Highlights

• Citi Wealth's latest The Short and Long: Q2 2026 Macro Investment View states global shocks to markets are driving higher volatility and rapid risk repricing, while the U.S. economy remains relatively resilient.

• Citi Wealth's 2Q26 view favors quality and resilience, including U.S. large?cap equities, short?duration high?quality fixed income, with a strategic allocation to gold, which remains an attract mix for ballast and potential income in portfolios.

• Structural themes such as AI, energy security, and supply chain realignment continue to create potential long?term opportunities amid persistent inflation and tighter monetary policy.

NEW YORK, April 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Citi Wealth has released The Short and Long: Q2 2026 Macro Investment View, its quarterly report designed to offer global, data-driven guidance to help investors navigate increasingly complex markets with confidence and clarity.

"The first quarter saw markets digest simultaneous shocks, which increased volatility and led investors to quickly reprice risk. While the U.S. economy remains resilient, elevated inflation risks and tighter policy expectations reinforce our preference for portfolio quality. We continue to believe investors should remain anchored to fundamentals—favoring U.S. equities, staying underweight duration, and taking equity risk rather than credit risk given tight spreads. Gold remains a key portfolio diversifier and ballast, and we see durable opportunities in structural themes like the energy transition and the AI ecosystem, which are being accelerated by global events," said Kate Moore, Chief Investment Officer, Citi Wealth.

Markets entered 2026 facing multiple shocks at once. AI disruption, geopolitical conflict, and shifting policy expectations have increased volatility and driven the need for investors to re-evaluate risk levels.

While these forces unsettled markets and investors, they also reinforced the importance of focusing on resilience, quality, and diversification in portfolios.

Despite a challenging start to the year, equity markets experiencing meaningful swings, the roughly 9% peak?to?trough drawdown in the S&P 500 during 1Q26 remained within historical norms, reinforcing the importance of long-term portfolio resilience rather than reactive positioning.

The report outlines how current forces are shifting our perspective across asset classes and Citi Wealth has outlined five core convictions represent our highest confidence views on the macro backdrop, potential market opportunities, and risks in 2Q 2026:

1. Remaining anchored to fundamentals during volatility: We believe U.S. equities remain a favored core equity exposure for portfolios due to durable fundamental underpinnings.
   
   
2. Staying underweight duration amid inflationary and fiscal concerns: Front-end bond exposure appears to offer attractive income with less of the price risk of longer-term bonds if rates rise further.
   
   
3. Taking equity risk rather than credit risk: With global spreads still tight, we do not think investors are being paid enough to take excessive credit risk as the conflict may impact growth in various regions.
   
   
4. Gold remains an important piece of portfolio construction: As global entities diversify global reserve balances, gold has the potential for continued benefit.
   
   
5. Structural investment themes are becoming more actionable: The conflict in the Middle East is exacerbating slow-moving forces around supply chain realignment, the energy transition, and fiscal policy - leading to potentially durable opportunities.

ENDS

About Citi

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