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The Nvidia Blast Zone

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The Nvidia Blast Zone

Laila Khawaja, Arthur Kroeber
12 Nov 2026
The Nvidia scandal looks sure to topple CEO Jensen Huang and put the company on a very rocky course for a few months. The headlines have focused on the romantic and spy stories, but the crucial issues lie elsewhere. The big risk for Huang and Nvidia is that they might be found guilty of breaking US export control rules by colluding in the illegal transshipment of AI chips from Singapore to China. The Chinese AI industry, which already has a tough time getting enough advanced chips, could soon find it even tougher, as there is a good chance that the US Congress will soon act to tighten up export controls.
Equity Risk-Off: What Next?

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Equity Risk-Off: What Next?

Didier Darcet
12 Nov 2026
Gavekal-IS’s global equity-allocation model has flashed a risk-off signal, calling for equity exposure to be cut to 20% or less as the Middle East conflict weighs on growth and inflation. History offers little certainty about what comes next: in past risk-off episodes, equities have been almost as likely to rise as fall, but the average loss when markets declined was far greater than the average gain when they rose.

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Two Huangs Don’t Make A Right

Louis-Vincent Gave
12 Nov 2026
The latest incident to stir the US-China relationship is a (supposed) honey pot. Which, by sheer coincidence, is occurring at precisely the time all political power has suddenly slipped out of President Trump’s hands. Now as honeypots come, this is a hard one to get one’s head around. Louis considers the possibilities and the likely political implications of the affair.

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Video: Illusions Of Trade Decoupling

Thomas Gatley
12 Nov 2026
Headline US-China trade figures have declined substantially in recent years as a result of multiple trade wars. But in this video interview, Thomas explains that the trade decoupling is not what it seems: exporters have devised strategies to evade the tariffs, meaning actual US-China trade is stronger than it appears—a finding with implications for China’s other trade disputes.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Enforcing The Social Safety Net
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Ernan Cui
For Chinese Equities, The Good News Is In Short Supply
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Thomas Gatley
Macro Update: Running On Exports
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Wei He, Dragonomics Team
Trying To Save The Slow Bull Market
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Thomas Gatley, Xiaoxi Zhang
Anti-Corruption After The Plenum
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Andrew Batson

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The AI Supply Chain Post Elections
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Tan Kai Xian, Will Denyer
Indonesia’s Annus Horribilis
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Tom Miller, Udith Sikand
After Trump’s Rout, Will Global Trade Keep Defying Politics?
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Tom Miller
Christmas Comes Early For The US Consumer
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Tan Kai Xian
Markets Anticipate End Of Iran War
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Anatole Kaletsky

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The Nvidia Blast Zone
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Laila Khawaja, Arthur Kroeber
Permitting Reform’s Big Chance
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AJ Cortese
China’s AI Race, US’s AIDC Debate
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Laila Khawaja, Arthur Kroeber
How Wuxi AppTec Stayed Sanction-Proof
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Tom Hancock
Who Is Consuming Chinese Tokens?
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Laila Khawaja

Gavekal-IS

A New Misery Index
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Didier Darcet
Complexity Versus Hierarchy
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Didier Darcet
The Big Neutral
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Didier Darcet
Why Aren’t Stocks Plunging?
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Didier Darcet
Amathia
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Didier Darcet

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One Thing After Another

Louis-Vincent Gave
29 Oct 2026
From Brazil’s election shock and the Anthropic IPO to shifting Middle Eastern alliances and the prospect of peace in Ukraine, a hectic week of developments has thrown up fresh risks and opportunities for investors. Louis examines eight major events and their market implications, including the potential opening of Canada’s energy sector, China’s offshore tax crackdown and India’s efforts to attract foreign capital.

Checking The Boxes

Our short take on the latest news

Fact
Surprise
Takeaway

Japan's PPI rose 7.1% YoY in Oct, versus 6.8% in Sep

Producer inflation warmer than expected 6.5%

Driven by energy prices; subsidies limiting pass-through to consumer inflation for now

Italian industrial production rose 1.2% MoM in Sep, versus -1.2% in Aug

Stronger than expected 0.7%; YoY, production fell -0.1% in Sep, versus 0.2% in Aug

Reversal of August's drop, but momentum remains subdued, lagging eurozone recovery

Swedish household consumption rose 1.2% MoM in Oct, versus 0.5% in Sep

NA; YoY, household consumption rose 3.3% in Oct, versus 2.7% in Sep

Recovery remains on track, Riksbank likely to continue with rate hikes

UK RICS house price balance fell to -36% in Oct, from -34% in Sep

Below expected -34%

Rising rate environment renews downward pressures on UK housing market

Test Your Knowledge
Taiwan has prohibited government officials from attending ceremonies in Beijing today to mark which event?
  1. The 115th anniversary of the 1911 Xinhai revolution that toppled the Qing dynasty
  2. The 160th anniversary of the birth of revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen
  3. The 360th anniversary of Chinese general Koxinga’s victory over the Dutch at Fort Zeelandia in Taiwan
  4. The 2,500th anniversary of the birth of Confucius
Post Your Answer

Chart of the Week

Week 46, 2026
Global goods trade volumes are growing at the fastest pace in 15 years (aside from the Covid rebound), defying tariffs and the Iran war. AI spending has accelerated the rebound, contributing close to half of all trade growth in 1H26. Two major risks threaten this growth: first, if AI capex dries up, global trade would lose a powerful engine, leaving East Asian exporters particularly vulnerable. Second, the tolerance for absorbing more Chinese exports is diminishing. Protectionism would disrupt production and squeeze margins, compounding any slowdown.
Open Chart

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Essential Reading: A Book For Every Week Of The Year

Gavekal is often asked for a recommended reading list. So, here it is: a book a week that everyone interested in the world of macro investing—whether hoary veteran or eager apprentice—can benefit from reading.

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Webinar: Divergence And Dynamism In China's Economy

Andrew Batson, Christopher Beddor, Thomas Gatley, Wei He
6 Nov 2026
More striking than China's ability to, yet again, deliver GDP growth in line with government targets is the increasingly wide divergence between the flourishing and languishing parts of the economy. Electric-vehicle exports are surging as domestic sales decline; technology investment races ahead while households stay cautious. How much dynamism underlies these disparate pictures? How will policy manage the risks? Our team of analysts discussed the key questions around China's outlook.

The Iran War And Fallout

One Thing After Another
From Brazil’s election shock and the Anthropic IPO to shifting Middle Eastern alliances and the prospect of peace in Ukraine, a hectic week of developments has thrown up fresh risks and opportunities for investors. Louis examines eight major events and their market implications, including the potential opening of Canada’s energy sector, China’s offshore tax crackdown and India’s efforts to attract foreign capital.
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The Non-Threatening Energy Crisis
This weekend’s media made for sobering reading. Between bombs flying in the Middle East, more refineries blowing up in Russia and US senators calling for petroleum export bans, it felt like enough negative news flow to send hearts racing. But most major global equity markets remain close to all-time highs. Louis examines the possible reasons for this counterintuitive configuration.
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No Good Outcomes For Energy Inflation
It is Wednesday. Warring parties in the Middle East are again exchanging fire, and energy prices are spiking. For investors, it may be tempting to shrug off the latest flare-up, but disregarding the latest escalation in the Persian Gulf would be rash. Developments in the region will matter greatly for the trajectory of inflation over the coming months, and therefore for financial markets.
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The Record High Diesel Prices
Because of soaring crack spreads, diesel prices everywhere around the world are making new all-time highs, at least in nominal terms. In real terms, the diesel price is still lower than the 2022 spike that followed the start of the Ukraine war. But Louis points out that with a real term diesel price above US$5/gallon, few good things happen.
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US economy & markets

The AI Supply Chain Post Elections
The US midterm elections rewarded political opponents of data center construction, raising questions about whether the AI investment boom can survive. While Kai Xian and Will's base case is that companies will adapt and the boom will continue, a more severe slowdown would have far-reaching consequences for semiconductor stocks, frontier AI labs and data center operators.
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Christmas Comes Early For The US Consumer
Despite the recent convulsions in the US equity market, things are looking up for the ordinary US consumer. The labor market has tightened. And the Democratic Party’s gains in last Tuesday’s midterm elections point to cheaper pump prices for gasoline and diesel, as well as a less severe stance on immigration. There remain sizable risks, but the headwinds that have held back a large portion of the US consumer market now appear to be fading.
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A Blue Congress, Mr. Veto And A Treasury Twist
Despite the Democratic Party’s victory in Tuesday’s US midterm elections, the Republicans will still have the opportunity to push through legislation in the lame duck session between now and January, and after that Donald Trump will retain his presidential veto over new legislation. Will Denyer argues that despite the probability of adverse regulatory action at the state and local level, Tuesday’s election result may not prove as damaging as feared for the US AI capex boom, or for US assets more broadly.
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The Case For More Mega-Cap Outperformance
October was a tough month for the mega-cap tech stocks that have driven US market outperformance over the last 10 years. Since early October, Nvidia, Meta and Alphabet stocks have fallen as investors have grown nervous about how the AI capex boom is being financed and jittery about the returns big tech companies will earn on the trillions they have poured in so far. So, is the era of mega-cap outperformance coming to its end? There are solid reasons to think not.
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China chartbook

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Macro Update: Running On Exports

Wei He, Dragonomics Team
3 Nov 2026
China’s GDP growth improved in Q3, and it is now almost certain that full-year growth will land within the targeted range. But that growth is highly uneven and heavily reliant on exports, while domestic consumption remains weak by almost any measure. Policymakers may well need to introduce more policy support in order to meet their growth goal next year. In our latest quarterly chartbook, Wei and the Dragonomics team examine the state of China’s economy and the outlook going into 2027.

India chartbook

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India Corporate Update: Waiting For Capex

Rohan Daswani, Udith Sikand
28 Aug 2026
India remains one of the world’s strongest growth stories, supported by resilient domestic demand, improving corporate balance sheets and strong credit growth. Yet as the boost from public infrastructure investment fades, the big question is whether these strengths can finally translate into a sustained revival in private investment. Rohan and Udith assess the prospects for that transition and the implication for Indian equities, where performance is increasingly diverging across sectors.

Latest video

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Video: Illusions Of Trade Decoupling

Thomas Gatley
12 Nov 2026
Headline US-China trade figures have declined substantially in recent years as a result of multiple trade wars. But in this video interview, Thomas explains that the trade decoupling is not what it seems: exporters have devised strategies to evade the tariffs, meaning actual US-China trade is stronger than it appears—a finding with implications for China’s other trade disputes.

Strategy Chartbook

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Quarterly Strategy Review: 3Q26

Louis-Vincent Gave
5 Oct 2026
After the third quarter saw a brutal sell-off in major government bond markets, with yields breaking out to a generational high, Louis takes stock. In this Quarterly Strategy Review, he examines the forces driving the sell-off and asks the key questions facing investors everywhere.

Emerging markets

EMs Are The New DMs
Emerging-market bonds have dramatically outperformed their developed-market peers since 2020, helped by greater policy credibility, deeper domestic financial markets and reduced reliance on foreign investors. With DM bond yields now hitting multi-year highs, policymakers may increasingly look to the EM playbook, including softer forms of financial repression, to stabilize their markets, says Udith. From the US to Japan, signs of this shift are already emerging, suggesting that EMs may have a thing or two to teach DMs.
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Video: Are EMs Back?
It’s been a good quarter for the broad emerging markets complex. The MSCI EM index has returned almost 7% in US dollar terms, while US equities are down by some -3.5%. So should investors jump on the EM train? Udith points out that there is a wide divergence in the performance of individual emerging markets, and the threat of tariffs hangs heavy over EM corporate earnings. Investors need to be selective.
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Video: Southeast Asia Under Trump 2.0
Global investors are rightly focused on the potential losers from the United States pursuing an aggressively protectionist trade policy agenda, but there may be winners as well. Tom went in search of such economies last week. Today he explains how such “swing states” are likely to perform in an intensified period of great power rivalry between the US and China.
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China Turbocharges EM Investment
As the rich world pulls up the protectionist drawbridge, investors risk missing a bigger story in emerging markets. Here, Chinese outbound investment is rebounding after the fallow Covid years, and is driving a new wave of industrialization that promises to lower the cost of the green-energy transition.
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Europe's economy

In UK Budget, No News Is Good News
When the British government presents a budget which turns out to be a total non-event, it should be seen as a cause for celebration and a bullish event for UK financial markets. This is what happened this week. Anatole argues that it is too early to say whether Burnham’s economic policies will make sense, but a properly strategic reassessment of economic policy, welfare reform, fiscal plans and European relations will happen.
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The French Effect On ECB Policy
The market expects the European Central Bank’s bigwigs to leave their policy rate unchanged when they sit down in Frankfurt on Wednesday for their two-day meeting. On one front, inflation is above-target and accelerating. On the other, sovereign stresses are mounting, especially in France. This confronts policymakers with a question: with the French bond market under pressure, can they continue to raise interest rates to combat inflation?
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Pricing Europe’s Winter Demand For Natural Gas
So far, the Iran war energy shock has affected European consumers almost entirely through the channel of higher oil-product prices. But as the European Union heads into winter with historically low levels of natural gas in storage, the necessity of paying up to secure imports of liquefied natural gas over the coming months is likely to push gas and electricity prices higher for Europe’s consumers. In this study, Cedric examines different scenarios for Europe’s winter gas demand to gauge how severe the shock could get.
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What Would It Take For Another Euro Crisis?
The widening of French sovereign bond spreads has revived fears about another euro crisis, but today's eurozone is far better equipped to contain financial contagion than it was in 2012. The ECB's expanded financial backstops, greater European integration and the moderation of Euroskeptic parties all help explain why markets are treating France's difficulties as a national credit problem rather than a threat to the monetary union, says Cedric.
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Equities

Where The US Is (Still) Exceptional
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Profit Maxing And Social Anti-Fragility
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The (Better) Case For European Banks
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Should Equity Investors Be Reassured By Record Corporate Profits?
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Important Recent Developments
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A Buy Recommendation
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Fixed income

How Wide Can French Spreads Get?
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The Biggest Hot Potato In History
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Video: The Challenge For Fixed Income Investors
Are US Long Bonds A Buy? (Part III)
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Video: The Bond Market’s Big Question
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Video: Breakdown Or Buying Opportunity For US Bonds?
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From the archives: oldies but goodies

Deficit Deniers Of The World Unite
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Deficit Deniers Of The World Unite

Anatole Kaletsky
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. I believe that both of these obsessions will soon be forgotten.
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Are We Entering into Revolutionary Times?
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Are We Entering into Revolutionary Times?

Louis-Vincent Gave
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. But the modus operandi for most leaders is to try and maintain the status quo. But if the problems are large enough, this does not work, and the same challenges reappear until either a solution is found, the elite is replaced by a new elite, or the country, system or civilization disappears.
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The High Cost Of Free Money
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The High Cost Of Free Money

Charles Gave
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’. This is worrying, for extended periods of cheap money typically come back with a hefty price tag.
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