Gavekal Research

Dan Wang

May 13th 2021

Semiconductors are tough to come by these days, and the shortage will be deep and long-lasting. Yet chips are about to turn into more of a commoditized product, just as companies make huge investments in production capacity and governments spend big to achieve self-sufficiency on national security grounds. This will lead to permanent excess capacity.

Gavekal Research

Nick Andrews

May 12th 2021

Hailed as a breakthrough when it was struck back in December, the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement On Investment is in trouble, with little chance the deal will be ratified in the European Parliament amid a deep deterioration in bilateral relations. Nick examines what the political frost means for the earnings of European companies operating in China.

Gavekal Research

Charles Gave

May 11th 2021

Capitalism works well when activity is undertaken using David Ricardo’s law of comparative advantage and Joseph Schumpeter’s process of creative destruction. Charles argues that an era of Ricardian growth for many countries and industries is running out of road and the drivers of Schumpeterian economic transformation are shifting.

Gavekal Research

Tom Miller

May 07th 2021

The Indo-Pacific is at the heart of global geopolitics today. The US, UK, and European Union are all shifting their attention east. Tom argues that the new treatment of the Indian and Pacific Oceans as a single, connected space reflects a key shift in managing China’s regional power. The impact will be felt in both strategic and economic terms.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Rosealea Yao

May 05th 2021

China’s iron and steel prices have broken through their post-financial crisis highs, the result of strong domestic demand, constrained international supply and government plans to curb steel production. In this report, Rosealea explains why prices are likely to remain elevated but slowing demand growth should keep them from rising further.

Gavekal Research

Andrew Batson

May 03rd 2021

China’s economic policymakers are using the space afforded them by a rapid economic recovery from the pandemic to refocus on a longer-term effort to redirect resources for strategic and political purposes. The immediate effect is a multi-faceted tightening across many sectors. For investors, this effort may upend old uncertainties and create new risks.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Ernan Cui

Apr 28th 2021

China’s antitrust crackdown on its internet sector is just getting started. Earlier this month, regulators brought in 34 major internet platforms and made clear that abusive business practices will no longer be tolerated. In this report, Ernan explains why firms still focused on trying to outwit the system could suffer disproportionately.

Gavekal Research

Ernan Cui, Thomas Gatley, Wei He

Apr 23rd 2021

Risk is alive and well in China even amid a record economic recovery. Antitrust authorities are turning their attention to the rest of China's internet platforms, financial regulators are taking a tougher line and Chinese equity markets are looking a bit wobbly. In yesterday's webinar, our panel of China analysts discussed the latest regulatory developments and their implications for markets.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Dragonomics Team

Apr 22nd 2021

China’s post-Covid recovery continues, but Q1 should be the peak of the cycle. The strength of the rebound has given policymakers confidence to focus on longer-term issues; the result is a multi-dimensional tightening of policy. In the latest edition of our regular chartbook, the Dragonomics team explains the outlook for the economy and markets.

Gavekal Research

Tan Kai Xian

Apr 21st 2021

Vaccination programs around the world have gotten off the ground at widely varying speeds. But everywhere they tend to follow a similar S-curve trajectory. While most countries are still in the early stages of their vaccination programs, a very few are in their late stages, where the S-curves begin to flatten. Their experience provides an investible roadmap.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Dan Wang

Apr 20th 2021

China is using the best-funded industrial policy in history to engineer greater self-reliance in semiconductors. Ambition and a big checkbook, however, do not guarantee success. In this DeepChina report, Dan argues that Chinese chip firms will increase their market share in some segments, but will not make it to the technological frontier.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Dragonomics Team

Apr 16th 2021

Chinese GDP growth lost momentum in 1Q21 according to economic data released on Friday, with broad strength in the industrial sector offset by weakness in household consumption, particularly within services. In this Quick Take, the Dragonomics team dive into China’s Q1 economic figures and explain why they paint a picture of stability.

Gavekal Research

Charles Gave

Apr 13th 2021

In the last few days, Chinese policymakers have stepped up the campaign to rein in their domestic tech giants, slapping Alibaba with fines of US$2.75bn and forcing the restructuring of Alibaba spin-off Ant Financial. Their action is in stark contrast to the inaction of regulators in western countries. But this is hardly the only contrast between China and the west.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Xiaoxi Zhang, Rosealea Yao

Apr 12th 2021

China’s regulators are strengthening their curbs on the property market as its post-pandemic exuberance continues. In this piece, Xiaoxi and Rosealea explain the central bank’s latest moves to curb disguised mortgage lending and cap overall loan growth. The main effect of these controls will be to slow lending to households and cool housing prices.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Arthur Kroeber

Apr 07th 2021

With the hardening of the US-China strategic rivalry and technology’s central role in that rivalry, the possibility of a war over Taiwan is one which must be considered. In this report, Arthur explains the importance of the island to both countries and concludes that while the risk of war remains low, it is likely to rise in the next several years.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Rosealea Yao

Apr 02nd 2021

Chinese iron ore imports grew 9.5% in 2020 to 1.17bn tons despite rising tensions with Australia, China’s largest supplier. Top leaders are calling for greater supply-chain security and reduced dependence on Australian materials, but Rosealea explains that this is easier said than done given China’s immense appetite for the commodity.

Gavekal Research

Louis Gave

Mar 31st 2021

Over decades, investors have gotten used to living in a world of plenty, in which capital, labor, commodities and knowledge have all been in abundant supply. Today, however, while the world remains awash with cheap capital, there are signs that the supplies of labor, commodities and—most ominously of all—knowledge may be facing tightening constraints. In this paper, Louis asks whether, after years of abundance, the world may be facing a...

Gavekal Dragonomics

Ernan Cui

Mar 26th 2021

China administered over 3mn doses of Covid-19 vaccines on Thursday, accelerating its vaccination drive from around 1mn doses per day in February and 2mn per day last week. In this Quick Take, Ernan explains why this acceleration is not enough to meet the country’s vaccination targets, as the government’s main hurdle is not production but logistics.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Thomas Gatley, Ernan Cui

Mar 25th 2021

China’s car market is starting to show the first effects of the global chip scarcity, but Thomas and Ernan write that the shortage might just be starting to bite. Supply could resume by Q3, but even a temporary drag on auto production will have material consequences for China’s industrial sector and the economy at large.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Arthur Kroeber, Dan Wang

Mar 22nd 2021

Last week’s diplomatic meeting between China and the US was marked by harsh rhetoric as both sides used the event to signal toughness to their home audiences. In this report, Arthur and Dan outline what policy tools Beijing and Washington have at their disposal and why the Biden administration is struggling to articulate a clear China strategy.

Gavekal Research

Vincent Tsui

Mar 18th 2021

The Hong Kong stock market started 2021 as one of the world’s best performing, gaining 14% in the first six weeks of the year. In the weeks since, however, Hong Kong-listed equities have given back half those gains as sentiment has soured. In this short video interview, Vincent weighs the opposing forces at work in the local market to assess how they are likely to play out in the future.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Xiaoxi Zhang

Mar 17th 2021

2021 could be a pivotal year for the overhaul of credit ratings, which have long been an impediment to the functioning of China’s corporate bond market. The defaults of a few AAA-rated state firms have now pushed regulators into tackling long-standing problems, at a moment when cyclical and structural conditions are favorable for reform.

Gavekal Research

Louis Gave

Mar 15th 2021

In recent days, investors have had to absorb a series of troubling headlines from Europe, yet news that should be either bearish for the euro or bullish for the dollar failed to keep the euro from gaining last week. Meanwhile, the yen continues to grind lower. Why is that, and what does the inability of the dollar to rally tell us about the future?

Gavekal Research

Louis Gave, Charles Gave, Didier Darcet

Mar 10th 2021

As the US expands its deficits to pay for pandemic relief, emerging economies that use the US dollar for reserve backing have reason to fret. China is being incentivized to accelerate development of the renminbi as both an international standard and store of value. Louis, Charles and Didier offer a potential roadmap for how renminbi internationalization may unfold.

Gavekal Research

Charles Gave

Mar 10th 2021

In June 2019, I argued that big shifts in the US economy and financial markets largely result from changes in the relative price of energy. If oil prices are rising faster than nominal GDP, this points to energy shortages and more of the economy’s value-added going as the “miners’ rent”. This situation points to rising inflation and contracting price/earnings ratios.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Wei He

Mar 05th 2021

Officially, the normalization of China’s fiscal policy will be moderate in 2021: the government budget will narrow to 3.2% of GDP from 3.7%. But public-works spending is China’s true fiscal policy, and tighter financing does not bode well. Infrastructure investment is likely headed for a fourth year of negligible growth, and could even decline.

Gavekal Research

Dan Wang

Mar 02nd 2021

Taiwan’s position at the core of the global semiconductor industry has never looked more secure: it is now the undisputed leader in advanced chip manufacturing. But does that success increase the risk of military aggression from China? In fact not. As Dan argues in this piece, semiconductors are not a plausible trigger for a hot conflict.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Thomas Gatley

Feb 25th 2021

The writing is on the wall for China’s post-Covid bull market as the underlying credit and profit cycles that typically drive prices over the medium term are turning down in 2021. In this report, Thomas explains why liquidity flows can trump these fundamentals for a while, but not indefinitely.

Gavekal Research

Anatole Kaletsky, Louis Gave

Feb 19th 2021

In recent days, long-dated US treasury yields have made a clear move higher. Unless there’s a violent turnaround in the coming days, February will mark the seventh consecutive month of flat-to-negative returns for treasuries This is an important development, with potentially far-reaching investment implications. Anatole and Louis discuss the outlook for yields, and the consequences for asset prices.

Gavekal Research

Tom Miller

Feb 17th 2021

Beijing’s ability to weaponize its global trade power is concentrating minds from Washington to Canberra. On Tuesday it was reported that China has proposed controls on the production and export of rare earths. This threat is the latest example of why reducing critical dependence on Chinese trade is now a strategic priority for many countries, in particular those in the Anglosphere.

Gavekal Research

Vincent Tsui

Feb 15th 2021

Across Europe and the US, car plants are getting shuttered because of a shortage of microchips from Asia. This storm is centered on Taiwan, which for decades has been an unsung contract supplier of electronics and chemicals. For those who had not noticed, its firms now dominate high-end global chip production and current industry dynamics mean this grip is only likely to intensify.

Gavekal Research

Arthur Kroeber

Feb 11th 2021

Despite volumes of new information and the lightning creation of vaccines promising a path out of the pandemic, uncertainty remains. Almost daily we are bombarded with a mix of good news (the vaccines work really well!) and bad (new mutations resist vaccines!) that make it hard to know whether we should rejoice or despair. This note provides a framework for assessing these persistent uncertainties.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Thomas Gatley

Feb 08th 2021

China’s corporate profits rebounded in 2H20 after a horrific start to the year, but the profit cycle is now close to its peak. Looking past huge base effects, Thomas believes underlying growth will fade toward 10% in the first half of this year and zero in the second—not a bad macro outcome, but slower profits usually weigh on equity markets.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Ernan Cui

Feb 04th 2021

Despite its early successes in containing Covid-19, China is lagging Western countries in rolling out a mass vaccination program. In this report, Ernan explains why Chinese policymakers are not treating mass vaccination as an urgent issue and why a slow vaccine rollout could result in a drag on economic growth in late 2021.

Gavekal Research

Arthur Kroeber

Feb 01st 2021

It is looking likely that most countries will miss their Covid-19 vaccination targets for 2021. This creates a risk of slower than expected economic growth, especially in Europe which take half a year to emerge from its double-dip recession. Moreover, any activity dependent on international travel or large-scale gatherings will remain severely depressed until well into 2022.

Gavekal Research

Charles Gave, Cedric Gemehl, Didier Darcet

Jan 29th 2021

With Europe being hit hard by a second wave of Covid-19 and facing fresh lockdowns, Charles and Cedric assessed the outlook for the region’s growth and inflation in both the short and medium term. The webinar also focused on portfolio construction work being done by our Paris team: quantitative head of research Didier and Charles trained their sights on behavioral finance and suggested a route map for managing money in a “post-Keynesian” world.

Gavekal Research

Thomas Gatley

Jan 27th 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. In reality, Connect flows have not been the biggest force driving Hong Kong stocks higher in recent weeks. But structurally, flows of mainland capital are only going to become increasingly important...

Gavekal Dragonomics

Dragonomics Team

Jan 25th 2021

China’s unbalanced, industry-driven recovery from Covid has been very strong but is probably close to its peak. Meanwhile, renewed outbreaks are further delaying the normalization of consumer spending and services. In the latest edition of our regular chartbook, the Dragonomics team explains how these tensions will affect the economy in 2021.

Gavekal Research

Anatole Kaletsky

Jan 22nd 2021

In December, Anatole outlined 10 disparate risks that could derail the bull market in 2021. That was before the Democrats won full control of the US government, paving the way for approval of Joe Biden’s new super-size stimulus package. In light of the developments over the last month, Anatole reassesses his 10 risks.

Gavekal Research

Anatole Kaletsky, Cedric Gemehl, Nick Andrews

Jan 20th 2021

As the pandemic intensifies across Europe growth prospects in the first quarter are dimming, but investors are focused on a potential economic reopening by the spring. In yesterday’s webinar, Anatole Kaletsky, Nick Andrews and Cedric Gemehl discussed whether markets are overly optimistic since the European Union seems to have botched its vaccine procurement strategy.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Xiaoxi Zhang

Jan 19th 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

Dragonomics Team

Jan 18th 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 Dragonomics

Rosealea Yao

Jan 13th 2021

China’s policymakers are expanding their restrictions on bank financing of the property sector, imposing limits on mortgage lending in addition to curbs on borrowing by developers. In this report, Rosealea explains why the new regulations do not shift her expectations of flat property sales and a modest decline in construction activity in 2021.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Ernan Cui

Jan 11th 2021

China diagnosed 527 new cases of Covid-19 in the first 10 days of 2021, mostly in Hebei province, in the biggest local outbreak since July 2020. In this Quick Take, Ernan explains why this outbreak is challenging China’s Covid-19 playbook and why its timing is particularly concerning ahead of the Chinese New Year.

Gavekal Research

Charles Gave

Jan 08th 2021

On Thursday, Anatole set out his view that undivided Democratic Party control of both the executive and legislative branches of the US government opens the door for unconstrained Keynesian stimulus, which will be highly positive for the US economy and equities. It will probably come as little surprise to Gavekal clients that I should dispute whether such unconstrained Keynesianism will be good news either for the economy or for US equities

Gavekal Dragonomics

Wei He

Jan 06th 2021

The renminbi gained 1% against the US dollar in the first two trading days of 2021, leading China’s central bank to signal a pushback against appreciation by tweaking foreign-lending limits. In this Quick Take, Wei explains that such moves are likely to slow than stop the currency’s gains, as fundamentals still favor the renminbi.

Gavekal Research

Louis Gave

Jan 04th 2021

In hindsight, 2020 showed that if three conditions are met, a stock can break free from the earth’s gravity, and lift off for destinations only sci-fi writers could have imagined. Consequently, one of the most important questions for investors in 2021 is whether such inter-galactic travel can continue. Or will the coming year instead see a shift in investor behavior, with gravity once again exerting its downward pull?

Gavekal Dragonomics

Rosealea Yao

Dec 18th 2020

Iron ore prices hit an eight year high in early December in response to a tight steel market. Rosealea writes that this uptick in steel demand, likely due to China’s strong steel-intensive export figures, is unsustainable and should subside in the new year—resulting in a correction for iron ore prices in the coming months.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Wei He

Dec 17th 2020

China’s economy is almost back to normal after Covid-19, and that means economic policy will also normalize: the question is not whether, but how. In this piece, Wei argues that the most likely policy settings for 2021 will be somewhat tighter fiscal policy and a deceleration in total credit growth, but no increase in policy interest rates.