Gavekal Research
October 25, 2021
In the last couple of weeks Louis has been on the road, meeting clients face-to-face for the first time in 18 months. In this report, he distills some of the spirit of those conversations, addressing hot button topics from the sharp run-up in energy and commodity prices, through China’s economic slowdown, to the increase in tensions across the Taiwan Strait.
Gavekal Research
October 25, 2021
For decades, portfolio managers have held US treasuries as a hedge for their equity exposure on the grounds that over periods of 12 months or so, treasuries tend to be inversely correlated with the US stock market. For the most part this strategy has worked. But few investors seem to appreciate that the relative performance of US treasuries and stocks depends heavily on the type of inflation the US economy experiences.
Gavekal Dragonomics
October 25, 2021
Troubled developer China Evergrande Group made an interest payment on a US dollar bond just before the 30-day grace period expired on October 23, narrowly avoiding a default. However, this does not mean the wave of developer defaults is over, or that the freeze in demand for developer debt has thawed.
Gavekal Research
October 18, 2021
In recent months, the US net national savings rate—the share of income unconsumed—has ticked lower. It may seem a small concern as the Federal Reserve prepares to taper, but if the rate of genuine savings continues to fall over coming quarters, it will be a danger signal both for asset markets and for US economic growth.
Gavekal Research
October 14, 2021
Some may hope that supply bottlenecks quickly ease and the price-hike scare of 2021 soon fades, but that is not the story of the latest US inflation reading. In short, US inflation is now persistent and the Federal Reserve will soon have to address this reality head-on.
Gavekal Research
October 8, 2021
Going into 4Q21, a worry for Will had been that asset prices faced the prospect of two tightening moves to US liquidity. Yet, with Congress now punting a debt-ceiling reckoning to December, this could, in turn, delay the Fed’s taper announcement to December, or even January.
Gavekal Dragonomics
August 11, 2021
The rapid spread of the Delta variant across China is posing the biggest challenge yet to the government’s zero-tolerance policy toward Covid-19. In this report, Ernan explains why officials are confident in the policy and will likely keep it in place for the indefinite future—at the cost of depressed travel and consumer services.
Gavekal Research
June 9, 2021
Now that a deal has been done on corporate taxation, this weekend’s Group of Seven summit will focus on helping low-income countries roll out Covid-19 vaccination programs. Given inevitable production and distribution problems, the world is unlikely to be fully vaccinated before the end of 2022.
Gavekal Dragonomics
May 25, 2021
China’s Covid-19 vaccination program has significantly accelerated in May, bringing it on track to reach its target of administering at least one dose to 40% of the population by end-June. In this report, Ernan explains why this achievement does not mean the country will be opening its borders or removing domestic precautions this year.
Gavekal Research
October 6, 2021
Wherever you look, energy prices are shooting up, and shortages abound. The global economy, it seems, is in the grip of a full-blown energy crisis. Drill down, and it appears this is not one crisis, but many. The effects—worsening shortages and surging prices—are much the same in differentregions.
Gavekal Research
September 14, 2021
Steve Martin once said “before you criticize a man, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, when you do criticize him, you’ll be a mile away and have his shoes”. In this piece Louis takes a stroll in Mohammed bin Salman’s shoes to see what issues Saudi Arabia has faced recently, and outlines four scenarios that affect energy prices and geopolitics.
Gavekal Research
July 6, 2021
Last year, when Opec+ talks broke up without an agreement on setting production quotas, the oil price collapsed. On Monday, when Opec+ talks broke up without an agreement on setting production quotas, the oil price surged. The majority of market watchers see no inconsistency, but they are making some large assumptions, which deserve close scrutiny.
Gavekal Research
October 15, 2021
Charles is somewhat tired of reading general descriptions of US equities being in a bubble, with little serious empirical backing to support the assertion. In this piece, he sets out to build an objective tool to answer the bubble, or not, question. Spoiler alert: he thinks investors would do well to re-assess their hedges.
Gavekal Research
October 11, 2021
The leader of the British Labour Party, Keir Starmer, missed a political trick at his party conference in late September when he failed to quote Labour’s late deputy leader, Aneurin Bevan, who told the party’s 1945 conference, “This island is made mainly of coal and surrounded by fish.
Gavekal Research
October 7, 2021
There is a growing drumbeat of commentary arguing that today’s shortages of everything from microchips to natural gas must end in an inflationary blowout and a return to the lascivious 1970s. Anatole thinks that today’s shortages are likely to correct relatively quickly, and for investors the coming period is more likely to resemble the 1950s.
Gavekal Research
October 12, 2021
It will come as news to no one that energy prices and exchange rates are intimately connected. Historically, over the last 20 years, the euro has tended to be positively correlated with the price of oil, while the broad US dollar exchange rate has tended to be inversely correlated.
Gavekal Research
October 6, 2021
The results of this weekend's municipal elections in Italy look to have buttressed Mario Draghi’s national unity government, which is half way through an ambitious overhaul of core institutions that have failed the country for decades.
Gavekal Research
September 28, 2021
Germany is headed for a three-party coalition for the first time since Konrad Adenauer’s governments of the 1950s. Multiple options remain on the table but a center-left figure should eventually be sworn in as chancellor. The issue is that material differences over fiscal policy mean that coalition talks could drag out well into 2022.
Gavekal Dragonomics
October 12, 2021
As the US and Europe pursue more serious green agendas, they are wondering if they can wrest back production of solar power from China. The answer: probably not. China is not just the low-cost producer, but also the technological leader. In this piece, Dan explains why the global deployment of solar energy will depend heavily on China.
Gavekal Dragonomics
September 23, 2021
China’s regulatory onslaught against companies like Ant Group, Didi Chuxing and Tencent has been widely referred to as a “tech crackdown.” In this piece, Dan argues that the government’s actions are less a sign that it has turned against tech than they are a rejection of the idea that the consumer internet is the peak of technological achievement.
Gavekal Dragonomics
August 20, 2021
As China’s global rivalry with the US intensifies, it has focused strongly on improving science and technology. This push is not just about prestige, but also reflects a recognition that it can’t always lag behind the US in creating novel ideas. For this piece, Dan interviewed 22 scientists to evaluate the capabilities of China’s science system.
Gavekal Dragonomics
October 18, 2021
Chinese economic growth continued to slow in 3Q21 thanks to ongoing supply constraints and demand weakness. In this Quick Take, the Dragonomics team explains that while China’s poor September figures reflect supply-side constraints, of greater concern is the weakening demand side due to a deepening property downturn.
Gavekal Dragonomics
October 14, 2021
China’s small businesses are having a rough 2021: business conditions have stagnated or deteriorated since the recovery in late 2020. There’s been much debate on the causes of their struggles, but the biggest culprits are the ripple effects from the government’s zero-tolerance Covid policy and its tightening of credit and real-estate policies.
Gavekal Dragonomics
October 11, 2021
With the results in for China’s antitrust investigation of food-delivery giant Meituan, Ernan writes that the direction of China’s antitrust policy is now becoming increasingly evident, with clear guidance from regulators reducing uncertainty. However, platform profits should continue dwindling as their business models are chipped at by regulators.
Gavekal Research
January 27, 2021
Even though the Hang Seng index fell -2.55% on Tuesday, Hong Kong is still the world’s best performing major stock market year-to-date. In Hong Kong’s media the run-up is attributed to waves of mainland Chinese money flowing into the city’s equities.
Gavekal Dragonomics
January 19, 2021
Even after a dramatic economic recovery, many of China’s smallest businesses are still struggling. In this piece, Xiaoxi shows how the government’s financial-support measures did little to improve small businesses’ access to financing, which is already tightening. But the policies are helping banks avoid a potential spike in bad loans.
Gavekal Dragonomics
January 18, 2021
China’s Q4 GDP growth surpassed pre-Covid rates, with housing and manufacturing leading while services lagged and infrastructure investment slowed. In early 2021, this divergence is likely to continue as consumers stay home for the Chinese New Year and poor credit growth drags on infrastructure investment.
Gavekal Research
September 9, 2021
India is enduring a shaky, stop-start recovery. Headline GDP growth in the April-June quarter came in at a stellar 20%, but base effects are distorting the true picture. The biggest risk for investors, argue Udith and Tom, is an uncertain monetary environment.
Gavekal Research
July 14, 2021
While business activity in India has rebounded to above 90% of its pre-pandemic level, the economic suffering caused by lockdowns remains acute. Small firms are struggling to survive, millions of households have fallen into poverty, inequality has worsened and employment levels have structurally declined.
Gavekal Research
June 10, 2021
India’s economic recovery was hit by the April-May surge in Covid-19 infections, with the only silver lining being that the second wave was less economically damaging than the first one. With cases now declining and many states opening up, the worst of the economic disruption should be over.
Gavekal Research
October 13, 2021
After the resignation of two regional Federal Reserve branch presidents over potential conflicts of interest, the knives are out in Washington for Jay Powell. In this video interview, Will assesses what personnel changes at the Fed may mean for the trajectory of US monetary policy and for the Fed’s role as US banking supervisor.
Gavekal Research
October 8, 2021
As if a tight labor market, rising inflation and widespread fuel shortages weren’t enough to contend with, the United Kingdom is also seeing a sharp deterioration in its relations with the European Union, and France especially. Nick examines what worsening cross-Channel relations could mean for the economies of the UK and EU.
Gavekal Research
September 28, 2021
A material difference has opened up in both the actions and signaling of global central banks, as they exit from pandemic-era monetary policy settings. On the hawkish side is the likes of the Federal Reserve and on the dovish side the European Central Bank and a raft of Asian policymakers.
Gavekal Research
October 15, 2021
On Thursday, the Monetary Authority of Singapore announced it would target a modest nominal effective exchange rate appreciation of the Singapore dollar in order to contain domestic inflation.
Gavekal Research
October 13, 2021
Last week, Charles Gave updated his Four Quadrants view. Udith takes it a step further, combining the quadrants with another two-by-two framework by Michael Power of Ninety One to gleam insight into what the changing macroeconomic environment means for emerging markets, and who will be the winners and losers.
Gavekal Research
September 22, 2021
The troubles of debt-laden Chinese property developer Evergrande are no Lehman moment, but they do pose a significant risk of international contagion across emerging markets, which investors would be rash to ignore.
Gavekal Research
October 1, 2021
Thursday saw UK GDP growth for 2Q21 revised up to a perky 5.5% from a previous 4.8%. Yet all is not well in shortage-plagued Britain. While other economies facesupply chain disruption and energy shortages, the “just in time” UK economy looks to be facing a perfect inflationary storm that could deliver a recession in 2022.
Gavekal Research
September 10, 2021
For decades, urban England has had an under-supplied and over-bought housing market. UK governments of all political stripes have tried and failed to unblock building pipelines. Britain is hardly alone in having seen home prices rocket due to pandemic effects, but there was a grim inevitability to UK home prices rising 13% in the last year.
Gavekal Research
August 25, 2021
On Monday, the International Monetary Fund began disbursing a record US$650bn of its hard currency-like reserve asset to aid stressed sovereign borrowers. Since the plan was first officially mooted in March, financing costs have fallen sharply in frontier economies.
Gavekal Research
October 8, 2021
In Thursday's Global Investment Roundtable, Louis argued that shortages of everything from microchips to natural gas are structural in nature and augur a radical change in the investing environment. Anatole, in contrast, said that current supply disruptions are likely transitory and the inflation panic should pass relatively soon.
Gavekal Dragonomics
October 7, 2021
China’s post-Covid property boom has unwound more rapidly than expected this year as the government’s tough policies drive developers into distress. In her annual chartbook, Rosealea explains the outlook for the rest of 2021 and 2022. Further declines in housing sales and construction will come, but policy adjustments can limit their magnitude.
Gavekal Research
October 4, 2021
China’s leaders sought to use the country’s post-Covid boom to press ahead with reforms aimed at furthering Xi Jinping’s political goals. The resulting property slowdown, China Evergrande’s financial troubles and the flight out of internet stocks have hit both economic growth and financial markets. Despite this, no overt U-turn is likely.
Gavekal Dragonomics
October 7, 2021
China’s post-Covid property boom has unwound more rapidly than expected this year as the government’s tough policies drive developers into distress. In her annual chartbook, Rosealea explains the outlook for the rest of 2021 and 2022. Further declines in housing sales and construction will come, but policy adjustments can limit their magnitude.
Gavekal Dragonomics
August 24, 2021
The steady drumbeat of tightening on China’s property developers is taking its toll on construction activity. In this report, Rosealea explains why this weakness in construction will not unduly worry policymakers and should even help them achieve their goal of reducing steel production. Developers will therefore continue to feel the squeeze.
Gavekal Research
July 28, 2021
Investor confidence in Evergrande Group, China’s second-largest property developer, has been pummeled in recent weeks. While Evergrande has managed to put out the latest round of fires, and a collapse is unlikely, Rosealea argues in this piece that market volatility for developers will probably continue as financial regulators keep on squeezing.
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’.