Gavekal Dragonomics

Xiaoxi Zhang, Wei He, Rosealea Yao

Oct 25th 2021

Troubled developer China Evergrande Group made an interest payment on a US dollar bond just before the 30-day grace period expired on October 23, narrowly avoiding a default. However, this does not mean the wave of developer defaults is over, or that the freeze in demand for developer debt has thawed.

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Louis Gave

Oct 25th 2021

In the last couple of weeks Louis has been on the road, meeting clients face-to-face for the first time in 18 months. In this report, he distills some of the spirit of those conversations, addressing hot button topics from the sharp run-up in energy and commodity prices, through China’s economic slowdown, to the increase in tensions across the Taiwan Strait.

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Will Denyer, Tan Kai Xian

Oct 22nd 2021

The Federal Reserve is planning to wind down its creation of artificial savings just as the US net national savings rate has ticked lower and the Treasury is preparing to rebuild its depleted cash balances. Will and KX set out what these all these shifts—as well as rising inflation, tightening labor markets and deteriorating housing affordability—mean for US stock and bond markets.

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Vincent Tsui

Oct 21st 2021

Hong Kong is sticking to its zero-Covid policies, complete with a travel ban on outsiders and Draconian quarantine rules for returning residents, even as Singapore tentatively reopens to international arrivals. In this video interview, Vincent explains what is driving Hong Kong’s uncompromising stance on Covid. He assesses whether it will damage the city’s standing as a regional financial center, and whether doubts over the status of China...

Gavekal Research

Tom Miller

Oct 20th 2021

Fears about a debt crisis erupting in the world’s most financially vulnerable nations have receded, but there is still uncertainty over how developing economies will manage their debt repayments. The biggest lender to low- and middle-income countries is China, and a new study estimates that debt owed to China has been severely underreported.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Rosealea Yao

Oct 19th 2021

To solve China’s power shortages, planners are both liberalizing electricity prices and browbeating mines to produce more coal. In this report, Rosealea explains that while getting through the crisis will require a rebound in coal-fired power, energy price liberalization should support China’s environmental goals in the long run.

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Will Denyer

Oct 18th 2021

Today, the global economy lacks its usual order. Each month brings a new shortage that is disrupting supply chains and driving up prices. In short, the right goods are not being delivered at the right time and place. Will examines the drivers of spacial and temporal "discoordination" to determine how investors should allocate assets in this challenging environment.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Dragonomics Team

Oct 18th 2021

Chinese economic growth continued to slow in 3Q21 thanks to ongoing supply constraints and demand weakness. In this Quick Take, the Dragonomics team explains that while China’s poor September figures reflect supply-side constraints, of greater concern is the weakening demand side due to a deepening property downturn.

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Andrew Batson

Oct 15th 2021

China’s leaders capitalized on the country’s post-Covid boom by pursuing reforms that further Xi Jinping’s political goals. This has resulted in hits to both economic growth and financial markets. Andrew unpicks these developments and explains why he thinks no overt U-turn in the broad policy approach is likely, but addressed possible regulatory softening moves.

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Tan Kai Xian

Oct 14th 2021

Some may hope that supply bottlenecks quickly ease and the price-hike scare of 2021 soon fades, but that is not the story of the latest US inflation reading. In short, US inflation is now persistent and the Federal Reserve will soon have to address this reality head-on.

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Udith Sikand

Oct 13th 2021

Last week, Charles Gave updated his Four Quadrants view. Udith takes it a step further, combining the quadrants with another two-by-two framework by Michael Power of Ninety One to gleam insight into what the changing macroeconomic environment means for emerging markets, and who will be the winners and losers.

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Nick Andrews

Oct 12th 2021

It will come as news to no one that energy prices and exchange rates are intimately connected. Historically, over the last 20 years, the euro has tended to be positively correlated with the price of oil, while the broad US dollar exchange rate has tended to be inversely correlated. So, over the first half of 2008 as the price of oil surged to a record high, the euro hit its all-time high against the US dollar. And in 2014 as the oil price...

Gavekal Dragonomics

Ernan Cui

Oct 11th 2021

With the results in for China’s antitrust investigation of food-delivery giant Meituan, Ernan writes that the direction of China’s antitrust policy is now becoming increasingly evident, with clear guidance from regulators reducing uncertainty. However, platform profits should continue dwindling as their business models are chipped at by regulators.

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Thomas Gatley, Tom Miller, Charles Gave, Anatole Kaletsky

Oct 08th 2021

In our recent London seminar, Thomas Gatley addressed China's changed business environment and Tom Miller unpicked US-China geopolitical tensions. Charles Gave and Anatole resumed their dialogue about the future of the world economy in their first in-person sparring session since the pandemic started.

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Will Denyer

Oct 08th 2021

Going into 4Q21, a worry for Will had been that asset prices faced the prospect of two tightening moves to US liquidity. Yet, with Congress now punting a debt-ceiling reckoning to December, this could, in turn, delay the Fed’s taper announcement to December, or even January. Thus, yesterday’s deal on Capitol Hill could allow temporary relief on the liquidity front.

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Anatole Kaletsky

Oct 07th 2021

There is a growing drumbeat of commentary arguing that today’s shortages of everything from microchips to natural gas must end in an inflationary blowout and a return to the lascivious 1970s. Anatole thinks that today’s shortages are likely to correct relatively quickly, and for investors the coming period is more likely to resemble the 1950s.

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Charles Gave

Oct 07th 2021

Regular readers may be familiar Charles's my longest-serving analytical tool, the Four Quadrants framework. It aims to represent the four economic states that at different times can exist in a market economy. Through this prism, he examines current market conditions to figure out where in the quadrants we are, and where we're headed.

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Nick Andrews

Oct 06th 2021

The results of this weekend's municipal elections in Italy look to have buttressed Mario Draghi’s national unity government, which is half way through an ambitious overhaul of core institutions that have failed the country for decades. With 70% of Italians favoring Draghi’s initiative, and no general election due until mid-2023, the betting is that he gets to finish the job.

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Andrew Batson

Oct 04th 2021

China’s leaders sought to use the country’s post-Covid boom to press ahead with reforms aimed at furthering Xi Jinping’s political goals. The resulting property slowdown, China Evergrande’s financial troubles and the flight out of internet stocks have hit both economic growth and financial markets. Despite this, no overt U-turn is likely.

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Nick Andrews

Oct 01st 2021

Thursday saw UK GDP growth for 2Q21 revised up to a perky 5.5% from a previous 4.8%. Yet all is not well in shortage-plagued Britain. While other economies facesupply chain disruption and energy shortages, the “just in time” UK economy looks to be facing a perfect inflationary storm that could deliver a recession in 2022.

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Andrew Batson, Wei He

Sep 30th 2021

The power shortages rippling across China threaten to weigh on economic growth that was already slowing more than previously expected. Manufacturing firms in provinces from Ningxia to Henan are being told they can only have limited electricity supply, and many are having to cut production in response. This combination of supply- and demand-side problems is clearly negative for growth, but if the current sharp slowdown in heavy industry continues...

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Louis Gave

Sep 29th 2021

Like many other parents, Louis has seen his share of kids' movie sequels, which unfortunately fall much too short of the of the first installment. This reminds him of two “curve-balls” that investors are now having to digest. The first is the China Evergrande debt debacle. The second is the looming shortage of energy across most of the industrialized world.

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Nick Andrews

Sep 28th 2021

Germany is headed for a three-party coalition for the first time since Konrad Adenauer’s governments of the 1950s. Multiple options remain on the table but a center-left figure should eventually be sworn in as chancellor. The issue is that material differences over fiscal policy mean that coalition talks could drag out well into 2022. How these divisive issues are bridged will determine the way that Germany and Europe react to growing economic...

Gavekal Dragonomics

Xiaoxi Zhang

Sep 28th 2021

How much financial stress can China’s developers take? Thanks to strict financial regulation and slowing sales, every channel of financing for developers is now tightening simultaneously. In this piece, Xiaoxi explains how this puts pressure on policymakers to ease those financing restrictions, and why bank lending is the most likely beneficiary.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Wei He

Sep 27th 2021

The southbound channel of the Bond Connect program linking mainland China and Hong Kong debt markets started trading on Friday. In this Quick Take, Wei explains that although outflows are unlikely to be large in the early stages, the program should eventually carry major flows and help grow Hong Kong’s offshore bond market.

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Nick Andrews, Cedric Gemehl

Sep 24th 2021

Germans will soon go to the polls, while the European Central Bank has denied media reports that it is considering raising interest rates early. In other words, there is no shortage of news and events that may make markets jittery. In this webinar our Europe team attempt to make sense of it all and plot Europe’s likely fiscal and monetary course.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Dan Wang

Sep 23rd 2021

China’s regulatory onslaught against companies like Ant Group, Didi Chuxing and Tencent has been widely referred to as a “tech crackdown.” In this piece, Dan argues that the government’s actions are less a sign that it has turned against tech than they are a rejection of the idea that the consumer internet is the peak of technological achievement.

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Will Denyer

Sep 23rd 2021

It is possible the US equity market was simply confused on Wednesday, when it rallied after the Federal Open Markets Committee unfurled its communiqué. Or perhaps it was just oversold. Either way, the Federal Reserve revealed itself to be as hawkish as could have been expected. Asset purchases will be tapered “soon” and likely occur at a faster pace than last time around. Interest rates could be hiked next year and the Treasury will soon become...

Gavekal Research

Tom Miller

Sep 22nd 2021

The “Aukus” security partnership sparked a diplomatic explosion when it was unveiled by Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States last week. As the smoke clears, America’s strategy to counter China is becoming clear. But the diplomatic fallout from Aukus also reflects a new reality. How does Europe fit into this brave new world, and how will China respond?

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Udith Sikand

Sep 22nd 2021

The troubles of debt-laden Chinese property developer Evergrande are no Lehman moment, but they do pose a significant risk of international contagion across emerging markets, which investors would be rash to ignore.

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Wei He

Sep 21st 2021

Fears about the potential systemic risks posed by troubled property developer Evergrande reverberated through global financial markets on Monday. Unless China’s regulators seriously mismanage the situation, a systemic crisis in the country’s financial sector is not on the cards. Nevertheless, lenders will not be able to escape the costs.

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Yanmei Xie

Sep 17th 2021

The US government and the auto industry are now pulling in the same direction of decarbonizing transportation. In this piece, Yanmei asks if the emerging government-industry alliance can accelerate vehicle electrification, where the US has fallen behind Europe and China, and whether they can catch up to Tesla and foreign competitors.

Gavekal Research

Will Denyer, Tan Kai Xian, Yanmei Xie

Sep 17th 2021

As renewed Covid outbreaks curtail activity and the labor market starts to normalize, the US economy is no longer generating big upside growth surprises. Will the Federal Reserve defer its retreat from super-easy monetary policy, and what will come of the Biden administration's fiscal strategy?

Gavekal Research

Will Denyer

Sep 16th 2021

As investors have flipped between euphoria and dejection over the future of crypto-currencies and related digital assets, prices have had a crazy ride. In this video Will outlines a framework for thinking about valuations. Even if digital art sold as NFTs sticks around, the basic economics of their use case means they probably won't be great stores of value.

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Louis Gave

Sep 15th 2021

Tuesday’s US CPI release shed little light on the “transitory versus persistent” inflation debate. Airfares and hotel rates weakened on the delta outbreak. And surprisingly, rents remained muted, while used car prices rolled over even as new car prices surged. Still, US CPI gained 5.3% YoY, while core CPI rose 4% YoY. By the standards of recent decades, these are big numbers.

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Tom Miller

Sep 15th 2021

As India’s economy has weakened, so too have its democratic foundations. Since Narendra Modi’s reelection victory in 2019, “the world’s largest democracy” has flirted with despotism. State institutions have been co-opted, freedoms repressed and minorities attacked. But a handful of listed companies—especially those run by tycoons with personal ties to Modi—are thriving.

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Charles Gave

Sep 13th 2021

It’s now more than 10 years since Charles published a seminal paper titled The High Cost Of Free Money, in which he argued that free-market capitalism could not function properly without a free-market-determined cost of capital. Today it’s clear that capital markets, at least, can continue to operate, but Charles argues this has created very little new wealth.

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Nick Andrews

Sep 10th 2021

Ahead of Germany’s election in a couple of weeks, the center-left Social Democratic Party has recently climbed up the polls to eclipse the previously dominant Christian Democratic Union. If the polling is right, the SPD is likely to form a coalition government with Germany’s smaller parties. Nick breaks out the tea leaves to see what a political shift is likely to mean.

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Nick Andrews

Sep 10th 2021

For decades, urban England has had an under-supplied and over-bought housing market. UK governments of all political stripes have tried and failed to unblock building pipelines. Britain is hardly alone in having seen home prices rocket due to pandemic effects, but there was a grim inevitability to UK home prices rising 13% in the last year. Yet, at the same juncture, there is evidence that a mixture of decent policymaking and smart market...

Gavekal Research

Udith Sikand, Tom Miller

Sep 09th 2021

India is enduring a shaky, stop-start recovery. Headline GDP growth in the April-June quarter came in at a stellar 20%, but base effects are distorting the true picture. The biggest risk for investors, argue Udith and Tom, is an uncertain monetary environment. As the Fed readies to taper its asset purchases, both exports and the bond market are vulnerable to disruption.

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Louis Gave

Sep 08th 2021

Over the last 18 months, Covid developments have been a key driver of financial market performance. Louis contends that this period can be split into four distinct phases. In this piece, he asks whether we are now entering a fifth phase. To do this he weighs up both encouraging and concerning developments within the pandemic and economic policy choices that flow from them.

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Udith Sikand

Sep 08th 2021

Animals can apparently sense impending storms and so take evasive action. Low-flying birds, sneezing cats, croaking frogs, huddled sheep and sedentary cows are all said to indicate the onset of heavy rain. In global finance, emerging markets are most exposed to sudden climatic shifts and have learned the hard way that it is unwise to be exposed when a tempest strikes. The issue today is the Federal Reserve’s well-telegraphed intention to dial...

Gavekal Dragonomics

Thomas Gatley

Sep 07th 2021

China’s government has vast ambitions for its industrial policy, yet it spends surprisingly little on subsidies and tax breaks. Instead, it relies on domestic capital markets for funding. In this piece, Thomas explains how markets can multiply those initial subsidies into much larger spending in the government’s favored industrial sectors.

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Yanmei Xie

Sep 03rd 2021

In the same week that the US military completed its chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, President Joe Biden outlined a more contained doctrine for US foreign policy. In this video interview, Yanmei argues against a declinist view of the Kabul dash for the exit, contending that the longer-term impact may be a much-needed reset of the American imperial project.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Xiaoxi Zhang

Sep 02nd 2021

China’s central bank has now endorsed the creation of a domestic high-yield bond market in an attempt to reverse the increasing exclusion of private-sector borrowers from existing debt markets. In this piece, Xiaoxi outlines how financial regulators are trying to increase both the supply of and demand for high-yield corporate bonds.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Thomas Gatley

Sep 01st 2021

China’s non-financial listed companies reported strong sales, profit and capital expenditure growth for Q2. Thomas explains why listed earnings should decelerate into Q3 as the housing cycle turns down and export demand moderates. High retained earnings and low funding costs will continue to support capex, but appetite is likely to weaken.

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Tan Kai Xian

Sep 01st 2021

So far, markets have not panicked over the prospect of the Federal Reserve tapering its asset purchases. But when it comes, the taper will materially tighten global liquidity conditions. In this calm before the storm, investors running global portfolios should focus on their hedges.

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Louis Gave

Aug 31st 2021

Canada’s federal elections rarely make headlines. This may be because whoever wins, the outcome is usually much the same. However, Canada’s September 20 election may cast a shadow that falls beyond the country’s borders. This is because, to a large extent, the election will be a referendum on Covid policies.

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Will Denyer

Aug 30th 2021

After all the build-up hype, investors seem to have taken Jerome Powell saying that the Federal Reserve may soon be buying less assets in their stride. They have no doubt taken solace from the Fed chair’s promise that tapering does not mean imminent interest rate hikes, or quantitative tightening. So is the great 2021 “taper whimper” done and dusted? Perhaps not, for while the Fed’s expectation management has been slick, in the months ahead...