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The French Effect On ECB Policy

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The French Effect On ECB Policy

Cedric Gemehl
28 Oct 2026
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?
How To Get Growth In 2027

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How To Get Growth In 2027

Wei He
28 Oct 2026
China’s growth target for 2026 is now essentially in the bag, but it is hard for policymakers to be complacent heading into 2027. Wei argues that the central question will be how they find ways to boost growth while staying within their many self-imposed strictures. The outcome will not be a major stimulus plan, but the government should still come up with some new measures.

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Pricing Europe’s Winter Demand For Natural Gas

Cedric Gemehl
27 Oct 2026
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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Brazil Joins The List

Louis-Vincent Gave
27 Oct 2026
Why did the market react so negatively to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s re-election? This is now the question at the heart of the Brazilian capital markets. Louis offers two possible explanations, and concludes that Brazil (and more generally Latin America) has now joined the long, and growing, list of binary trades.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Switching The Policy Rate
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Wei He
The Struggle To Commoditize AI
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Tilly Zhang
Growth Target Secured
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Wei He, Dragonomics Team
The Fruit Of Tariffs Is Fraud
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Thomas Gatley
How Late Payments Became A Permanent Problem
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Andrew Batson, Xiaoxi Zhang

Gavekal Research

Buy The Dip In Brazil
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Rohan Daswani
Webinar: Shudders In The Tech Complex
Louis-Vincent Gave, Anatole Kaletsky
China And St. Augustine
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Louis-Vincent Gave
Video: Indonesia's Identity Crisis
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Rohan Daswani
Higher Yields And Corporate Profits
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Tan Kai Xian

Gavekal Technologies

Power Lessons From China
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AJ Cortese
Beijing Draws New Boundaries For AI Exports
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Laila Khawaja
The State Of Chinese AI
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Arthur Kroeber, Laila Khawaja
China’s Growing Grip On Printed Circuit Boards
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Laila Khawaja
Can China Export Its Nuclear Boom?
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AJ Cortese

Gavekal-IS

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
When Asia Revalues…
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Didier Darcet

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Desperately Seeking An Anchor

Charles Gave, Louis-Vincent Gave
14 Sep 2026
Charles and Louis argue that a new monetary anchor is emerging in Asia, centered on the renminbi, just as Western currencies and bond markets are becoming less reliable stores of value. With most of the world’s excess savings generated in Asia, more capital will stay in the region rather than flow into Western assets, eroding structural support for the US dollar, euro and Western bond markets.

Checking The Boxes

Our short take on the latest news

Fact
Surprise
Takeaway

US Conference Board consumer confidence index rose to 91.7 in Oct, from 84.2 in Sep

Higher than expected 81

Job components show signs of stabilization; if they improve, expect tighter labor market

Eurozone M3 money supply rose 3.5% YoY in Sep, versus 3.5% in Aug

Growth faster than expected 3.4%; loans to households rose 3.1% YoY, loans to NFCs up 4.2%

Credit growth steady despite higher rates

France's INSEE consumer confidence index fell to 80 in Oct, from 85 in Sep

Below expected 85

Job & personal finance worries are weighing on sentiment; points to subdued consumption

Spain's unemployment rate rose to 10.18% in 3Q, from 9.87% in 2Q

NA

Rise due to seasonal effects; underlying labor demand remains robust

Test Your Knowledge
More than 23bn parcels got delivered in the US last year, double the number in 2016. Which organization delivered the most?
  1. The US Postal Service
  2. Amazon
  3. FedEx
  4. UPS
Post Your Answer

Chart of the Week

Week 43, 2026
US inflation accelerated in September, with the headline consumer price index rising 3.7% year-on-year, up from 3.4% in August. This was hardly surprising given elevated energy prices, which were bound to feed through to consumer prices. The question for investors and policymakers is whether price pressures will spread through the economy, pushing up long-term inflation expectations, as some Federal Reserve officials fear.
Open Chart

Gavekal Research

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.

Gavekal Research

Webinar: Shudders In The Tech Complex

Louis-Vincent Gave, Anatole Kaletsky
24 Oct 2026
As investors contemplate a possible end to the AI investment boom, government bonds have caught a bid over the last week. Louis and Anatole discuss whether such a denouement is likely to occur and what this would mean for the macroeconomic outlook and the performance of core asset classes.

The Iran War And Fallout

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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The Limits Of Economic Fury
The US administration is now switching its focus to a campaign of “economic fury” in an effort to achieve its strategic aims against Iran. It is not obvious that this latest phase of the conflict is any more likely to result in a quick and easy US victory than the kinetic war. However, the economic implications of a prolonged stand-off may be less ominous than they at first appear.
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US economy & markets

Higher Yields And Corporate Profits
Equity investors were served a morsel of optimism Wednesday, as Meta’s chairman Mark Zuckerberg claimed the company’s AI investments “are paying off". Yet after a sharp sell-off in the shares of indebted AI names, many investors remain jittery. They fear that with equity market performance powered heavily by the AI capex boom, higher yields will erode US corporate profits, triggering a broader sell-off.
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Another Leg Up In US Inflation?
US inflation accelerated in September, with the headline consumer price index rising 3.7% year-on-year, up from 3.4% in August. Looking ahead, geopolitics and energy prices will, of course, remain key swing factors for inflation. But beyond energy, the question for investors and policymakers is whether price pressures will spread through the economy, pushing up long-term inflation expectations, as some Federal Reserve officials fear. Two scenarios are worth considering.
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Hedging US Growth Stocks
US growth stocks have proved remarkably resilient, with the MSCI US growth index generally outperforming its value counterpart since 2007. But when everything is going well, prudent investors look for potential pitfalls. So, what could derail the strength of US growth stocks, and how to hedge against these risks?
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Are Yields Rising Too Fast For Banks?
US bank stocks have lagged the broader equity market since the start of September, with the S&P 500 bank index down -7.5% against a 1% gain for the S&P 500. Curiously, this has happened during an inflationary boom, which should favor banks. While higher yields typically benefit lenders by allowing them to charge more on loans and earn higher returns on their securities holdings, a rapid rise in yields can break things and hurt the sector. KX argues there are reasons to think these concerns will prove short-lived.
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China chartbook

Gavekal Dragonomics

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Macro Update: Pushed And Pulled

Wei He, Dragonomics Team
3 Aug 2026
China’s economy is being pushed and pulled by two external shocks: the supply shock from the Iran war and the demand shock from the AI capex boom. Both are creating lots of volatility in trade flows, prices and profits, although the underlying trend of the domestic economy has not yet changed much. Neither are China’s policymakers showing much sign of significantly changing course. In our latest quarterly chartbook, Wei and the Dragonomics team diagnose the current situation and the policy outlook.

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: Indonesia's Identity Crisis

Rohan Daswani
22 Oct 2026
Indonesia’s equity market has suffered a sharp sell-off after MSCI warned that persistent concerns over ownership transparency, market manipulation and weak regulatory enforcement could see the country stripped of its emerging market status. In this video interview, Rohan discusses whether Jakarta’s latest reforms can restore investor confidence, the risks of further capital outflows and currency weakness, and what Indonesia’s troubles mean for other emerging markets.

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

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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The Cost Of Protection
China appears to have accepted export restraints on hybrid cars in exchange for the European Union dialing down its confrontational trade rhetoric. However, a de-escalation in rhetoric should not be mistaken for a retreat from the protectionist impulse taking hold within the EU. Germany’s hardening stance toward China has brought Berlin closer to Paris and revived the Franco-German axis as a driver of EU policymaking.
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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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