Personal view: Where to find value in US equities

David Marchant believes that if you look to companies that don't depend too much on the economic cycle, there are still gains to be made in the US markets. Here are three of his favourite stocks.

Each week, a professional investor tells MoneyWeek where he'd put his money now. This week: David Marchant, head of global equities at Insight Investment.

Recently, equity markets have staged something of a rally as credit market concerns eased slightly following the Federal Reserve's rapid policy response to the collapse of Bear Stearns. Yet there are still considerable risks as the impact of the credit crunch on the real economy becomes clearer. Many commentators are now predicting a recession for the US economy and in parts of Europe the housing market looks set to suffer the same fate as America. So my preference is for companies where the outlook for sales and profits is not overly dependent upon the economic cycle. All three of my recommendations are US-listed companies, as we are increasingly being drawn to that market in our search for good value investments. That's because, in recent years, many US-listed firms have been falling in p/e ratio terms, as profits have risen faster than share prices. The depreciation of the dollar has also made American equities cheaper for non-US investors and provided a huge competitive boost to American exporters.

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