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Gavekal Research
Louis Gave
Mar 26th 2018
Farewell My Lovely Bull Market
No doubt market pundits will go on discussing the trigger of last week’s sell-off in equity markets and debating its implications ad nauseam. But whatever the proximate cause of the latest risk-off, it is looking increasingly as if the uncomplicated, low volatility bull-market-in-everything that prevailed through much of last year is now no more than a pleasant memory. With markets apparently intent on retesting the lows set in early February,...
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Gavekal Research
Arthur Kroeber
Mar 23rd 2018
Trade Wars: Advantage China
In the US-China trade war, China is skillfully playing Go while the US is playing tic-tac-toe, badly. Arthur analyses the announcement of US$60bn worth of tariffs by the US on Chinese imports and finds the US flailing without a firm strategy. But behind the news, a dangerous consensus has emerged among America’s elites which holds that China’s rise comes at the US’s expense, and must be checked.
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Gavekal Research
Charles Gave, Tom Miller, Cedric Gemehl, Anatole Kaletsky
Mar 23rd 2018
London Seminar — March 2018
In our seminar in London this week Charles pondered the investment consequences of the US moving back into an inflationary period. Tom discussed Chinese politics in light of Xi Jinping’s elevation. Cedric presented on how investors can best benefit from the diversity of the European economy. Anatole explained why the long-running global bull market is likely to continue, but also where the risks are buried.
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Gavekal Research
Charles Gave
Mar 22nd 2018
A (Slightly) Different Wicksellian Analysis
In developing “Wicksellian” theory and applying it to portfolio management, readers may have noticed that Charles and Will Denyer have plowed slightly different furrows. The aim of this piece is to clarify points of agreement and highlight differences in their methodology. In so doing, Charles hopes to illuminate both approaches and help readers to navigate a subject that is fairly central to Gavekal research.
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Gavekal Research
Will Denyer
Mar 22nd 2018
Focus On Corporate Yields, Not Policy Rates
There were no big surprises at yesterday’s Federal Reserve meeting, but in offering a slightly more hawkish tone, policymakers have amped up market anxiety. I must admit to not being in this crowd, for the perhaps heretical observation that the future of this bull market may not be decided at the Fed.
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Gavekal Research
Tan Kai Xian, Will Denyer
Mar 21st 2018
Don’t Wade Into Treasuries
Leading up to today’s Federal Reserve meeting, long-dated treasuries have slipped back into their trading range. There are two reasons to think this offers a good opportunity to “buy the dip”. First, global growth has eased off as shown by our diffusion index of OECD leading indicators, which tends to lead year-on-year changes in 10-year treasury yields by about four months. Second, investors overreacted to January’s spike in US wage growth data...
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Gavekal Research
Louis Gave
Mar 20th 2018
Giving Up Value Investing For Lent
A client recently told me that he had wanted to give up “value investing” for Lent. Unfortunately, his priest pointed out that this was like forgoing boiled spinach as Lent commemorates Christ’s 40 days in the desert and requires doing without something that feels good: think of giving up Amazon, Nvidia or Tencent (at least until this week) for energy stocks, Japan and emerging market financials. Our client chose self-flagellation and stuck with...
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Gavekal Dragonomics
Yanmei Xie
Mar 20th 2018
Beyond Anti-Corruption
China’s legislature has approved the creation of a national “supervision” system, an arm of government equal to the executive, legislative and judicial branches that is charged with overseeing the vast public sector. As Yanmei explains, the new system transforms Xi Jinping’s signature anti-corruption crusade into something even more ambitious.
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Gavekal Research
Louis Gave
Mar 19th 2018
The Ogre Eating His Own Children
Our regular Loser Reports are based on the premise that good money management can be as much about “avoiding losers” as “picking winners”. This month, Louis looks at the (worrying) direction of US fiscal policy and wonders whether the next shoe to drop could be defense contractors and energy producers in the US, and even municipal bonds.
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Gavekal Research
Chen Long
Mar 19th 2018
The New Economic Team
China’s top economic team for the next five years was released this morning, and the theme seems to be “steady as she goes”, with a vote of confidence for experts in their fields. Chen Long has looked at the list, which includes a new PBOC governor, and offers his take on what this means for financial policy in the years ahead.
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Gavekal Research
Will Denyer
Mar 16th 2018
Video: Fixing The Model
Earlier this week Will issued a mea culpa report that explained why he was revising his Wicksellian asset allocation model and substantially changing his recommendations for the US market. In this video interview he explains the story behind this revision.
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Gavekal Research
Tan Kai Xian
Mar 16th 2018
The Corporate Bond Play
With high-yield and investment grade spreads having shrunk to historically low levels, US corporate bonds are hardly cheap. Yet the combination of favorable tax policy and fiscal incontinence recommends them to any US bond portfolio. As the US economy is likely in the dog days of this cycle, the tricky question is what duration investors should focus on.
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Gavekal Research
Tom Miller
Mar 15th 2018
Why Does India Have No Clothes?
Given its size and comparative advantages, India should have more than a hundred million people working in the garment industry. Bad policies and missed opportunities means it has about half that number. The government has big plans to fix this situation and Tom recently spent time meeting with textile entrepreneurs in and around Delhi to see if this is changing. This is his report card.
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Gavekal Dragonomics
Andrew Batson, Rosealea Yao
Mar 15th 2018
Cold Weather, Hot Data
China’s first data release of 2018 delivered a couple of surprises, with a big jump in industrial value-added and a pickup in real-estate investment. But neither amounts to a convincing signal that the economy is actually re-accelerating. The most likely outcome is still a moderate growth slowdown driven by a shallow downcycle in property.
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Gavekal Research
Charles Gave
Mar 15th 2018
Legitimacy Versus Legality
France’s top central banker yesterday called for the nations of the eurozone to cease bickering over ideological questions, and instead get things done. National leaders should stop wasting time on “theoretical debates” that pitted “risk reduction against risk sharing”, said Francois Villeroy de Galhau. They should, instead, tackle real problems like the half-built capital markets union. It was the authentic voice of the European technocracy and...
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Gavekal Research
Nick Andrews
Mar 14th 2018
A Fork In The Road For European Equities
In the first half of last year making money in European stocks was easy as benchmarks steamed higher on hopes that less political risk would allow an economic surge into sunlit uplands. It has not exactly worked out that way. Such has been the loss of momentum that both the MSCI EMU and broader MSCI Europe indexes have plunged below their 200-day moving averages (just as worrying for tea leaf readers, the 50-day moving average for the narrower...
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Gavekal Research
Udith Sikand
Mar 14th 2018
Stuck In The Middle-Income Trap
Three years ago Malaysian prime minister Najib Tun Razak faced the kind of graft allegations that would ultimately defenestrate heads of government in Brazil and South Africa. His political fortunes were further imperiled by Malaysia’s highly trade-dependent economy staggering trough the 2014-15 commodity bust. Yet, remarkably, Najib survived and now seems set to be reelected at an upcoming general election. His Houdini-like escape is bad for...
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Gavekal Dragonomics
Yanmei Xie
Mar 14th 2018
A New Organization Chart
China yesterday unveiled a sweeping plan to reorganize its central government. In this piece, Yanmei explains how Xi is streamlining administration and empowering new agencies to carry out his distinctive domestic-policy priorities of environmental protection, risk control, and poverty alleviation, as well as his assertive foreign policy.
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Gavekal Research
Tom Holland
Mar 13th 2018
The Curious Case Of The HK Dollar
One of the longest awaited adjustments in financial markets may finally be about to happen. Last year, betting that Hong Kong dollar interest rates would rise to converge with US dollar rates was reckoned to be among the surest trades in world markets. Yet the convergence never happened. Over the last 12 months, one-month Hong Kong dollar Hibor has consistently traded at a discount to one-month US dollar Libor of more than 30bp. And since the...
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Gavekal Research
Will Denyer
Mar 13th 2018
Turning 90% Bullish
Over the last three years, Will has developed his own version of Charles's Wicksellian framework to analyze the US economic cycle. His approach has been to gauge the difference between the private sector’s return on invested capital and its cost. In this candid report, he explains why he is overhauling his model and how this has substantially changed his recommendations.
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