Gavekal Research

Anatole Kaletsky

Jul 17th 2017

Next month will mark the tenth anniversary of the Global Financial Crisis, and the developed world’s GDP per capita still lingers 20-25% below its pre-crisis long term trend. Were there no good economic policies to deal with the aftermath? Far from it, argues Anatole, but four features of post-crisis politics and ideology blocked constructive policy responses.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Andrew Batson

Jul 14th 2017

China’s 2016 stimulus likely provided enough momentum to ensure GDP growth in 2017 will meet the 6.5% target. But on closer examination the stimulus looks as much a rescue operation for troubled regions as a shift in national policy. This interpretation implies that the political drivers of Chinese policymaking are different from what most commentators believe.

Gavekal Research

Udith Sikand

Jul 13th 2017

As if alarmed by the realignment in global financial markets over the last few weeks, Janet Yellen struck a slightly more dovish note in her Congressional testimony yesterday. Yet the Federal Reserve chair’s more nuanced words are unlikely to temper by much the developing skepticism among investors towards the US dollar bonds of emerging markets.

Gavekal Research

Thomas Gatley, Long Chen

Jul 13th 2017

Recent efforts to open up China's stock and bond markets have granted deeper access for foreign investors. In Tuesday's conference call Thomas Gatley outlined what MSCI's decision to include A-shares in its indexes means for investors, while Chen Long argued that the next great bond bull market may happen in China.

Gavekal Research

Charles Gave, Louis Gave

Jul 12th 2017

Anyone who bought European equities in the wake of Emmanuel Macron’s impressive win in the French presidential election is down a few percent in euro terms and underperforming global equities by about 1%. Charles are Louis are not convinced that this can be explained away by the markets taking a “breather” after a big run up. They smell darker forces at work.

Gavekal Research

Will Denyer, Tan Kai Xian

Jul 11th 2017

As usual the market focused closely on the headline number in last Friday’s employment report, which saw non-farm payrolls come in at a stronger than expected 220,000 in June. As usual, we caution against reading too much into any one month’s figures, for the reasons Anatole has explained so elegantly (see Beyond The March Payrolls Soft Patch). Instead we prefer to take a step back and to attempt to answer the two big questions currently hanging...

Gavekal Research

Nick Andrews, Cedric Gemehl

Jul 10th 2017

When a market fails to rally further on successive rounds of good news, investors can be forgiven for feeling a tad nervous about the outlook. It is little surprise, therefore, that many portfolio managers are expressing skepticism about the near-term sustainability of the bull market in eurozone equities. Since the election of Emmanuel Macron as French president two months ago, the macro headlines from the single currency area have been...

Gavekal Research

Tan Kai Xian, Will Denyer

Jul 07th 2017

As often happens, US data is sending mixed messages. Yesterday’s ADP report showed weak job growth in June, despite the latest ISM service sector PMI being decidedly perky. Investing according to the latest high-frequency growth data is a good way to get whiplash. Instead, let’s take a step back and review the US economy’s overall positioning.

Gavekal Research

Yanmei Xie

Jul 06th 2017

In this brief video interview Yanmei Xie outlines the ever-shrinking list of options the US has for solving the problem of a nuclear-armed North Korea. The risk of military action remains slim, but with North Korea's recent test of an intercontinental ballistic missile it is no longer unthinkable.

Gavekal Research

Cedric Gemehl

Jul 06th 2017

On Monday Emmanuel Macron launched what is being dubbed an imperial presidency. He offered a neo-Gaullist vision of a strong leader nurturing a troubled nation’s recovery. Yet he also unfurled an electoral reform program aiming to break the old political duopoly. The worry is that Macron uses up his political capital and economic reform stalls.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Rosealea Yao

Jul 05th 2017

It’s no secret that managing the housing market is a core part of China’s economic policy. But as Rosealea explains in this piece, government’s role in supporting housing sales is now even greater than most realize. The government is buying millions of unsold housing units directly from developers, and the scale of the program is only increasing.

Gavekal Research

Arthur Kroeber

Jul 03rd 2017

Last week Washington soured its relationship with China by imposing sanctions on some Chinese companies and individuals that do business with North Korea and announcing a big arms sale package for Taiwan. Rumors also continue to percolate that Trump is preparing for more aggressive trade action. Arthur discusses whether it is time to worry.

Gavekal Research

Tom Miller

Jun 30th 2017

Tomorrow India will roll out its most important economic reform since the early 1990s. The Goods and Services Tax will transform the country’s 29 states, which run semi-autonomous fiscal systems, into a single market. Backed by strong fundamentals, Modi’s reform agenda is playing well with investors: MSCI India is up 19% this year, foreigners are piling into Indian bonds, and FDI is at record levels. Yet, look closer and a weaker economy emerges...

Gavekal Research

Tan Kai Xian

Jun 30th 2017

Determining the exact extent of the US output gap at any point in time is immensely difficult, if not impossible. Earlier this month, KX suggested monitoring four indicators: the gap between actual unemployment and the “natural” rate; real corporate profits; profit margins, and the change of US CPI inflation. Today he adds another indicator to that list: the ratio of factory order backlogs to new orders. By this measure too, the US is running...

Gavekal Research

Charles Gave

Jun 29th 2017

In recent days , central bankers in the US and Europe have been signaling how much they want to end unconventional monetary policies and revert to a more normal monetary model that does not put asset prices at the heart of the system. It is a laudable aim. But, warns Charles in this piece, central bankers have seldom managed to transition from one monetary regime to another without causing convulsions in the financial markets. This time, the...

Gavekal Research

Will Denyer

Jun 27th 2017

When things cannot get any better, they rarely do. Credit spreads for both high-yield and investment-grade corporate bonds are back near lows last seen just before the onset of previous financial busts. Will the calm soon give way to another perfect storm? Worryingly, corporate fundamentals are already deteriorating.

Gavekal Research

Nick Andrews

Jun 26th 2017

The European Union authorities bowed to the inevitable yesterday. They agreed to let Rome spend as much as €17bn in Italian taxpayers’ cash to prevent losses among the senior bondholders and depositors in two Italian regional banks that the European Central Bank declared on Friday to be failing.

Gavekal Research

Louis Gave

Jun 23rd 2017

Years ago, when Charles attempted to retire, my mother promptly decided that retirement was the “worst of both worlds”: more husband and less money. She quickly put the kibosh on the idea. The US government is a little more complicated to run than the Gave household, yet health care policy also offers a “worst of both worlds” outcome—profligate spending and rising bureaucracy (from government interference) and eye-watering prices (from the...

Gavekal Research

Nick Andrews

Jun 22nd 2017

The eurozone’s rising tide is floating Italy’s boat. Earlier this month, the national statistics agency revised the country’s first quarter growth up from 0.2% on the previous quarter to 0.4%, marking nine consecutive quarters of economic expansion. This equals the longest stretch of continuous growth since the mid-1990s. What’s more, with unemployment down steeply to a five-year low of 11.1% in April and the composite PMI at a buoyant 55.2, the...

Gavekal Research

Nick Andrews

Jun 20th 2017

Last week the Bank of England left interest rates unchanged, but three out of eight policymakers voted for a hike. In the past any weakness in UK consumption has been met with a soothing monetary response. The fact that the consumer looks increasingly forlorn, yet the BoE is hanging tough suggests the game has changed.

Gavekal Research

Cedric Gemehl

Jun 19th 2017

French voters have handed President Emmanuel Macron a clear parliamentary majority after his La République en Marche party yesterday secured an estimated 360 out of 577 seats. He will also get support from many of the 170 or so Republican and Socialist party deputies who were just elected. After a record low turnout, critics may question his moral authority, but there is no doubting that Macron is now the master of French politics. Hence, he is...

Gavekal Research

Louis Gave

Jun 16th 2017

Three prices have a disproportionate impact on global financial prices: the oil price, the price of the US dollar, and US interest rates. Often the rest is just noise. In the long term, it is shifts in these three prices that drive economic cycles and determine the performance of almost any investment strategy. Take this year as an example. The investment environment has been dominated by:

Gavekal Research

Will Denyer

Jun 15th 2017

As universally expected, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by another 25bp yesterday. It also published details about its plan to start shrinking its balance sheet before the end of this year. While this too was widely expected, there remain plenty of questions about how the markets will respond. With no precedents for the Fed’s impending move to contract its bloated balance sheet, no one can be entirely confident how the market will...

Gavekal Research

Tan Kai Xian

Jun 13th 2017

The US economy is offering up conflicting signals. Recent manufacturing survey data has been soft, auto sales have slowed and the rate of job creation has markedly reduced. At the same time, inflation expectations have dipped after their bolt upwards earlier this year. Yet, redirect the gaze and the same US economy shows distinct signs of waddling towards a late cycle denouement with the labor market, in particular, looking tight. Put another...

Gavekal Research

Anatole Kaletsky, Louis Gave

Jun 12th 2017

Anatole Kaletsky responded to the British Conservative Party’s shock loss of their electoral majority by arguing that the UK is now likely to end up with a soft Brexit and may even end up rejoining the European Union. Louis Gave looked across recent market moves and argued that the case for emerging markets remains exceptionally strong.

Gavekal Research

Charles Gave

Jun 09th 2017

I know, or I believe I know, that over thelong term equity returns follow one thing only: corporate earnings. As an example, look at Japan. If I rebase both the Topix price index and corporate earnings to 100 in 1978, I find that today the market is at at 385, and earnings are at... 385. Spot on!

Gavekal Dragonomics

Hugh White, Agatha Kratz, Jude Blanchette, Simon Cartledge

Jun 08th 2017

China is attempting to become Asia’s new leader. The high costs of confronting it mean that the US’s regional influence is likely to dwindle. But widespread distrust of China means that many countries will continue to prefer investment from the EU, US and Japan. This issue of China Economic Quarterly investigates China’s role in the Asia-Pacific.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Tom Miller

Jun 08th 2017

China’s Belt and Road Initiative elicits widespread skepticism and concern, while the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is often seen as a poor cousin of the aborted Trans-Pacific Partnership. But they are currently the only credible plans for greater Asian integration.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Agatha Kratz

Jun 08th 2017

While China’s trade with Southeast Asia flourishes, a lack of experience has left its investment in the region lagging far behind. For now, Southeast Asian countries will continue to work with Japanese, EU and US institutions—regardless of how attractive China’s initial bids are.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Arthur Kroeber, Dan Wang

Jun 08th 2017

Shifting China’s industrial production from low-margin assembly to high-value, technology-intensive goods has long been the Holy Grail for planners. Export data show a lot of progress, but also an enduringly high reliance on foreign components, technology and management.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Simon Cartledge

Jun 08th 2017

Its return to China was greeted with cautious optimism, but Hong Kong’s past 20 years have disappointed. Tepid growth amplified inequality and bred political dissatisfaction. What happened since 1997? And what can we expect for the future?

Gavekal Research

Udith Sikand

Jun 08th 2017

The Asian trade cycle, having perked up notably since mid-2016, shows worrying signs of rolling over. Korean export growth in May halved from a month earlier, while Taiwan has seen the same measure steadily slow since February. Today, China reported a reduction in export growth to single digit levels, while import demand growth for May fell to 15% YoY, compared to 38% in February. To an extent, this can all be explained by flattering base...

Gavekal Dragonomics

Rosealea Yao

Jun 07th 2017

China’s iron ore price is now down by about a third from its peak in February. In this piece, Rosealea reassesses the market in light of this correction, and argues that the price is unlikely to stay substantially below US$60 per ton for long. That’s because domestic miners responding to low prices by cutting output, helping rebalance the market.

Gavekal Research

Louis Gave

Jun 06th 2017

Rugby players fall into one of two categories: the forwards, who typically go where the ball is (and in the process put their heads in places most sane people wouldn’t put their feet), and the backs, who try to go where the ball will be, which enables them to look good and keep their kit clean, but earns them the scorn of the forwards. Peter FitzSimons, the first Aussie to play for a French club (Brive), once remarked: “Come the revolution, the...

Gavekal Research

Arthur Kroeber

Jun 02nd 2017

After a week spent in Europe antagonizing fellow democratic leaders, conspicuously failing to reaffirm the US’s commitment to defend its NATO allies, and driving Angela Merkel into an uncharacteristically histrionic speech about Europe’s need to go it alone on security policy, Trump came home and announced he is pulling the US out of the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Gavekal Research

Charles Gave

Jun 01st 2017

My career in financial markets started in January 1971, half a year before Richard Nixon changed the basis of the post-WWII financial order by ending gold convertibility for US dollars. Hence, I thought that readers may be interested in a chart below that tells a simple story of those years, while also offering an asset allocation tool that for me has proven invaluable. In short, it is the story of running a balanced portfolio.

Gavekal Research

Tom Holland

May 31st 2017

In mid-April, when UK prime minister Theresa May took the decision to call a general election for June 8, she did so because she was confident her Conservative party would be returned to government with a massively increased parliamentary majority. Six weeks later, and with just one week of campaigning still to go, that confidence is a distant memory.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Long Chen

May 30th 2017

Driven by a reflating economy and tightening financial conditions, Chinese bond yields have now risen back to their levels of late 2014. For foreign investors, the combination of higher yields, less currency risk, and some additional opening of the domestic market could make the second half of 2017 an attractive time to get into renminbi bonds.

Gavekal Research

Louis Gave

May 30th 2017

Three months ago, I took over the management of our global equities managed accounts and our global equities fund (GAVPLAT:ID for those who care to follow its progress). And so, like every equity manager out there, I was forced to confront the single most important question in the markets today: Does one buy into the “hot” tech stocks that keep on pushing higher? Or does one give the Amazons, Facebooks, Googles and Alibabas of this world a wide...

Gavekal Research

Long Chen

May 26th 2017

When Moody’s downgraded China’s credit rating this week, it also downgraded Hong Kong. Although Hong Kong is fiscally autonomous, and has seen no rapid build-up in leverage comparable to the mainland, Moody’s still downgraded the territory from Aa1 to Aa2. In explanation, the agency cited Hong Kong’s “tightening economic, financial and political linkages with the mainland,” which it warned “risk introducing more direct contagion channels”...

Gavekal Dragonomics

Rosealea Yao

May 25th 2017

Coal was the most volatile commodity price in China last year, but it has been remarkably stable in 2017. In this piece, Rosealea explains how the government has revived a contract system of regulating coal prices, in the place of campaigns to cut or raise coal output. Coal prices are thus likely to stay at their relatively high levels for longer.

Gavekal Dragonomics

Tom Miller

May 24th 2017

China wants to build a new satellite city to take over Beijing’s “non-capital functions,” and their associated workers. In this piece, Tom Miller examines the Xiong’an New Area and the government’s grand plans to cap Beijing’s population and spread wealth to surrounding regions. He finds the economic benefits are unlikely to outweigh the costs.

Gavekal Research

Udith Sikand

May 24th 2017

In this interview Udith discusses the key developments in India’s macro economy and markets, which have been clouded by the demonetization episode and yet more changes to national economic statistics. The fog may not be about to clear as the government prepares to roll out a new national goods and sales tax with the potential for significant economic disruption.

Gavekal Research

Anatole Kaletsky

May 23rd 2017

The US Federal Reserve will almost certainly announce the second of this year’s rate hikes at its next policy meeting on June 14. The week before, on June 8, the European Central Bank will probably state for the first time in years that the risks to the eurozone are now balanced “symmetrically” instead of tilting unequivocally downwards. If they were brave they might even echo Benoit Coeuré, the French governing board member who in an interview...

Gavekal Dragonomics

Thomas Gatley

May 22nd 2017

The recent financial crackdown may give the impression that “China is finally getting serious about corporate deleveraging.” This impression is wrong: while leverage is already declining, this is likely to stop in 2017. Worries about zombie companies have also faded as rising profits and falling rates make it easier to service corporate debt.

Gavekal Research

Neil Newman

May 19th 2017

In this interview Neil explains why the oft repeated line about Japanese couples not wanting to have many kids is a huge exaggeration. The problem is bizarre government regulations and a drastic shortage of childcare facilities. Such inhibitors to tiny feet pattering are about to get a major government-induced overhaul, and a Japanese baby boom may be around the corner. If correct, this shift in Japan’s demographic curve could have profound...

Gavekal Research

Tan Kai Xian

May 18th 2017

After weeks of ignoring ever wackier White House shenanigans, investors yesterday focused on US political risk. The revelation of memos that seem to offer prima facie evidence of the president obstructing justice means the chance of an impeachment has jumped from improbable to possible. As the government’s investigative machinery cranked up a notch yesterday, US equities experienced their worst day since last September and treasury yields fell...

Gavekal Research

Cedric Gemehl, Nick Andrews

May 17th 2017

What does Germany want? That was a question we asked in January as sabre rattling by the new US president unnerved Europe’s instinctive mercantilist. Our answer was that Germany was at a cross-roads in its modern history and could either double down on a narrow pursuit of surpluses, or instead embrace its European Union members with a fresh push to federalism. Monday’s meeting between Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel confirmed that the latter...

Gavekal Research

Nick Andrews

May 15th 2017

European Union membership entails four core freedoms—goods, services, capital and people. To keep the first three, but not the last one as the UK wants has been dubbed “having one’s cake and eating it”. The UK also wants to be exempt from the European Court of Justice’s control and to exit the EU customs union, opening the way for free trade agreements to be made elsewhere. The assumption is that these demands will ensure the UK ends up with a “...