As Wall Street's confidence in a September interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve grows, Insigneo Chief Investment Officer Ahmed Riesgo believes it will come too late to offset a recession. Riesgo joins Market Domination to discuss what a recession could mean for markets and how investors should position their portfolios in preparation. "New money should not be deployed in the equity market right now, or if it is going to be deployed in the equity market, it should be deployed in highly defensive sectors like utilities (XLU), for example," Riesgo explains. He argues that utilities are a great way to not only play the defense side, but also the AI boom as demand for electricity increases. He adds, "the most attractive place to deploy money right now is in long-duration Treasuries and gold (GC=F) specifically." As the 2024 presidential race nears, Riesgo says, "prediction markets really haven't budged all that much. They're roughly still showing Trump with a 60% chance of winning the presidency and Kamala Harris sitting at around 40%. We think those odds are rational at this moment." However, he notes that there has been a difference in House races, explaining, "we think this is part of the reason why the Democrats made the move because of the down-ballot effects. I think there is going to be greater turnout and greater enthusiasm for Kamala than there was for Biden. And we think that's going to help down-ballot in the House races. So the House is, I would say, a bit of a toss-up right now, slightly favoring the Democrats." For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Market Domination. This post was written by Melanie Riehl
