CoreMacro
| Emerging Markets
Research on emerging economies, from in-depth country reports to calls on EM stocks, bonds, and currencies.
UAE markets are a simultaneous play on interest rates, crude prices, and global trade. None of them is presently favorable, with rising interest rates being the main threat to the UAE economy and stock market.
Unlike in the past, Saudi Arabia is currently pursuing a counter-cyclical policy. This is the right policy and could lead to a re-rating of this bourse in the long run. In the short term however, rising interest rates, tight fiscal policy and lower oil prices will lead to growth deceleration and weigh on share prices.
Provided that US inflation is due to excess demand rather than supply constraints, demand destruction will likely be needed to bring core inflation below 3.5%. Such growth contraction is positive for counter-cyclical currencies like the US dollar. In China, the Party's focus is to alleviate structural inequality and a long-term confrontation with the US; and authorities are not yet panicking about the cyclical state of the economy. Hence, an economic recovery is unlikely in the coming months.
It’s time to go overweight Hungarian domestic bonds in an EM and European core bond portfolios. Currency investors should book profits on our long CZK / short HUF trade, which has generated 29.4% gains since its inception in June last year.
We recommend that investors use the following framework to think about whether potential disinflation would be bullish or bearish for share prices: disinflation will prove to be bullish for global share prices if it is due to an improvement in supply-side dynamics, but bearish if it is demand driven. We believe it is the latter.
Indonesian equity outperformance was predicated on an unprecedented trade windfall, including coal exports. As that fades, both the stocks and the currency are highly vulnerable.
After years of underperformance, the pieces are finally falling into place for Chilean equities to sustainably outperform their EM peers. Political uncertainty has dissipated with the establishment of a pragmatic government and the rejection of the new constitution. Further, a peak in inflation and interest rates, together with attractive valuations, will support Chilean relative equity outperformance.
BCA’s Emerging Markets Strategy team’s view remains that US inflation will prove to be sticky. That said, in this report, we examine under what conditions a considerable drop in US core inflation, whenever it transpires, would be bullish for stocks. Potentially significant US disinflation would be bullish for stocks if it is due to an improvement in supply-side dynamics, but bearish if it is demand driven.
