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Markets Anticipate End Of Iran War

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Markets Anticipate End Of Iran War

Anatole Kaletsky
9 Nov 2026
Ending the Iran war will be necessary if Donald Trump is to tackle high energy prices, high inflation and high interest rates in an attempt to burnish his legacy as president. Clearly, the oil market is already pricing in a higher probability of peace with Iran. In this paper, Anatole makes the case that the market has also begun to price in the accelerated growth-to-value rotation that will accompany a peace agreement.
Mounting Headwinds For US Assets

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Mounting Headwinds For US Assets

Louis-Vincent Gave
9 Nov 2026
The running theme of our research for the past few years has been that the age of massive US outperformance was drawing to an end, and that the surge higher in US relative performance which accompanied Donald Trump’s 2024 election victory was probably an exponential “blowoff top” that is fairly typical of climactic bull markets. The question now confronting us is whether recent events will revive US outperformance? Or stall it?

Gavekal Dragonomics

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For Chinese Equities, The Good News Is In Short Supply

Thomas Gatley
9 Nov 2026
It’s been a bumpy week for Chinese equity markets, and China’s policymakers continue to struggle to boost sustainable demand for equities. But Thomas argues that the good news is the supply of newly tradeable stocks hitting the market should continue to shrink in 2027 to the lowest level in a decade, which creates a favorable foundation should sentiment rebound.

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Is Japan’s Repatriation Wave Starting?

Udith Sikand
6 Nov 2026
Over the last 12 months, Japanese portfolio investors have reversed course and repatriated a net ¥5.5trn of foreign assets. With the Bank of Japan indicating it is poised to step up the pace of its interest rate increases, Udith Sikand warns that Japan’s repatriation flows could be set to accelerate.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Macro Update: Running On Exports
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Wei He, Dragonomics Team
Trying To Save The Slow Bull Market
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Thomas Gatley, Xiaoxi Zhang
Anti-Corruption After The Plenum
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Andrew Batson
How To Get Growth In 2027
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Wei He
Switching The Policy Rate
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Wei He

Gavekal Research

As The Clouds Part
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Louis-Vincent Gave
Webinar: Divergence And Dynamism In China's Economy
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Andrew Batson, Christopher Beddor, Thomas Gatley, Wei He
Video: Investment Narratives After The Midterms
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Will Denyer
The Social Stability Question
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Louis-Vincent Gave
What The Midterms Mean For China
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Arthur Kroeber

Gavekal Technologies

China’s AI Race, US’s AIDC Debate
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Laila Khawaja, Arthur Kroeber
How Wuxi AppTec Stayed Sanction-Proof
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Tom Hancock
Who Is Consuming Chinese Tokens?
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Laila Khawaja
Power Lessons From China
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AJ Cortese
Beijing Draws New Boundaries For AI Exports
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Laila Khawaja

Gavekal-IS

A New Misery Index
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Didier Darcet
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

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One Thing After Another

Louis-Vincent Gave
29 Oct 2026
From Brazil’s election shock and the Anthropic IPO to shifting Middle Eastern alliances and the prospect of peace in Ukraine, a hectic week of developments has thrown up fresh risks and opportunities for investors. Louis examines eight major events and their market implications, including the potential opening of Canada’s energy sector, China’s offshore tax crackdown and India’s efforts to attract foreign capital.

Checking The Boxes

Our short take on the latest news

Fact
Surprise
Takeaway

US nonfarm payrolls rose 165k in Oct, versus 60k in Sep

Stronger than expected 70k; unemploment rate fell to 4.1% in Oct, from 4.25% in Sep

Labor market pick-up on stronger profits likely to tip Fed towards further tightening

US UMich consumer sentiment index rose to 51 in Nov, from 48 in Aug

Above expected 48

Consumer sentiment boosted by drop in near term inflation expectations

Germany industrial production rose 0.7% MoM in Sep, versus 1% in Aug

Stronger than expected -0.1%; YoY, industrial production rose 0.4% in Sep, versus 0.7% in Aug

Boosted by auto industry pick-up; cautious recovery in underlying demand continues 

Chinese CPI rose 0.7% YoY in Oct, versus 0.9% in Sep

Inflation cooler than expected 0.8%; core CPI rose 0.8% YoY in Oct, versus 1% in Sep

Broad-based dip in CPI suggests domestic demand continues to remain weak

Test Your Knowledge
What share of Paraguay’s adult population has accounts at Ueno Bank, which collapsed last week?
  1. 33%
  2. 49%
  3. 66%
Post Your Answer

Chart of the Week

Week 46, 2026
Global goods trade volumes are growing at the fastest pace in 15 years (aside from the Covid rebound), defying tariffs and the Iran war. AI spending has accelerated the rebound, contributing close to half of all trade growth in 1H26. Two major risks threaten this growth: first, if AI capex dries up, global trade would lose a powerful engine, leaving East Asian exporters particularly vulnerable. Second, the tolerance for absorbing more Chinese exports is diminishing. Protectionism would disrupt production and squeeze margins, compounding any slowdown.
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.

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Webinar: Divergence And Dynamism In China's Economy

Andrew Batson, Christopher Beddor, Thomas Gatley, Wei He
6 Nov 2026
More striking than China's ability to, yet again, deliver GDP growth in line with government targets is the increasingly wide divergence between the flourishing and languishing parts of the economy. Electric-vehicle exports are surging as domestic sales decline; technology investment races ahead while households stay cautious. How much dynamism underlies these disparate pictures? How will policy manage the risks? Our team of analysts discussed the key questions around China's outlook.

The Iran War And Fallout

One Thing After Another
From Brazil’s election shock and the Anthropic IPO to shifting Middle Eastern alliances and the prospect of peace in Ukraine, a hectic week of developments has thrown up fresh risks and opportunities for investors. Louis examines eight major events and their market implications, including the potential opening of Canada’s energy sector, China’s offshore tax crackdown and India’s efforts to attract foreign capital.
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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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US economy & markets

A Blue Congress, Mr. Veto And A Treasury Twist
Despite the Democratic Party’s victory in Tuesday’s US midterm elections, the Republicans will still have the opportunity to push through legislation in the lame duck session between now and January, and after that Donald Trump will retain his presidential veto over new legislation. Will Denyer argues that despite the probability of adverse regulatory action at the state and local level, Tuesday’s election result may not prove as damaging as feared for the US AI capex boom, or for US assets more broadly.
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The Case For More Mega-Cap Outperformance
October was a tough month for the mega-cap tech stocks that have driven US market outperformance over the last 10 years. Since early October, Nvidia, Meta and Alphabet stocks have fallen as investors have grown nervous about how the AI capex boom is being financed and jittery about the returns big tech companies will earn on the trillions they have poured in so far. So, is the era of mega-cap outperformance coming to its end? There are solid reasons to think not.
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Geoeconomic Monitor: Election Season
This week’s elections dealt crushing blows right-wing candidates in Brazil and Serbia. With next week’s US midterms looking ominous for the Republicans, voters appear to be turning against the populist right. Upcoming elections in Spain and France will show whether the tide has turned, says Tom Miller. If Israel and the US restart their bombing campaign in Iran, global oil prices will surge to new highs, writes Tom Holland. And there is little Congress can do to stop it, even if the Democrats take the Senate in the midterms, argues Will Denyer.
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Lost Privilege
Increasingly over recent years, foreign investors have shifted to buying US assets for the superior returns they generate, rather than as reserves of value for safeguarding their wealth. This shift has several implications for the US's primary income balance, the current account deficit and US markets.
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China chartbook

Gavekal Dragonomics

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Macro Update: Running On Exports

Wei He, Dragonomics Team
3 Nov 2026
China’s GDP growth improved in Q3, and it is now almost certain that full-year growth will land within the targeted range. But that growth is highly uneven and heavily reliant on exports, while domestic consumption remains weak by almost any measure. Policymakers may well need to introduce more policy support in order to meet their growth goal next year. In our latest quarterly chartbook, Wei and the Dragonomics team examine the state of China’s economy and the outlook going into 2027.

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: Investment Narratives After The Midterms

Will Denyer
5 Nov 2026
The reaction of markets after the Democratic Party won control of both houses of the US Congress in Tuesday’s midterm elections suggests investors expect big shifts in the two narratives that have dominated financial markets in 2026: the AI capex boom, and the US war against Iran and its impact on global energy prices. In this video interview, Gavekal US chief economist Will Denyer examines how these all-important narratives are set to evolve in the post-election environment.

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

In UK Budget, No News Is Good News
When the British government presents a budget which turns out to be a total non-event, it should be seen as a cause for celebration and a bullish event for UK financial markets. This is what happened this week. Anatole argues that it is too early to say whether Burnham’s economic policies will make sense, but a properly strategic reassessment of economic policy, welfare reform, fiscal plans and European relations will happen.
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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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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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