Gavekal Research
September 20, 2018
Wednesday saw a soft US housing data release for August, pointing to a coming weakening in residential construction. With the Fed raising rates and 10-year treasury yields well above 3%, equity investors may sniff late-cycle decay. KX shares such concerns, but advises investors to hold their noses for a while longer.
Gavekal Dragonomics
September 20, 2018
In this chartbook, Thomas outlines the key trends in the fundamentals of China’s corporate sector. Growth in sales and profits has stayed stronger for longer, but is driven mainly by high materials prices. A rebound in capex is starting to fade. Deleveraging continues but more slowly, and may not last much longer as profits cool and debt rises.
Gavekal Research
September 20, 2018
A glance at the headlines suggests the story in Japan is still “stasis as usual”. As expected, on Wednesday the Bank of Japan reaffirmed its intention to keep interest rates low indefinitely. And later on Thursday, Shinzo Abe is all but sure to fend off a leadership challenge from within his ruling Liberal Democratic Party, setting him on course to become the country’s longest-serving prime minister.
Gavekal Dragonomics
August 23, 2018
In the past years, billions of dollars of Chinese venture capital have poured into US tech firms. This is alarming to the US Defense Department, which believes these investments could lead to a flow of critical technology back to China, eroding the American advantage in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and autonomous vehicles.
Gavekal Research
August 21, 2018
Events of the past few weeks have lowered the risk of the worst-case scenario of a trade-war-on-all-fronts that Arthur laid out earlier this summer. But although officials in both the US and China are eyeing a truce, no bilateral deal can be nailed down until the two countries’ presidents meet in November, after the US midterm elections.
Gavekal Research
August 2, 2018
The news on Wednesday that Donald Trump’s administration is considering imposing tariffs of 25%—rather than 10%—on an additional US$200bn of Chinese goods might appear to be an aggressive escalation of its trade conflict with China. But there is a high probability the proposed tariffs will never be implemented.
Gavekal Research
May 8, 2018
A decade ago the US corporate bond market was about half as big as it is today, yet bond dealers held about six times more inventory than they do today. In our latest Loser Report which focuses on assets to avoid, Louis worries that the next big financial accident could happen in this aggressively priced arena.
Gavekal Research
March 19, 2018
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.
Gavekal Research
November 15, 2017
Our new monthly Loser Report aims to identify things that investors should avoid, whether countries, sectors, themes or asset classes. In this second instalment Louis looks at the tumult affecting Saudi Arabia and assesses the ricochet effect across the Middle East and beyond.
Gavekal Research
August 23, 2018
US equities have undeniably been the place to be in the post-2008 decade. As that divergence has gone into hyper-drive in the last three months, one might have expected events roiling the Trump presidency this week to spark a correction. Yet yesterday saw US equities end broadly flat for the day. So is this a case of Teflon Don or Teflon Dow?
Gavekal Research
August 22, 2018
Regardless of political affiliation, there seems to be a consensus that yesterday was a bad day for the Trump administration. It is almost impossible to predict the chain of events that will unfold in the coming days and weeks, but the political fallout from Paul Manafort’s fraud conviction and Michael Cohen’s guilty plea will be unabashedly ugly.
Gavekal Research
August 20, 2018
With US inflation now running above the Federal Reserve’s long term target rate, and the US labor market almost as tight as at any time since the turn of the century, the question for investors is not whether inflation will continue to push higher, but how fast it will rise. The distinction is important.
Gavekal Research
July 12, 2018
The big worry about Italy is that its new populist government adopts policies that spark another eurozone crisis, and even a breakup of the European Union. This view is almost certainly wrong, for despite the government this week announcing a roll-back of labor market reforms, it will struggle to implement its radical agenda in any systematic way.
Gavekal Research
May 31, 2018
On Wednesday, Louis argued that the Italian president’s rejection of a proposed coalition finance minister was “worse than a crime, a mistake”. Anatole and Cedric are not so sure. In this paper they examine the two conditions—one political, one financial—that will signal a major buying opportunity in Italy.
Gavekal Research
May 30, 2018
On hearing that Napoleon Bonaparte had ordered the execution of a Bourbon-family duke, the arch realpolitik practitioner Charles Maurice de Talleyrand reputedly exclaimed: “This is worse than a crime. It’s a mistake”. Fast forward a few centuries and it’s not hard to imagine what Talleyrand would make of Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella.
Gavekal Dragonomics
August 16, 2018
China’s government is making a determined effort to co-opt private technology companies to help modernize its military. The pressure to support this drive, known as “military-civil fusion,” creates new political risks for tech companies and their investors: they could face more Chinese government interference and a political backlash from abroad.
Gavekal Research
July 31, 2018
Last week’s technology sector jitters have continued into the this week, with the FANG+ index now down -9% from last Wednesday’s close. Amid the general pull-back, two spectacular high-profile face-plants have really stood out: within one trading session, Facebook and Twitter both shed a fifth of their values.
Gavekal Dragonomics
July 9, 2018
Xiaomi and other Chinese smartphone makers are among the first Chinese consumer-goods companies to have gained significant market share outside of China. In this piece, Dan explains where their success has come from and assesses their prospects: Chinese smartphones may not displace Apple and Samsung, but can limit their gains in emerging markets.
Gavekal Dragonomics
August 14, 2018
China's data releases for July showed that the easing measures of the last few months have yet to have an impact on the real economy, with industrial value-added, fixed-asset investment and retail sales all slowing. Further monetary easing measures will follow.
Gavekal Dragonomics
August 9, 2018
China this year ordered central SOEs to bring down their asset-liability ratio down by 2pp by 2020. That might sound like a modest change, but it means doing much more deleveraging in the next two years than in the last two. With policymakers now starting to ease policy, this aggressive hard target for deleveraging will likely become a soft one.
Gavekal Research
August 1, 2018
The momentum for a weaker renminbi is considerable, with the US ratcheting up its trade war with China and the Chinese government moving to easier fiscal and monetary policies. But Chen Long argues that the renminbi’s downside from current levels may prove limited even though the central bank is unlikely to intervene as much as it did in 2015-16.
Gavekal Research
August 15, 2018
Among the collateral casualties of Turkey’s lira crisis have been European bank shares. Over the last week, as the lira plunged, the SX7E index—the EuroSTOXX banking index—slumped -7% on fears about banks’ exposure to Turkish borrowers. But Turkey is not the only concern weighing on European bank stocks.
Gavekal Research
August 14, 2018
Markets have an end-of-an era feeling to them as the US’s exit from easy money causes the dollar to rise, emerging markets to crater and strongmen to cry blue murder . Louis yesterday concluded that we are not yet seeing the kind of event that marks a cycle’s denouement.
Gavekal Research
August 13, 2018
The meltdown unfolding in Turkey is not a surprise (see A Turkish Vortex). However, it does raise the question of where we go from here, and whether the Turkish crisis is a symptom of a change in the investment environment.
Gavekal Research
May 18, 2018
I have tended to see oil not so much as an asset in which to build a position as a party spoiler that can wreak havoc on a portfolio. Yesterday saw the price of Brent break above US$80 a barrel for the first time since November 2014 and the pain is visible in a range of emerging markets that run big external deficits.
Gavekal Research
May 4, 2018
Having fallen more than -10% from their late January peak, emerging markets are looking shaky. Higher yields, a stronger US dollar and rising oil prices have all contributed to a tough environment.
Gavekal Research
February 20, 2018
It made headlines around the world earlier this month when the US government’s Energy Information Administration announced that US oil production had hit 10.25mn bpd in the last week of January.
Gavekal Research
August 15, 2018
Some 25mn Indians traveled abroad last year, making sub-continent tourists increasingly important for a range of major destinations. They may not yet rival Chinese travellers who are by far the biggest group of globe-trotters, but in this piece Tom argues that is only a matter of time.
Gavekal Research
August 9, 2018
Which is the best-performing stock market in Asia so far this year? If you look at the headline equity indexes, the answer is India. On Thursday morning, the Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex 30 index hit yet another record high, up 11.6% year to date in local currency terms, and up 4% in US dollar terms.
Gavekal Research
July 25, 2018
India has won kudos for adopting a modern bankruptcy law that makes it easier for big lenders to clean house on a bad debt problem that has festered since the early 2000s.
Gavekal Research
July 25, 2018
India has won kudos for adopting a modern bankruptcy law that makes it easier for big lenders to clean house on a bad debt problem that has festered since the early 2000s. In this video interview Udith discusses how the new bankruptcy law has worked in practice, and whether it will be enough to solve Indian banks' bad debt problem.
Gavekal Research
May 17, 2018
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has again been intervening in the foreign exchange market after it stepped in last month when the Hong Kong dollar fell to its weakest in 35 years. So far the HKMA has bought HKD62bn, selling almost US$8bn to defend the Hong Kong dollar’s peg to the US dollar.
Gavekal Research
April 13, 2018
At Gavekal’s seminar in Hong Kong this week, Arthur Kroeber, Rosealea Yao and Nick Andrews presented their latest views on the brewing trade war between the US and China, Chinese growth and the property market outlook, and how to capture European growth.
Gavekal Research
August 6, 2018
The UK government is on the offensive trying to sell a “Chequers” plan that would leave it with a semi-detached trading and administrative relationship with the European Union. The negotiating position, has won few plaudits at home, and over the last week got a courteous, but non-committal response on the continent.
Gavekal Research
July 30, 2018
On Friday, Anatole set out his view that a second Brexit referendum is likely, and that in all probability it will reverse the original 2016 vote.
Gavekal Research
July 27, 2018
If a country votes to make two plus two equal five, that “democratic decision” will eventually be overwritten by the rules of arithmetic. Anatole reckons this is what’s playing out in Britain, as Theresa May’s government struggles to get a parliamentary majority for any realistic Brexit plan.
Gavekal Dragonomics
August 8, 2018
China is going port-crazy in Southeast Asia. Chinese firms are now engaged in building 15 port projects in the region, at a total cost of more than US$50bn. Will these bricks in the Maritime Silk Road prove to be valuable assets, or financial black holes? In our new DeepChina report, Lance Noble and Tom Miller find the answer is: some of both.
Gavekal Research
August 7, 2018
The strong US dollar, rising oil prices and a gathering trade war have sent capital fleeing from emerging markets. Asian high-yield debt has taken a hit with the benchmark (JP Morgan) index down -3% this year, sparking worries of a self-feeding cycle that ends with a debt crisis.
Gavekal Research
July 5, 2018
Emerging markets have been hit by the combined effect of a stronger US dollar, tighter international liquidity and rising trade tensions, causing their currencies to fall more in the last few months than in the 2013 “taper tantrum”. The big fear for EMs is that the end of easy money globally creates a giant margin call.
Gavekal Research
September 4, 2018
We synthesize four years of work on asset allocation and present a model portfolio built around analysis of the cost of and return on capital; the real rate of return on equities, bonds and cash; and the ideal duration of fixed-income holdings. Today we recommend that US portfolios hold 75% in equities, 25% in cash, and shun bonds.
Gavekal Research
July 12, 2018
In this call Arthur Kroeber outlined his view on why President Donald Trump’s trade war is not a bluff, and is likely to escalate ahead of the US midterm elections in November; Andrew Batson explained the macro-level effects caused by all this uncertainty; and Chen Long discussed the market impacts in China and the country’s likely response.
Gavekal Dragonomics
June 25, 2018
In this concise chartbook, Chen Long explains where the Chinese economy stands today. The business cycle has been surprisingly strong but is likely to soften more in the second half. Trade conflict with the US is raising uncertainty just as domestic credit stress increases. Policy is adjusting, but to smooth the growth trajectory not reverse it.
Gavekal Dragonomics
September 6, 2018
While China’s government is talking tough about containing its frothy property market, the market does not appear to be listening. Housing sales are still growing, price rises are accelerating and construction activity is robust. In this piece, Rosealea explains why property has outperformed, and updates her outlook for the rest of 2018.
Gavekal Dragonomics
July 26, 2018
The long decline in China’s housing inventories—the key factor driving the recovery in construction—now seems to have ended. After falling in 2015, 2016 and 2017, housing inventories are now on pace to end 2018 slightly higher. In this piece, Rosealea explains why this change will not spell the end of the construction cycle just yet.
Gavekal Dragonomics
May 29, 2018
Chinese government policy for the property market is turning tighter, a shift that will weigh on housing sales and construction activity in the rest of 2018. But Rosealea cautions against overreacting, arguing that the downcycle in property is still likely to be a shallow one, and that policy will loosen again once market conditions weaken.
Gavekal Research
November 23, 2012
In our politically correct age the pressure to bow down before certain popularly accepted and apparently proven “truths” can be overwhelming. In the aftermath of the US elections, two such nostrums are unnecessarily vexing investors—the urgency of deficit reduction and fear of higher taxes.
Gavekal Research
July 20, 2011
In A Study of History, Toynbee explains that the role of a society’s elite is to rise to the challenges of the times, and find solutions fitting to those times, even if this involves a radical break with the past.
Gavekal Research
February 28, 2011
Perhaps the most famous economic law is the one that there is no such thing as a free lunch. By keeping US short rates at abnormally low levels beyond the financial crisis and as growth bounces back beyond the dreams of the wildest optimists, the Fed increasingly seems to be trying to ‘feed the US economy for nothing’.
Gavekal Research
June 13, 2018
After the Trump-Kim summit, North Korea's commitment to denuclearization still remains a fiction. Future negotiations will be mostly about stringing along the US administration. While Washington and Pyongyang talk, Beijing and Seoul will continue to try to normalize the existence of a nuclear-armed North Korea and cement peace.
Gavekal Dragonomics
June 7, 2018
Ominous clouds are gathering over Taiwan, as China steps up displays of military force and its campaign of international isolation. Could this escalate into a replay of the 1995-6 Taiwan Strait crisis, or something even worse? In this piece, Yanmei assesses the rising risks, but argues that military conflict is still a remote possibility.
Gavekal Dragonomics
April 26, 2018
With North Korea suddenly seeming happy to negotiate with its old adversaries, some analysts reckon the regime is buckling under US pressure. Yanmei says this is wishful thinking. Kim Jong-un probably believes he has achieved nuclear deterrence—and he is most unlikely to relinquish it. China and South Korea just want to avoid a US military strike.