The 2013 All-America Research Team: Economics, No. 2: Nancy Lazar

In May, Nancy Lazar left ISI Group, the firm she and Ed Hyman launched in 1991, to join three other top-ranked analysts in founding Cornerstone Macro. Despite the move, she secures second place for a fifth year in a row and remains a buy-side darling. Lazar “is more globally focused than her competitors,” notes one portfolio manager. “She follows trends in Japan and Australia, and she had a special piece on India recently.” Lazar has been highlighting a trend among U.S. businesses toward increasing capital expenditures. “Domestic spending will accelerate by roughly 10 percent year over year going into 2014 while weakening in other parts of the world,” she says. Driving the stronger U.S. outlays are robust corporate profit growth and access to capital, as well as what Lazar sees as a renaissance in the nation’s energy and manufacturing sectors. By the same token, she expects countries dependent on trade with China, such as Australia, to slow their spending as exports to China weaken. “Investors should overweight U.S. domestic industrials relative to multinational industrials,” Lazar concludes. — Paul Sweeney