Today in the podcast, the results of our April 2026 global equity analyst survey. Several days after the ceasefire was announced, we asked our analysts across the globe to answer several questions about their outlook, including thoughts on the war.

The big things you need to know: First, our analysts were generally constructive aside from the war. Second, our survey results reiterate the idea that the US is seen as a safety trade due to greater war resiliency, and that Europe does not necessarily present as a better alternative despite the potential for the US to lag if/when war fog clears. Third, we review the most interesting sector tidbits from the survey.

If you’d like to hear more, here’s another five minutes.

Starting with Takeaway #1: Our analysts were generally constructive aside from the war.

• Looking across all sectors and regions, our analysts are constructive on performance going forward if the Iran war continues to de-escalate, and also have constructive views on valuations, demand and the domestic policy backdrop. But they are pessimistic on performance in a prolonged war scenario and generally see negative impacts from the conflict.

• We think the survey does a good job of illustrating the predicament that the equity market finds itself in today. Putting aside the war, the backdrop for equities has seemed solid. But ongoing concerns about the war’s duration, along with the damage that has already been incurred and the impacts that have not yet been felt continue to weigh on investor sentiment and have created fog in the outlook.

Moving on to Takeaway #2: our survey results reiterate the idea (from a bottom-up perspective) that the US is seen as a safety trade due to greater war resiliency, and that Europe does not necessarily present as a better alternative despite the potential for the US to lag if/when war fog clears.

• When we summarize the results by RBC coverage region, we find that performance outlooks tilt constructive across all regions in an Iran de-escalation scenario, with the most positive tilt in Australia and the least constructive tilt for the US.

• In a prolonged Iran war scenario, however, performance outlooks tilted negative for all regions – least negative in the US and Australia and most negative in Europe.

• Valuation views have a positive tilt in all geographies ex Europe where they are closer to neutral.

• Demand assessments have positive tilts across geographies ex Europe, with the most constructive tilt for Australia.

• Effects from the Iran war are seen as a challenge for all of our coverage regions, most notably Europe and Australia, but in the US to the least extent.

Wrapping up with Takeaway #3: sector tidbits.

• The regional takeaways were admittedly most interesting to us. But since this is a sector exercise, we think it’s worth spending a moment on what stands out at that level.

• At the global sector level, performance outlooks tilt constructive for most sectors (ex Energy) in an Iran de-escalation scenario, with the most positive tilts in Consumer Discretionary and Tech. Classic defensive sectors (Staples, Health Care, Utilities) have positive tilts in this scenario but to a lesser degree than other sectors.

• By contrast, performance outlooks in a prolonged war scenario are only constructive for Energy at the global sector level and came in most negative for Consumer Discretionary and Industrials.

• Similarly, views on war impacts tilted positive for Energy and negative for other sectors, particularly Consumer Staples and Discretionary.

• We found as we were reviewing the results that we were most curious about our analysts’ views on valuation. When we look at valuation views by region, Financials stands out most positively in the US, Industrials stands out most positively in Europe, and Tech stands out most positively in Canada and Australia.

That’s all for now. Thanks for listening. And be sure to reach out to your RBC representative with any questions.