In recent days, Kristina Hooper, Chief Global Market Strategist at Invesco, mentioned in the mid-year investment outlook for 2024 that considering the favorable macroeconomic environment, Invesco tends to overweight risk assets but needs to maintain risk control because high valuations limit the upside potential for risk assets. Regarding stocks, she is optimistic about cyclical and small-cap stocks due to their relatively attractive valuations and sensitivity to the economic cycle. She also favors developed markets (excluding the United States) and emerging market stocks. Kristina Hooper noted that in the second half of 2024, inflation in most Western developed economies is expected to further slow down, and Invesco believes that the decline in inflation outside the United States will be greater. Overall, global economic growth remains soft, but performance across different economies is expected to diverge. She pointed out that market deployment may respond to changes in interest rate expectations in 2024. However, the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates rather than raising them following specific rate cuts is more important, especially in a volatile market sentiment. In terms of growth, overall, the global economy remains soft but Invesco expects performance to diverge across different economies. For the United States, Invesco maintains a strong growth outlook; for the Eurozone, growth is expected to be relatively weak but may be boosted by unexpected positive news; for Japan, a weak yen and structural reforms are driving inflation back up, allowing the Bank of Japan to initiate a fairly mild tightening process; for China, consumer confidence is gradually improving, reflecting an improvement in growth. Kristina Hooper mentioned that some markets seem to have already priced in most positive sentiment. In fact, there are significant risks that some markets are overly optimistic and have not fully digested potential problems. However, considering the favorable macroeconomic environment, Invesco tends to overweight risk assets but will strictly control risk due to high valuations suppressing the upside potential of risk assets. In terms of bonds, especially long-term bonds, interest rates are nearing the highest level in decades. Strong fundamentals support many fixed income assets, reflecting significant narrowing of credit spreads for investment grade and high yield credits. Taking advantage of resilient credit risks in an improving growth environment. Diversification of bank loans is attractive, as they are expected to be relatively immune to interest rate fluctuations due to near-zero duration. Strong performance is also expected for local currency and hard currency bonds in emerging markets. Additionally, there are opportunities in the real estate market. Negative sentiment from before may already be reflected in prices, and with improving conditions, the market is expected to experience a significant upside. For example, lowering policy rates provides room for a decrease in real estate debt costs and capitalization rates, boosting transaction activity and promoting price recovery. Among major currencies, as the Federal Reserve begins to cut interest rates, the US dollar is expected to weaken within the year, benefiting currencies such as the Euro, Pound, and Brazilian Real. Economically, Kristina Hooper stated that if the lagged effects of policy mistakes begin to show and prove to go beyond the capacity of the US economy, a "hard landing" may still occur. In such a scenario, assets like cash, defensive stocks (such as consumer staples, healthcare, utilities), long-term sovereign bonds, and currencies (Swiss Franc and Japanese Yen) are favored. In a "hard landing" scenario, the US economy is currently in (or even exiting) a mid-term slowdown phase and is expected to pick up speed again in the second half of 2024. Outside the United States, surplus economies such as the Eurozone and deficit emerging markets are expected to benefit.