Our forecasts still favour bonds over equities in 2019

We remain of the view that slower growth in the US and Chinese economies will push stock markets down sharply again this year, and prevent the yields of high-grade bonds from rising much, if at all. Nonetheless, we have made some tweaks to our key market forecasts, which are set out below, reflecting both the scale of recent market moves and updates to our thinking on the euro-zone and UK economies.