President Donald Trump’s indefinite extension to the U.S.-Iran ceasefire dominated market chatter on Wednesday, with asset prices reflecting a mixed picture.
European and Asian stocks were in mixed territory, as futures markets pointed to major U.S. indices opening slightly higher.
Here are four investment strategies we heard out of CNBC’s London studios on Wednesday to help navigate the noise.
Real assets
Grace Peters, co-head of global investment strategy at J.P. Morgan Private Bank, is advising clients not to over-index to one-off events and not to underestimate what’s going on beneath the surface, as large structural themes play out.
“When you think about enduring themes that probably have an eight-to-10-year runway; security… whether that’s energy supply chain [or] physical security and defense, cyber and more modern warfare as well, these are enduring themes that lead you to sectors like industrials, minerals, mining companies and… real assets.
“[Real assets are] a really good complement to portfolios when you think about the overweight to the US, the overweights to technology that exist. Still, AI is a theme that we have very strong conviction in. But we do need diversification in this world of greater geopolitical risk.”
AI hardware
Peters also highlighted the opportunities presented by the AI build-out within infrastructure and energy.
“We think you’re in the infrastructure build-out phase at the moment, which means that we prefer semis and hardware over the software stocks…. generally, I think the thesis around software and whether AI is going to eat itself is going to be harder to disprove in the short term.
“So we tend to follow…the physical capex. Infrastructure and energy should not be overlooked.”
Appealing U.K. valuations
The FTSE 100 is up over 5% so far this year, with the U.K. blue chip index’s international-focused companies providing some resilience amid the war in Iran.
Sue Noffke, head of U.K. equities at Schroders, argued that London-listed companies are attractively valued relative to global peers.
“Since 2021, the U.K. market has been on a bit of a re-rating. It’s been mainly those larger companies, and we’ve seen banks, then energy, commodities, aerospace and defense have all participated in that. There’s been a rolling kind of sectoral re-rate [within] pharmaceuticals, as well, from the middle of last year.”
“The different sectoral makeup, together with low valuations, has really powered some more interest. So yes, valuations are still pretty appealing. They’re very appealing further down the size spectrum, and that’s because of questions around policy and politics that are weighing.”
Emerging markets play
Latin American stocks outperformed U.S. peers in 2025, and the region’s equity indices have continued to power ahead this year, as the U.S.-Iran war has sent a fresh wave of volatility through international markets.
Luis Costa, global head of EM strategy at Citi, argued Latin America is better insulated from higher energy prices, with many countries in the region being a net exporter of oil.
“Generally speaking, not only equities, but … from the fixed income standpoint, that seems to be … a quite interesting stance.”
Costa also said the buildout of artificial intelligence will boost several emerging market economies.
“They are important parts of the AI supply chain. So, it’s the case of Taiwan, it’s the case of Korea, and that’s why the price action in the KOSPI is not surprising to us at all. So, I do think that this is also an interesting pocket of wealth there.”
