Economy
No clear risk-on/risk-off pattern emerged from July’s market performance data. On the one hand, consistent with a risk-off environment, US bonds ranked highest in the monthly return distribution, while pro-cyclical industrial metals and oil lagged.…
According to BCA Research’s Global Asset Allocation service, there are clear signs that growth is weakening. BCA’s Global Nowcast has been slowing for three months. Behind this slowdown is the fact that the US consumer – the biggest factor keeping growth…
The market is pricing in a soft landing, but we see growing signs that the global economy is faltering. Investors should be defensively positioned.
We assess the investment implications of the BoJ and Fed meetings, and give our take on the next policy moves. We also assess the impact on asset markets.
Eurozone headline CPI inflation unexpectedly accelerated in July, from 2.5% y/y to 2.6%. Core CPI remained stable at 2.9% despite expectations it would ease. EU Harmonized CPI accelerated in the regions’ three largest economies, surprising by a large margin…
FOMC members unanimously voted in favor of keeping rates on hold in July but signaled that a September cut is on the table. Inflationary pressures have indeed continued to ease over the past several months. Notably, the Employment Cost Index (ECI) – the…
China’s NBS manufacturing PMI declined further in July, from 49.5 to 49.4, marking a third consecutive month of contraction. New orders and new export orders underscored continued weakness in both domestic and foreign demand conditions. Meanwhile, the NBS…
The Bank of Japan hiked its policy rate by 15 bps from 0.10% to 0.25% on Wednesday, and announced further quantitative tightening, reducing its pace of monthly bond buying from JPY 6 trillion to JPY 3 trillion. While the central bank had previously…
The Fed kept rates steady today, but teed up an initial rate cut in September while putting more emphasis on the employment side of its dual mandate.
Republicans are favored but the election is still competitive. Equities, corporate credit, and cyclical sectors will fall until policy uncertainty is reduced.