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After The SCOTUS Tariff Ruling

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After The SCOTUS Tariff Ruling

Will Denyer
23 Feb 2026
The shift in the tariff landscape following the US Supreme Court’s ruling on Friday that all tariffs imposed by Donald Trump under IEEPA—the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act—are illegal is good news for equity investors. But it is not great news, writes Will Denyer.
Truce, Détente, Or Something More?

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Truce, Détente, Or Something More?

Arthur Kroeber
23 Feb 2026
Last Friday’s tariff storm is unlikely to mean much for the course of US-China negotiations: many tariffs remain in place, and some that were eliminated could be restored under other legal authorities. Arthur argues that with top leader Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump now set to meet starting in late March, the question is whether the summitry will simply sustain the truce that the leaders hammered out last October, or lead to something much bigger.

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Geoeconomic Monitor: The Iran Outcome

Tom Holland, Tom Miller, Yanmei Xie
20 Feb 2026
Tom Holland looks at the momentum that is building for an attack on Iran, considers what the strategic objectives of a new campaign would be, and examines the probable fallout for the global energy markets. Tom Miller turns his lens on the US administration’s efforts to create a trade bloc for critical minerals and assesses their chances of success. Yanmei Xie explores how German industry is conflicted over trade and investment relations with China.

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Video: Material Realities In China’s Rebalancing

Thomas Gatley
20 Feb 2026
In five years, China has greatly reduced its reliance on property and supporting industries as a driver of economic activity. While the building binge continues to cast a pall over the wider economy, the Chinese stock market has the “old economy” property sector in the rear-view mirror and is fully pricing in “new economy” industries built around advanced manufacturing and the energy transition.

Checking The Boxes

Our short take on the latest news

Fact
Surprise
Takeaway

US GDP rose 1.4% QoQ annualized in 4Q25, versus 4.4% in 3Q

Weaker than expected 2.8%

Govt. shutdown exaggerated slowdown; underlying trend of 2-2.5% growth remains intact

US S&P Global manufacturing PMI fell to 51.2 in Feb, from 52.4 in Jan

Below expected 52.4; services PMI fell to 52.3 in Feb, from 52.7 in Jan

Orders and jobs components signal further weakness ahead

US new home sales fell -1.7% MoM to 745k in Dec 2025, from 758k in Nov

Sales higher than expected 730k

High inventories and elevated mortgage rates will continue to weigh on house prices 

Eurozone HCOB manufacturing PMI rose to 50.8 in Feb, from 49.5 in Jan

Above expected 50; services PMI rose to 51.8 in Feb, from 51.6 in Jan

Weak external demand offset by strengthening domestic demand with ongoing cyclical recovery

Test Your Knowledge
In 2025, what share of US electricity was generated by renewable energy sources?
  1. 17%
  2. 24%
  3. 41%
Post Your Answer

Chart of the Week

Week 8, 2026
While he cannot singlehandedly alter the Fed’s monetary policy framework, Kevin Warsh’s nomination does raise the likelihood that the Fed will follow his preferred course. This suggests that there could be more stimulus on the short end of the curve than the long end when crisis hits. As a result, this might have contributed to the speculative and long duration growth assets such as cryptocurrencies, software and private credit stocks selling off the past two weeks, while the value stocks such as energy, industrials and consumer staples have rallied.
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: India Shuffles The Deck

Udith Sikand, Tom Miller
13 Feb 2026
India’s economy looks in decent shape, with growth accelerating past 7% and signs of private investment picking up. Now that a trade deal has finally been agreed with the United States, external risks have also diminished. But there is still plenty of uncertainty both over the details of the trade deal and over India’s geostrategic position, as it cuts Russian oil imports, diversifies trade away from the US and reengages with China. Udith Sikand and Tom Miller assess the recent flurry of news from India and what it means for investors.

Tariff Troubles

After The SCOTUS Tariff Ruling
The shift in the tariff landscape following the US Supreme Court’s ruling on Friday that all tariffs imposed by Donald Trump under IEEPA—the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act—are illegal is good news for equity investors. But it is not great news, writes Will Denyer.
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The EM Triple Whammy On Full Display
It would be tempting to ascribe the simultaneous US dollar, bond, and equity market sell-off to the self-owned “crisis” around Greenland and to Trump’s threat to use tariffs against (former?) friends to force a change of sovereignty. Still, the current sell-off in bonds, and equities, may also be driven by other important factors, says Louis.
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How Europe Will Respond To Trump’s Greenland Tariffs
On Saturday, US president Donald Trump threatened new tariffs on eight European countries over their opposition to his plans to annex Greenland. Since then, attention has shifted to how Europe might respond. Cedric argues that conciliation and deescalation remains Europe’s first response to Trump’s new tariff threat, but there is now a greater chance that the EU retaliates in earnest if that strategy fails.
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Video: Supreme Court v. Trump’s Trade Policy
Initial questioning by US Supreme Court justices in a landmark trade policy case suggests that a majority believe the Trump administration unlawfully invoked emergency powers to impose broad tariffs on importers. In this interview, Will outlines the key issues at stake and considers Trump’s possible next steps if the government loses.
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US economy & markets

After The SCOTUS Tariff Ruling
The shift in the tariff landscape following the US Supreme Court’s ruling on Friday that all tariffs imposed by Donald Trump under IEEPA—the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act—are illegal is good news for equity investors. But it is not great news, writes Will Denyer.
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Rate Cuts And Affordability
President Donald Trump, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and newly nominated Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh seem convinced that interest rate cuts will ease US affordability. The phrase is politically resonant but economically ambiguous. Kai Xian sonsiders how rate cuts have affected US households on three fronts.
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The Fed’s Balance Sheet And The Treasury’s Gold
Kevin Warsh has repeatedly argued that the Federal Reserve’s assets should be “reduced in size and scope” to limit its influence on capital allocation, wealth distribution and fiscal policy. The question, Will asks, is how this might be done without the Fed sparking a liquidity crisis. In this piece, he considers four potential approaches which are likely under consideration at this very moment.
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Market Got Warsh-ed
Notwithstanding the ongoing stabilization in markets, two asset groupings saw sharp falls over the past week, testing positioning and risk tolerance, while more defensively positioned and cyclically supported sectors proved relatively resilient. This divergence, better viewed as a rotation than a broad risk-off event, is instructive. Understanding the drivers of this price action should help clarify what comes next in this phase of the market cycle.
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China chartbook

Gavekal Dragonomics

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Macro Update: Preparing For Normalization

Wei He, Dragonomics Team
4 Feb 2026
China’s policymakers are satisfied with economic performance in 2025, and appear confident that 2026 will be a more ordinary year that allows for a more normal policy stance. But domestic demand remains lackluster, and it’s unclear whether recent positive momentum in some areas can be sustained. In their latest quarterly chartbook, Wei and the Dragonomics team take stock of China’s economic performance and the outlook for the year ahead.

India chartbook

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India Macro Update: Downside Risks Abound

Udith Sikand, Tom Miller
23 Sep 2025
India’s domestic economic recovery is at risk as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government faces a lose-lose choice: continue to import cheap oil from its long-time ally Russia or face punitive tariffs in its biggest export market. Last week’s US interest rate cut will give the central bank more room to cut rates, but the underperformance of Indian asset prices looks set to continue.

Latest video

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Video: Material Realities In China’s Rebalancing

Thomas Gatley
20 Feb 2026
In five years, China has greatly reduced its reliance on property and supporting industries as a driver of economic activity. While the building binge continues to cast a pall over the wider economy, the Chinese stock market has the “old economy” property sector in the rear-view mirror and is fully pricing in “new economy” industries built around advanced manufacturing and the energy transition.

Strategy Chartbook

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Global Strategy: Best And Worst Trades For 2026

Louis-Vincent Gave, Charles Gave, Anatole Kaletsky, Will Denyer, Tan Kai Xian, Cedric Gemehl, August Gudmundsson, Thomas Gatley, Udith Sikand, Tom Miller
8 Jan 2026
Past performance is no guide to future returns, and the trend is not always your friend. As such, Gavekal writers consider their most compelling 10 macro trades for 2026, on both the upside and the downside. If one theme runs through our developed-market views, it is the expectation for a sustained inflationary boom. That story is different in China, but Chinese firms look to be on the right side of an energy transition with room to run. The view on gold is nuanced, especially seen through the lens of Japanese investors facing extreme asset valuations.

Emerging markets

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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Why This Time Has Been Different
During past episodes of risk-off volatility, the correlation between emerging market risk assets has shot up. But early August’s bout of market volatility saw a bifurcation in EMs, and no broader macroeconomic spillover effects—which speaks well of the growing maturity of emerging markets as an asset class.
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Europe's economy

Poland’s Advantages
In recent years, Poland’s economy has grown far faster than those of neighbors Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia. This divergence within the “Visegrád Four” coincided with a sharp widening in Poland’s fiscal deficit from 1.7% of GDP in 2021 to around 6.8% in 2025. In this report, August explains why that fiscal largesse has not undermined the longer term Polish growth story, which continues to benefit from tailwinds as it plays catchup with economies to its west and protects against a menacing Russia to its east.
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The Changing Of Lagarde
European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde is reportedly preparing to step down from her post at the ECB well before her term ends in October 2027. Whatever Lagarde’s intentions, it is certain that four of the six members of the ECB’s executive board will be replaced by the end of 2027. This prospective game of musical chairs was always likely to generate speculative headlines well in advance of the actual changes. In reality, there will be no simple bilateral stitch-up between Paris and Berlin.
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European Equities Still Offer Catch-Up Potential
By anyone’s standards, European equities have had a spectacular run, fractionally beating the stoked-up US market since November 2022. However, given that one key argument for buying European equities has been their compelling valuation relative to US stocks, it has to be asked whether, following their three-year rally, European equities still offer attractive value.
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Why Markets Yawn As Britain Moves Left
Last Monday’s Jeffrey-Epstein-related political crisis in Britain came within an hour of forcing the resignation of Keir Starmer. Yet investors responded to these political shenanigans with a yawn. And they were right to do so, despite the fact that a big shift to the left in Britain’s political complexion is now inevitable.
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Equities

Video: Material Realities In China’s Rebalancing
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US Exceptionalism Versus Chinese Uninvestibility (Part III)
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European Equities Still Offer Catch-Up Potential
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Today’s Nine Important Market Trends
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Eating The Children
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From Schumpeterian To Ricardian Bull Markets
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Fixed income

Today’s Nine Important Market Trends
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On Iran
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US Exceptionalism: Trump, Keynes, Soros Or Lincoln?
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Video: Macro Positioning In An AI Bubble
The Long Bid In European Credit
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Video: Investing In An Ungovernable Europe
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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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