he and his team go about assessing companies.

In the 21st episode of Connected Investor, Joe Lynam and Julian Bishop navigate the choppy waters of national politics and their ripple effects through global markets. With the recent political changes in the UK and the much-anticipated US presidential election, what can investors expect from the stock market?

A multi-decade re-engineering of the entire global economy” – Julian Bishop, co-lead portfolio manager of Brunner debates the realities of the energy transition with host Joe Lynam. He argues that the production of nearly everything in the world relies on fossil fuels to some degree, something that will inevitably take time to change. The duo also examine the tie in with global population size and growth, look at whether energy in general and renewable energy in particular contains opportunities for investors, and draw their conclusions on the ultimate realities of the energy transition

The ‘Magnificent 7’ have been much heralded as the drivers of stockmarket performance over the past year or so, but are they all performing strongly, and what might be some other ways of accessing technology sub-sector growth? Joe and Julian also discuss a couple of more traditional companies added to the portfolio earlier this year.

In this latest episode we look deeper into some of the things that portfolio companies actually do. In particular, host Joe Lynam and co-lead portfolio manager Julian Bishop examine some of the extreme technology needed to create the world’s most powerful semiconductor chips. The term ‘cutting-edge’ may often be overused, but in this case the sheer physics of what is being achieved by some of the leading companies is, quite simply, astounding.

In this latest podcast, we ask “what just happened” in the first half of 2023 and what did we learn as investors? Whilst there were quite benign returns in sterling terms, underneath the surface there was plenty of drama with a reversal of what happened in 2022 – tech roared back strongly from its lows and the 2022 winners like oil and gas resumed their longer-standing underperformance of recent years. After something of a frenzy in May and June, and associated predictions of the end of the world as we know it, is some of the hype surrounding AI now abating – and what does that mean for markets?

In this latest podcast the team look at the factors to consider when investing around the theme of decarbonisation and how companies with strong decarbonisation credentials, able to drive the energy transition, are considered within the investment universe. What elements shape the pathway to net zero and what will be required to get there? With that view in mind, which companies could be well placed to capitalise and therefore provide good investment returns for investors? Electricity generation, energy storage and transportability all come under the spotlight.