Greg Davis, Vanguard’s Chief Investment Officer, believes the global economy is facing a challenging year, write Rachel Evans and Annie Massa for Bloomberg.

During his speech earlier this year at the annual Inside ETFs conference in Hollywood, Davis said that the markets have a tough fight ahead. Even if they ride out the year, the odds of recession have grown to around 35 percent for 2019.

To illustrate his point, he likened the situation to the movies about Philadelphia’s favorite fictional hero, boxer Rocky Balboa.

“His down-but-not-out attitude truly aligns with our U.S. and global economic outlook,” Davis said.

However, the Malvern-based firm, with $5 trillion in assets under management, is not expecting anything as dramatic as a boxing match. Davis pointed out that asset managers had a brutal 2018 with spiked volatility and tumbling stocks at the end of the year.

He then added that there are several drivers for price swings this year. This includes the Federal Reserve reaching “an inflection point” on whether it will continue to raise rates or pause. He also said that higher valuations in credit markets, as well as the projected global growth slowdown, could fuel market uncertainty.

Read more about Vanguard CIO Greg Davis’s view of the global economy at Bloomberg here.

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