July 23 (Reuters) – U.S. equity holdings have surpassed real estate as a share of net financial wealth for the first time since World War Two, Goldman Sachs said, underscoring how stocks have become a dominant driver of household wealth and consumer spending.”Equity gains have been the dominant driver of household wealth accumulation and the main contributor to a positive wealth effect on consumer spending,” the brokerage said in a note on Thursday.
Here are some details:
• Equity allocations among U.S. and Australasian households are approaching 50% of financial assets, surpassing the levels seen during the dot-com era, Goldman noted.
• Households in the U.S., Australia and Sweden have the highest exposure to equities, while those in Europe and Japan remain comparatively under-invested in stocks and hold a larger share of their wealth in cash, the bank said.
• Strong stock-market gains since the global financial crisis, particularly over the past three to four years, have increased equities’ share of global financial assets and investor portfolios, with technology stocks accounting for a growing portion of those holdings, Goldman said.
• Regulatory changes in Europe, including reforms affecting Dutch and German pension systems, could encourage pension funds and insurance companies to increase their allocations to equities over time, the bank said.
• Goldman also warned that higher exposure to equities leaves households more vulnerable to a sharp market correction, particularly when valuations are elevated and macroeconomic uncertainty is running high.
(Reporting by Joel Jose in Bengaluru; Editing by Amanda Cooper and Arun Koyyur)