The S & P 500 is on track for its longest weekly win streak since 1985, as investors count down to May’s nonfarm payroll report. It comes as Asia’s red-hot AI boom looks to have soured, with South Korea’s Kospi and Japan’s Nikkei ending the week in the red. Here are three investment strategies we heard in CNBC’s Singapore and London studios to help navigate the noise. Risk reward entry point Timothy Moe, Goldman Sachs chief APAC equity strategist, continues to believe memory stocks have room to run, telling CNBC that equities in the space “are the stars of the show.” However, he also highlights the defense sector, where a recent sell-off Moe describes as an understandable “technical correction” that presents an opportunity for investors. “Fundamentals have improved. All the stocks that we look at have increased their orders, valuations are attractive, and so we think that there’s an interesting risk-reward entry point here for that part of the market”. ‘No risk’ to hyperscaler capex Jean-Louis Nakamura, head of conviction equities at Vontobel, sees a continuation of the AI boom, telling CNBC that there is “no risk” hyperscalers will revise their capex plans lower within the next 12 to 18 months. He believes the trends in price and earnings will continue for chip manufacturers and memory producers. Nakamura also revealed that Vontobel has selectively strengthened its positions within a select few Chinese internet platforms, which have been “over-punished” in recent months “We think they are in a relatively good position to ultimately monetize AI on top of a very large pool of individual private data”, he said. Mid-cap play Roger Lee, head of equity strategy at Cavendish, says mid-cap stocks could offer value if oil prices continue to fall, as lower energy prices ease pressure on inflation and interest rate expectations. Lee argues that equity markets, excluding U.S. technology, are heavily influenced by the price of oil because of its impact on inflation expectations and, in turn, the outlook for interest rates. “That could be U.S. mid-caps, that could be U.K. mid-caps, or even European mid-caps. So, it’s the mid-cap space that really I think offers the value, because it’s so dependent on interest rate expectations, and as I say, oil price falls, interest rate expectations fall, mid caps generally do well.”
