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The Fed’s Balance Sheet And The Treasury’s Gold

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The Fed’s Balance Sheet And The Treasury’s Gold

Will Denyer
13 Feb 2026
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.
Eating The Children

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Eating The Children

Louis-Vincent Gave
13 Feb 2026
Spare a thought for the “new economy” investors who diversified their software holdings with bitcoin. It would be an epic understatement to say that crypto and software stocks have been struggling over the past six months. Fear of AI as a disruptor is now affecting companies whose business model is tied to the sharing of knowledge.

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How China Responds To The Gold Price

Xiaoxi Zhang
13 Feb 2026
How will China’s demand for gold evolve in response to the metal’s historically high price—and the recent correction that may dent expectations of further gains? Xiaoxi argues that behavior of the different buyers of gold within China varies by their motivations, and suggest that its total gold purchases will not ramp up in 2026.

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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.

Checking The Boxes

Our short take on the latest news

Fact
Surprise
Takeaway

US existing home sales fell to 3.91mn in Jan, from 4.27mn in Dec

Fewer than 4.18mn expected

Solving US housing unaffordability will be tough

UK GDP grew 0.1% QoQ in 4Q25, the same pace as in 3Q

Weaker than 0.2% expected; YoY, GDP grew 1% in 4Q25, versus 1.2% in 3Q

Services output flat; modest pick-up in industry; rate cuts & disinflation to aid recovery

Germany's current account surplus widened to €16.1bn in Dec, from €14.2bn in Nov

NA; imports grew 8.4% YoY in Dec, exports grew 6%

Export headwinds set to ease in 2026

India's CPI rose 2.75% YoY in Jan, versus 1.33% in Dec

Inflation higher than 2.40% expected

Expectations of higher inflation mean the RBI is likely to be wary of cutting rates

Test Your Knowledge
So far, 27 entities apart from the US have signed up to Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” for Gaza. Which of the following is not a member?
  1. Qatar
  2. Israel
  3. Saudi Arabia
  4. The Palestinian Authority
Post Your Answer

Chart of the Week

Week 6, 2026
China’s anti-corruption campaign has netted its biggest catch in years: Zhang Youxia, deputy chairman of the Central Military Commission. But Zhang is hardly alone: anti-corruption investigators launched more than one million probes last year, and disciplined nearly as many officials. This year the anti-corruption watchdog has vowed to focus on enforcing the upcoming five-year plan, which in practice means the anti-corruption drive will probably function as another tool for top leader Xi Jinping to constrain the power of local-government officials and centralize authority in Beijing.
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

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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Geoeconomic Monitor: Understanding The New Trade Regime
In today’s Monitor, we continue our analysis of what Donald Trump’s new trade regime means for the world economy, explain how Indian prime minister Narendra Modi blundered and wound up facing a 50% tariff, and argue that none of the conditions for a quick end to the Russia-Ukraine war are in place.
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US economy & markets

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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The Odd One Out
Despite recent ructions in overbought markets, 2026 has seen bets on an “inflationary boom” continue to play out, with energy, materials and industrials doing well. The odd one out in this scenario has been US financials, despite a macro backdrop that should have favored them. For investors, the key question is whether US banks will benefit in the usual way from a steepening yield curve, or instead become conduits for populist policy risk in an election year.
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A Hawkish Fed Choice
Investors have reacted decisively to Kevin Warsh’s nomination to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve, with a series of crowded trades being unwound. Assuming Senate confirmation, Will explains what his appointment would mean for the future of US monetary policy, US central bank independence, the US dollar, gold and other assets.
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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: Is The Debasement Trade Dead?

Will Denyer
12 Feb 2026
The long rallies in gold and crypto from 2023 to 2025 were to a large extent driven by the US debasement trade. With recent market moves suggesting that these trends may now have run their course, Will Denyer digs into the underlying dynamics to examine whether the debasement trade is really over, and if so what this means for broader asset markets.

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

How To Contain China In EVs
On Tuesday, a Chinese electric vehicle exporter became the first to secure a tariff exemption from the European Union by agreeing to a minimum import price. In doing so, Brussels effectively replaced duties on Chinese EVs with a price floor, a markedly different trade instrument. Since such arrangements allow Chinese firms to keep revenues that would otherwise accrue to the EU budget, the rationale for the change is not obvious. In this piece, Cedric explains Europe’s approach in a market which is not quite what it seems at first blush.
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The Second Wave Of Europe’s Defense Spending
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 triggered panic among European policymakers, who feared a wider European war and were forced to confront decades of underinvestment in defense. In response, European governments scrambled to procure military equipment wherever it could be found. The result was a generational repricing of European defense stocks. The next phase of this rearmament process will see a very different market dynamic that will require investors to take a more discriminating approach, says August.
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The Eurozone’s Financial Reflation
Never say never, but the European Central Bank is almost certain to keep its key policy rate unchanged at today’s meeting. The good news for the eurozone is that the end of the rate-cut cycle does not mark the end of a financial reflation that began in 2024, argues Cedric and August.
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The Other Side Of Europe’s China Shock
There is no doubt that China’s manufacturing presents a challenge to the European economy. But Thomas and Cedric argue that this is not a simple story of inevitable de-industrialization: there are also opportunities. The European winners from the rise of China’s manufacturing capacity will be firms able to make the best use of cheaper Chinese industrial inputs, and continue commanding higher sales prices both at home and abroad.
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Equities

Eating The Children
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From Schumpeterian To Ricardian Bull Markets
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Concerning Signals On US Growth
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Europe Strategy: Stick With It
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Hostage To The Equity Market
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US Exceptionalism: Trump, Keynes, Soros Or Lincoln?
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Fixed income

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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Fade This US Bond Rally?
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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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