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The Narrowing Profit Boom

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The Narrowing Profit Boom

Thomas Gatley
4 Sep 2026
China’s corporate profits are surging after years of little growth, and producer prices are rising again following nearly three years of deflation. But Thomas argues that beneath the headline figures, the picture is considerably less rosy: the current upswing rests on a narrowing set of industries, which seem unlikely to invest enough in the coming months to boost profits in the wider industrial sector.
Video: The Bond Market’s Big Question

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Video: The Bond Market’s Big Question

Will Denyer
3 Sep 2026
In the last few years, investors have generally done well to minimize their exposure to long-dated US treasuries. But now, with the 10-year US treasury yield up almost 430bp in the last six years and the US Treasury itself buying back long-dated debt, it makes sense to ask whether investors should reassess their stance on bond market duration.

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The Macroeconomics Of AI In Practice

Didier Darcet
3 Sep 2026
In the third part of his series on the macroeconomics of AI, Didier develops a framework for deciding when investors should favor information and technology over energy. After briefly tilting toward energy during this year’s confrontation in the Strait of Hormuz, the framework is once again signaling that investors should favor information.

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AI Versus The Labor Market

Tan Kai Xian
3 Sep 2026
Federal Reserve chair Kevin Warsh has argued that the AI revolution will support real GDP growth, raise productivity and and weigh on inflation. So far, however, solid US productivity growth since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022 has coincided with rising inflation and real GDP growth continuing to chug along at around its 20-year median of 2.3%. The missing piece in the puzzle may be the labor market.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Chokepoints Aren’t Changing
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Andrew Batson
Shrinking The Presales System
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Xiaoxi Zhang
Will An Aging China Save Less?
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Ernan Cui, Yu Wu
The Renminbi After Bessent’s Interventions
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Wei He
The Great Bank Consolidation Begins
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Xiaoxi Zhang

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Are US Long Bonds A Buy? (Part II)
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Will Denyer
Can Spanish Dominance Continue?
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Cedric Gemehl
A World In Disequilibrium: Too Much Cash In China
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Charles Gave
Where Should One Buy Bonds?
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Louis-Vincent Gave
The Friend Of My Friend
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Louis-Vincent Gave

Gavekal Technologies

The Deployment Challenge For Cheap Solar
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AJ Cortese
Alibaba’s AI Conundrum
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Laila Khawaja
China Wind Power’s Global Challenge
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AJ Cortese
The Next Stage Of The LLM Race
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Laila Khawaja
The Tech Truce Starts To Fray
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Arthur Kroeber, Laila Khawaja, AJ Cortese, Tom Hancock

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The Macroeconomics Of AI: Part II
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Didier Darcet
The Macroeconomics Of AI In Simple Terms
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Didier Darcet
Currency Momentum Trading
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Didier Darcet
The End Of The Risk-Free Asset
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Didier Darcet
The Great Confusion Over Economic Quadrants
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Didier Darcet

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Who Is Copying Who? Part IV

Louis-Vincent Gave
27 Jul 2026
The growing push to restrict Chinese AI models could mark a major escalation in US-China tensions—and a watershed for the US economy. Louis argues that a ban would protect US tech giants at the expense of start-ups, consumers and productivity, while accelerating the fragmentation of the global technology system. Over time, the result could be weaker US equities, a softer dollar and higher bond yields, raising the question of whether such a policy would truly serve the public good or merely entrench corporate power.

Checking The Boxes

Our short take on the latest news

Fact
Surprise
Takeaway

US ADP employment rose 38k in Aug, versus 46k in Jul

Below expected 47k

Consistent with other data pointing to jobs market softening but not collapsing

US factory orders rose 0.9% MoM in Jul, versus -0.2% in Jul

Above expected 0.7%

Led by uptick in volatile aircraft orders; US mfg sector outlook remains positive

Italy PPI rose 9.3% YoY in Jul, versus 6.8% in Jun

NA

Driven by higher energy prices; downside risk rising for energy-intensive industries

Canada left benchmark policy rate unchanged at 2.25%

As expected

Rising upside risks to inflation from tariff war with US underpins BoC's hawkish tilt 

Test Your Knowledge
What international competition, with the participation of 104 countries, kicked off in Kyrgyzstan on the eve of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s summit on Sunday?
  1. The World Nomad Games
  2. The 2026 Eurasian Sambo Tournament
  3. The inaugural “Green Silk Road” Rally
Post Your Answer

Chart of the Week

Week 34, 2026
China’s policymakers are now talking up the need for services, due to a combination of the squeeze on manufacturing sector profits and the boom in artificial intelligence. This is not the first time that policymakers have focused on boosting services, but unlike in the past, China’s services share of GDP is no longer materially lagging other middle-income countries.
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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: Regime Change Can Cause Market Madness

Anatole Kaletsky, Tom Holland
3 Jul 2026
Markets continue to behave as if the world has not fundamentally changed, even as inflation, interest rates, geopolitics and global capital flows enter a new regime. Anatole argues that investors are systematically mispricing four major shifts: the long-term outlook for inflation and bond yields, the global growth cycle, the rotation from AI-led growth to cyclical value and the end of US exceptionalism.

The Iran War And Fallout

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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Geoeconomic Monitor: Dominance And Decline
One upshot of the wars in the Persian Gulf and Ukraine is that the US oil and gas industry is booming. The drawback is that US consumers are paying twice Trump's target price for gasoline. With the midterms approaching, there is a risk the US administration might decide export controls are the only way to square the circle, writes Tom Holland. Meanwhile, Cedric Gemehl looks at how Germany is warming to the idea of protectionist measures to insulate its industries from Chinese competition.
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The Energy Risk Remains (Part II)
The energy risk from the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine continue to escalate, and away from the limelight, listed pureplay oil refiners (outside of China and its price and export controls) have been having a monster year of their own, with recent gains starting to go parabolic. The obvious risk is that as crack spreads rise, so does the pressure on politicians to do something about the rising price of gasoline and diesel. So how can investors guard their portfolios against such risks?
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The Energy Risk Remains (Part I)
Energy stocks, as a GICS sector, have delivered the best total return performance of any US sector over the past five years. Yet, tech stocks now account for almost 40% of the S&P 500’s market capitalization, while energy stocks—with their 3% weight—are close to record lows. So why are energy stocks so unloved, especially in the midst of an oil shock?
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US economy & markets

AI Versus The Labor Market
Federal Reserve chair Kevin Warsh has argued that the AI revolution will support real GDP growth, raise productivity and and weigh on inflation. So far, however, solid US productivity growth since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022 has coincided with rising inflation and real GDP growth continuing to chug along at around its 20-year median of 2.3%. The missing piece in the puzzle may be the labor market.
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Are US Long Bonds A Buy? (Part II)
With 10-year US treasury yields back at pre-2008-crisis levels and the US government trying to limit further increases, investors must ask whether it is now time to increase duration in their portfolios. In the second installment of his series attempting to answer this all-important question, Will looks at the US government’s own demand for debt financing and examines how it is likely to affect yields from here onward.
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A DTR Moment For The Fed And Treasury
The annual Jackson Hole symposium has often been used by Federal Reserve chairs to signal major shifts in US monetary policy. Given recent events, the market was looking for Kevin Warsh to use his stage to “define the relationship” between the US central bank and the US Treasury. He delivered on this score.
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The Way Ahead For US Hyperscalers
The big US tech companies, including Amazon, Meta and Alphabet, have long commanded investors’ attention. Now in an attempt to secure AI dominance, they are investing capital at breakneck pace in the necessary AI chips, data centers and supporting infrastructure. The relative trajectories of their capex and free cash flow will shape their businesses and determine the performance of their share prices. There are four main scenarios to consider.
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China chartbook

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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: The Bond Market’s Big Question

Will Denyer
3 Sep 2026
In the last few years, investors have generally done well to minimize their exposure to long-dated US treasuries. But now, with the 10-year US treasury yield up almost 430bp in the last six years and the US Treasury itself buying back long-dated debt, it makes sense to ask whether investors should reassess their stance on bond market duration.

Strategy Chartbook

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Quarterly Strategy Review: 2Q26

Louis-Vincent Gave
3 Jul 2026
The second quarter was dominated by an extraordinary surge in risk appetite as semiconductor stocks powered one of the largest increases in global equity market capitalization on record, yet beneath the exuberance, markets underwent significant macro shifts. Louis reviews the quarter's defining developments.

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

Can Spanish Dominance Continue?
Following a decade of disappointing performance, Spain is once again dominating international league tables. The MSCI Spain index has delivered a total return in US dollar terms of 250% over the past four years, more than twice the 100% return posted by MSCI AC World over the same period. The question now is whether this dominance can be sustained.
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The Good, The Bad And The Ugly For Eurozone Bonds
Energy prices have picked up since late June, once again pushing inflation expectations higher and leading markets to price in more ECB rate hikes. But broadly, energy prices remain below their March highs. In contrast, eurozone sovereign bond yields are now well above their March high. This suggests that there are other forces beyond energy prices driving up eurozone yields. These forces can be divided into three categories: the good, the bad and the ugly.
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Europe’s Public Investment Boom Changes Shape
The end of the EU’s post-Covid investment program at the end of this month will bring a significant shift in Europe’s public investment cycle, but not necessarily the investment cliff that might have been feared. As Brussels-funded civilian spending winds down, investment will rotate toward defense and geographically from Southern and Eastern Europe toward Germany and Northern Europe. August examines how these shifts will reshape Europe’s growth impulse in 2027 and change the beneficiaries of public spending.
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The (Better) Case For European Banks
After more than a decade in the wilderness, European bank stocks have now had four good years, outperforming their US counterparts since 2022 in US dollar terms. The question is whether this outperformance can continue. The short answer is yes. European bank stocks are no longer priced at distressed levels, but with the earnings outlooks for European and US banks both solid, there is still room for European valuations to improve compared with the US.
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Equities

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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Why Is Hong Kong Struggling?
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Fixed income

Video: The Bond Market’s Big Question
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Video: Breakdown Or Buying Opportunity For US Bonds?
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Important Recent Developments
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A Buy Recommendation
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May You Live In Interesting Times
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Warsh, Inflation And 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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