When noted investors Margie Patel and Mark Yusko sat down to discuss their outlook for the U.S. and global markets at the annual Financial Advisor Retirement Symposium held this week in Las Vegas, the two agreed to disagree. Actually, they just disagreed.

Patel, managing director and senior portfolio manager with Wells Capital Management’s Fundamental Equity Group, believes the commodities boom is over, the emerging markets story is played out and the U.S. will be the best market to invest in for the foreseeable future.

Yusko, CEO and chief investment officer at Morgan Creek Capital Management, holds that certain commodities (oil and agriculture, for example) will continue to be a bonanza, that emerging markets are where the action will be and that the U.S. will be a hard place to make money going forward.

It all made for a lively discussion at the conference, which was attended by more than 500 people. Below is a summary of their main points:

U.S. Is Best

Patel said she strongly believes the commodities bull market is done, and that spells trouble for emerging markets. “The emerging markets had a decade of strong growth, but what caused that was a boom in commodities prices tied to China’s growth,” she said, adding that China’s decelerating economy has drained the fuel from the commodities engine.

“By looking back we can see that what we thought was fundamental change [in emerging markets] was really more about China becoming more industrialized and causing a commodities boom,” Patel said. “That’s why I think we’ll see commodities prices decline, and why I think inflation won’t be an issue for many years. That’ll be a boon to U.S. companies and consumers.”

A strong U.S. corporate sector is another reason why Patel favors the U.S. economy.

“One of the reasons why I think growth and the equity markets will be very good [in the U.S.] is because I think we’ll see profit margins maintained at current high levels,” she said. “These margins derived from cost cutting and technical innovation, along with outsourcing of low-valuation fixed costs.”

And she believes the shale gas and oil boom will provide a fundamental, long-term boost to the U.S. economy by lowering the cost of doing business and lowering costs for consumers.

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