Katie Martin

They don't kind of really care if the dollar goes up or down.

It's not that material to their bottom line and to how their portfolio performs.

They see in front of them a US market that performs beautifully.

And a lot of them really don't see that much of a problem here.

Now, when I speak to asset managers who are in Europe, who are in the UK, who are in Asia, they all say a very similar thing to me, which is, no, something here has broken.

First of all, the dollar has broken.

The dollar is a lot weaker in it.

And if you didn't manage to hedge out that dollar risk last year in 2025, then you had an absolute stinker in US markets, if you're euro-based or sterling-based, for example.

So...

The dollar has broken down.

But more fundamentally than that, trust has broken down.

And so now, particularly actually since the heat really increased on Greenland, what investors are saying to me is that, look, we have to accept that we live in a world where a president who is willing to demolish the East Wing of the White House and make threats against the Federal Reserve and literally in real life,

threatened to invade a NATO member...

is willing to do all sorts of things with your investment portfolio.

Maybe, you know, when people are wargaming very extreme scenarios, that goes right up to including, is he going to pay me back on my treasuries?

Or is he going to get into some sort of argument with me or with my government that means that maybe he won't do that one day?

What's the risk premium that I need to embed in my US assets to compensate me for these sorts of risks that didn't exist before?

Also, as you mentioned, there are companies that he favours and companies that he doesn't favour.

It makes it a very difficult decision for an investor to think, well, do I get involved in those companies?

Do I avoid them?