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Gavekal Research
Cedric Gemehl
Jun 19th 2020
From A Tax To A Subsidy
There will be some hard bargaining ahead when the European Union’s 27 heads of government meet by video conference Friday in an attempt to thrash out details of the bloc’s proposed €750bn recovery fund. German chancellor Angela Merkel is urging a quick deal. But with the “frugal four” countries led by Dutch premier Mark Rutte holding out for strict conditions, a final agreement could yet take several months, with the fund unlikely to start...
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Gavekal Dragonomics
Rosealea Yao
Jun 19th 2020
Explaining The Iron Ore Surge
Chinese iron ore prices have surged by 30% since May due to growing Chinese demand, shrinking Brazilian supply and increased logistics costs. In this Quick Take, Rosealea explains why prices are likely to remain elevated in the coming months but might fall precipitously in the second half of the year.
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Gavekal Dragonomics
Dan Wang
Jun 18th 2020
The Range Of US Sanctions
US President Donald Trump has pledged a response to Beijing’s decision to impose national-security legislation on Hong Kong, and has now signed legislation to sanction officials involved in the crackdown on Uighurs in Xinjiang. In this piece, Dan outlines the various legal tools that the US can bring to bear and their possible effects.
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Gavekal Research
Udith Sikand
Jun 18th 2020
Video: High Stakes In The Himalayas
In this video, Udith argues that the mayhem seen on the India-China border this week will provide another catalyst for Indian nationalists who want to lessen the country’s reliance on China, even if that means accepting far slower economic growth.
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Gavekal Research
Tom Miller, Udith Sikand
Jun 18th 2020
Sticks And Stones May Break A Trade Relationship
Monday night’s deadly face-off between Indian and Chinese soldiers in the Himalayan mountains threatens to rupture a burgeoning trading relationship between Asia’s two largest nations. Diplomats should be able to deescalate military tensions between the two nuclear-armed countries, but it may be harder to normalize economic ties.
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Gavekal Research
Louis Gave
Jun 18th 2020
The Market’s Perception Of Scarcity
It is a long-running trope of Gavekal’s research that assets can have value either as tools or as jewels. Tools have efficiency value and jewels have scarcity value. The rule that seemed to govern the relative performance of these over the last 50 or so years appears to have broken down. Louis wonders if this is because investors have reversed their perceptions of what is "scarce" and what is "abundant".
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Gavekal Research
Will Denyer, Tan Kai Xian
Jun 17th 2020
The US Consumer Has Legs
Another day, another upside surprise from the US data. For investors, the key question is whether this recovery will continue, or whether May’s bounce-back in consumption will prove a one-off flash in the pan, extinguished by a second wave of infections and long term unemployment. Happily, there are good reasons to expect the consumption recovery to have legs.
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Gavekal Research
Arthur Kroeber, Vincent Tsui, Udith Sikand, Tom Miller
Jun 17th 2020
Webinar: Emerging Market Update, June 2020
In yesterday’s webinar, Udith Sikand, Vincent Tsui and Tom Miller joined Arthur Kroeber to present the general outlook for emerging market assets and currencies, as well as discuss the situation in India.
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Gavekal Dragonomics
Xiaoxi Zhang
Jun 16th 2020
Arbitrage Comes Out Of The Shadows
The Covid-19 pandemic has shocked China’s financial regulators into allowing a substantial rebound in total credit growth. But they are not worried enough to abandon their strict control of shadow finance. As Xiaoxi explains in this piece, a recent bounce in the shadow finance numbers is due to a popular arbitrage which is now being contained.
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Gavekal Research
Nick Andrews
Jun 16th 2020
A Dismal Best Case
The crowds that Monday swarmed British shops, allowed to open for the first time in 12 weeks, at first sight bodes well for a V-shaped recovery. Yet despite plentiful accumulated savings and considerable pent-up demand, the UK’s consumption-driven economy faces formidable post-lockdown headwinds, with consequences for equities and sterling.
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Gavekal Research
Anatole Kaletsky
Jun 16th 2020
Five Features Of Market Madness
Examining the frothy market action of last week, Anatole argues that crowd psychology is now driving moves in the US stock market. Five important lessons from the dotcom boom and bust of 1998-2000 indicate that if the Nasdaq composite breaks decisively through its recent high, there may be pots of money still to be made from the current bubble.
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Gavekal Research
Tan Kai Xian
Jun 15th 2020
Rotating Into US Small Caps
Despite some states seeing a worrying rise in Covid-19 cases, a US economic recovery is gaining strength as lockdowns are lifted. Barring unforeseen setbacks, there are reasons to think that the US recovery sustains itself and the equity rally continues. There is, however, a solid macro argument for rotating to a different class of US stocks.
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Gavekal Dragonomics
Thomas Gatley, Rosealea Yao, Xiaoxi Zhang
Jun 15th 2020
The Beginnings Of A Plateau
China’s economic data for May continued April’s wider recovery; however, Thomas, Rosealea and Xiaoxi argue that this upward momentum is losing steam. Weak external demand, tapering industrial production and Beijing’s aversion to further monetary easing all support the idea that China’s post-Covid bounceback is starting to plateau.
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Gavekal Research
Louis Gave
Jun 12th 2020
The Froth Comes Off
Recent weeks saw telltale signs of markets getting silly: firms with no sales reaching U$26bn valuations; airline-focused exchange traded funds jumping from US$50mn in size in January to US$1.5bn, and bankrupt firms becoming five and 10 baggers. This kind of activity may lead to one of three conclusions.
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Gavekal Research
Charles Gave
Jun 12th 2020
Wicksell And The Market Logic Of A New Inflationary Era
On Wednesday, Charles argued that policy responses to the Covid-19 crisis may be forcing the US economy into an inflationary boom. In this piece, he deploys the Shiller P/E as a tool for assessing US equities. He connects these findings with his tried-and-tested Wicksellian macro approach to reach a set of portfolio construction recommendations.
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Gavekal Dragonomics
Xiaoxi Zhang
Jun 12th 2020
Can Small-Business Lending Be Fixed?
As China tries to get the economy back to normal, it is focusing more on the plight of small businesses, who have lost weeks or months of revenue to the pandemic. Yet it has resisted offering the loan guarantees other countries have employed. In this piece, Xiaoxi assesses the other tools China is using to boost lending to the smallest firms.
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Gavekal Research
Tom Holland
Jun 11th 2020
The Derating Of The Dollar
In the last four weeks as market participants have reassessed relative risk premiums, they have found it increasingly easy to identify currencies which at the margin are looking more attractive than the US dollar. As a result, the dollar has weakened both against developed world and emerging market currencies. This weakness is acquiring momentum, and may have further to run.
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Gavekal Research
Dan Wang
Jun 11th 2020
Video: The Threat To Chinese Tech
The US is deepening its effort to limit Chinese technology giant Huawei’s access to components that rely on American design, which may prevent Huawei from rolling out 5G networks. The US is also broadening its efforts to constrain Mainland tech firms by using sanctions that impact suppliers to China’s government and military.
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Gavekal Dragonomics
Rosealea Yao
Jun 10th 2020
The Property Balancing Act
Local governments are balancing between encouraging housing construction and containing excess housing inventory. Although they have struck a balance so far, Rosealea argues that the growing vacancies in lower-tier cities coupled with depressed household consumption render current policies unsustainable in the long run.
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Gavekal Research
Charles Gave
Jun 10th 2020
Accelerating Into Inflation
Long-time readers will be familiar with Gavekal’s Four Quadrants framework, which describes how the economy alternates between periods of inflation and deflation, and cycles from boom and bust and back again, and which we use to illustrate which asset classes investors should favor and when. Although this is one of Gavekal’s oldest frameworks, it provides an extremely useful way to think about how the macroeconomic environment is set to evolve...
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