United States

Last December in our “2021 High-Conviction Calls” Strategy Report we instituted a long VIX futures trade (for a second time) as a hedge to our cyclical exposure, and earlier this year we crystallized handsome gains just shy of 20% from this hedge. Subsequently, we put on a stop buy order at 25 on the June 2021 VIX futures and that was triggered intraday on Monday. We are obeying our stop buy and have reinstated our hedge. Over the past month, we highlighted how Chinese data softening (see here and here), coupled with the lack of an SPX valuation cushion could spell some short-term trouble for the broad equity market. The chart on the right further underpins the point: the VIX’s term structure indicates that stress has built up beneath the surface. Tack on the fact that the SPX sits near our end-2021 4,000 target, and short-term cautiousness is warranted anew. Bottom Line: Intraday on Monday we obeyed our stop buy order and initiated a long June 2021 VIX futures position at 25 as a near-term hedge to our high-conviction calls. ​​​​​​​

Today marks the one year anniversary of last year’s SPX lows and we are compelled to reprint the “20 Reasons To Buy Equities” part of our report that Monday “as is” that was titled “The Darkest Hour Is Just Before The Dawn”. The appendix below shows the updates to the charts, and as we reflect how far the stock market expansion has come in the past year, this unique recovery remains quite astounding and with no close historical parallel. Bottom Line: While the SPX is getting close to our 4,000 yearend target and some near-term caution is warranted the equity bull market (and business cycle) is in its infancy and we reiterate our cyclical and structural sanguine views. 20 Reasons To Buy Equities Below are the 20 reasons to start buying equities. We are already in recession. Markets trough in recessions and historically offer enticing risk/reward return profiles. China’s manufacturing PMI and other hard data fell below the GFC lows. As a general rule of thumb investors should buy stocks when the global PMI is well below 50 (Chart 1). Cupboards are bare. A drawdown in inventories is usually followed by a jump in production. Consumers will benefit from the oil market carnage and the super low mortgage refinancing rates. The Fed cut rates to zero, did QE5, and brought back the alphabet soup of programs like CPFF, PDCF and MMLF from the GFC, more will likely follow (Chart 2).  The DXY has gone from 95 on March 9 to 103 on Friday. King dollar will soon have to reverse course and provide some much-needed relief globally as the Fed’s US dollar swap lines aim to alleviate the shortage of US dollars (Chart 3). Keep in mind what Dr. Bernanke told Scott Pelley in a 60 Minutes interview with regard to money creation: “PELLEY: Is that tax money that the Fed is spending?   BERNANKE: It's not tax money. The banks have accounts with the Fed, much the same way that you have an account in a commercial bank. So, to lend to a bank, we simply use the computer to mark up the size of the account that they have with the Fed (emphasis ours). So it's much more akin to printing money than it is to borrowing.”1     Other global Central Banks are cutting rates and doing QE. Beyond Christine Lagarde’s recent €750bn bazooka, the ECB has the OMT ready from previous crises. Already last week the ECB intervened in Italian BTPs via Banca d’Italia. Germany has hinted that it would not be opposed to a “Covid-bond.” A mega US fiscal package looms near the $1tn mark.2 The recession-related automatic stabilizers and government spending will soar. China’s fiscal response will likely be as large as in late 2008 (as a reminder in Q4/2008 the Chinese fiscal spending announcement equated “to 12.5% of China’s GDP in 2008, to be spent over 27 months”3). Germany and a slew of other countries have already pledged fiscal spending. Spain has announced a 20% of GDP package. Countries will bid-up the size of the bailout. IMF announced a $1tn bailout package. Nibbling at stocks when the VIX is at 85 makes sense versus when the VIX is at 12 (Chart 4). The yield curve slope is steepening  (Chart 5). The 10-year real Treasury yield hit a low of -50bps that indicator has also priced in recession (Chart 4). Equity market internals have fully priced recession, small caps and weak balance sheet stocks in particular (Chart 6). Sentiment is washed out as per our Capitulation, Sentiment and Complacency-Anxiety Indicators (Chart 6). Bernie Sanders has lost his bid to become the nominee of the Democratic Party. Buffett will either bailout a company or two or buyout a company he likes. Jamie Dimon and/or other prominent CEOs (insiders) will start buying their own company stock. Social-distancing measures in the West will ultimately break the Epidemic Curve first derivative and arrest the panic. Even if COVID-19 comes back in force, the fact is that most of the patients who succumb to it are elderly. In Italy, the average age of death is 80 years old. As such, the final circuit-breaker ahead of a GFC would be desensitization by the population, as selective quarantines – targeting the elderly cohorts – get implemented in order to allow other people to return to work. Furthermore, two “silver bullet” solutions remain as tail risks to the bearish narrative. First, a biotech or pharmaceutical company may make a break-through in the fight against COVID-19. Not necessarily a vaccine, but a treatment. Finally, upcoming warm weather in the northern hemisphere may also help the fight against the virus. Bottom Line: Investors with higher risk tolerance should continue to layer in slowly and put cash to work with a cyclical 9-12 month time horizon. Please refer to yesterday’s Weekly Report for more details.       Appendix Chart A1 Chart A2 Chart A3 Chart A4 Chart A5 Chart A6 Footnotes 1 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ben-bernankes-greatest-challenge/2/ 2 Please see BCA US Equity Strategy Daily Report, "Don’t Be A Hero" dated March 11, 2020, available at uses.bcaresearch.com. 3 https://www.oecd.org/gov/budgeting/Public%20Governance%20Issues%20in%20China.pdf  

Highlights Duration & The Fed: Unlike the bond market, the Fed is being intentionally cautious about how quickly it revises its interest rate expectations higher, focusing more on hard economic data than on surveys. We expect the Fed dots to move up later this year as the hard economic data improve, validating current pricing in the bond market. Maintain below-benchmark portfolio duration. Yield Curve: The Treasury yield curve continues to trade directionally with the level of yields, except for the 10/30 slope which has now begun to bear-flatten. Investors should continue to position for curve steepening out to the 10-year maturity point. We recommend going long the 5-year note and short a duration-matched barbell consisting of the 2-year and 10-year notes. Economy: The US economy is at an inflection point where survey data indicate a great deal of optimism about the economic recovery, but where those optimistic growth prospects are not yet evident in the hard economic data. This is typical of post-recession environments where survey data move first and then the hard economic data play catch up. Feature The pain in the bond market continues. The 10-year Treasury yield rose again last week, closing at 1.74% on Friday, and the Bloomberg Barclays Treasury Index has now returned -6.1% since it peaked last August. If we use the peak-to-trough drawdown in the Treasury Index as our gauge, we are now in the midst of one of the five worst bond selloffs of the past 50 years. During that 50-year period, the current bearish bond move is only surpassed by the 2009, 2003, 1994 and 1980 episodes (Chart 1). Chart 1A Historic Bond Rout That said, the current bond selloff might still have a lot of runway. In level terms, the 30-year Treasury yield has only just recaptured its 2020 peak and the 10-year yield hasn’t even done that (Chart 2). Then, there’s another 101 bps of upside in the 30-year yield and 150 bps of upside in the 10-year yield just to get back to their 2018 peaks, yield levels that aren’t exactly distant memories. Yields do look stretched if we look at long-dated forwards. The 5-year/5-year forward Treasury yield, for example, is already well above its 2020 peak. The large increase in the 5-year/5-year forward yield is the result of Fed policy keeping the short-end of the yield curve capped (Chart 2, bottom 2 panels) forcing the bulk of Treasury weakness to be felt at the long-end. The 5-year/5-year forward Treasury yield is important because it reflects the market’s expectation of where the fed funds rate will settle in the long-run. In fact, you can use survey estimates of the long-run neutral fed funds rate to get a useful fair value range for the 5-year/5-year forward. At present, the 5-year/5-year forward yield has pushed well above this survey-derived fair value range (Chart 3), though it’s important to note that it is still 75 bps below its 2018 peak. Survey estimates of the long-run neutral fed funds rate were revised down as growth disappointed in 2019, it stands to reason that they could be revised higher as growth improves this year, thus moving the fair value range up as well. Chart 2Yields Can Rise Further Chart 35-Year/5-Year Is Elevated In fact, whether that process of upward revisions to survey estimates of the long-run neutral fed funds rate begins is an important near-term question for the bond market. Upward revisions would signal further upside in long-dated yields and more curve steepening ahead. Static long-run neutral rate estimates would signal that the upside in long-maturity yields is limited. In that latter case, the cyclical bond bear market would transition to a less severe bear-flattening phase where short-maturity yields eventually catch up to the long-end as the Fed tightens policy. It’s currently unclear how those survey estimates will evolve – we will get March updates for both surveys shown in Chart 3 on April 8th – but for now it’s too soon to say that the 5-year/5-year forward yield has peaked. We continue to recommend maintaining below-benchmark portfolio duration as we keep tabs on our Checklist To Increase Portfolio Duration.1 Currently, our Checklist is not screaming out for us to make a change. Explaining The Disagreement Between The Fed And The Market We expected that Fed policymakers would revise up their interest rate forecasts at last week’s FOMC meeting, but we also expected that the forecasts wouldn’t rise far enough to match the rate hike path that is currently priced in the market.2 This is in fact what happened, though the Fed was slightly more dovish than we anticipated. Only 7 out of 18 FOMC participants expect any rate hikes at all before the end of 2023, while the overnight index swap curve is discounting more than four 25 basis point hikes by then (Chart 4). Chart 4Market More Hawkish Than Fed What explains this divergence between the market and the Fed? Perhaps bond investors are simply ignoring the Fed’s dovish message. In that case, we should expect yields to fall as it becomes clear that the Fed intends to keep rates pinned at zero for much longer than is currently priced in the curve. Or perhaps Fed policymakers just don’t appreciate the surge in economic activity that is about to unfold. In that case, their interest rate forecasts (the “dots”) will rise sharply in the coming months as the economic data improve. Chair Powell gave a hint about how we should think about the divergence between the market and the “dots” in his post-meeting press conference. He said that the Fed wants to see “actual progress” towards its economic objectives not “forecast[ed] progress”, and he noted that this increased focus on “actual progress” is “a difference from our past approach.”3 In other words, the Fed is making a concerted effort to take a more backward-looking approach to policymaking under its new Average Inflation Targeting regime. It doesn’t want to tighten policy in response to a forecast of stronger growth in the future only to get whipsawed if that forecast doesn’t pan out. It would rather err on the side of tightening too late and then possibly have to move more quickly if it falls behind the curve. The market, by contrast, is a purely forward-looking discounting mechanism. Market prices move quickly to incorporate new information but are often caught offside. We are reminded of Paul Samuelson’s famous quip that the stock market has predicted nine of the past five recessions. This explains exactly what is happening right now. The market is looking ahead, taking its cues from survey data (or “soft data”) such as the ISM indexes that are pointing toward a sharp rise in economic activity and inflation. The Fed, by contrast, is endeavoring to focus more on the actual hard economic data such as the unemployment rate, industrial production and consumer price indexes. These hard economic data simply haven’t improved that much yet. The last section of this report (titled “Economy: Hard Vs Soft Data”) gives some examples of how the hard and soft economic data have diverged. Chart 5The Path Back To Maximum Employment Ultimately, the disagreement between the market’s funds rate expectations and the Fed’s dots will be resolved as the hard economic data are released during the next few months. Those data will either validate the current message from economic surveys, causing the Fed to revise up its rate forecasts, or disappoint market expectations, causing market forecasts and bond yields to fall. In this regard, the hard economic data on the labor market will be particularly important. The Fed has said that it will not lift rates until “maximum employment” is achieved. In practice, “maximum employment” means that the unemployment rate will fall into a range of 3.5% - 4.5%, consistent with the Fed’s estimates of the natural rate, and the labor force participation rate will recover to pre-COVID levels (Chart 5). The top row of Table 1 shows that average monthly employment growth of 419k is required to achieve that target by the end of 2022. We have made the case in prior reports that, though that number seems high, it is achievable.4   Table 1Average Monthly Nonfarm Payroll Growth Required For The Unemployment Rate To Reach 4.5% By The Given Date It’s also worth noting that the Fed’s median unemployment rate forecast was revised significantly lower last week. The Fed is now looking for an unemployment rate of 4.5% by the end of this year and 3.9% by the end of 2022 (Chart 5, top panel). The fact that the Fed doesn’t project any rate hikes during this timeframe can only mean that policymakers aren’t forecasting a similar recovery in the labor force participation rate. The bottom line is that, unlike the market, the Fed is being intentionally cautious about how quickly it revises its funds rate expectations higher, focusing more on hard economic data than surveys. Eventually, the disagreement between the hard and soft economic data will be resolved and either the Fed dots will move toward the market, or the market will move toward the Fed. Our sense is that the Fed is probably being overly cautious and that their forecasts will eventually move toward the market, validating current bond yields. Too Early To Expect Curve Flattening We have been recommending nominal Treasury curve steepeners for some time, on the view that the yield curve will trade directionally with yields. This means that rising yields will coincide with curve steepening.5 This correlation has held up extremely well, but we know that it won’t last forever. Eventually, we will be close enough to Fed rate hikes that the yield curve will start to flatten as yields rise. This process will begin at the long-end of the curve and gradually shift toward the short-end as Fed liftoff approaches. Chart 6 shows how the correlation between the level of Treasury yields and different yield curve slopes has held up during the recent surge in bond yields. For the most part, the tight correlation between rising yields and steeper curves remains intact, with the 10/30 slope being the exception (Chart 6, bottom panel). It looks like during the past month the 10/30 slope has transitioned from a bear-steepening/bull-flattening regime into a bear-flattening/bull-steepening regime. The investment implication is that the short position of a curve steepener trade should be applied to the 10-year note not the 30-year bond, particularly for duration-neutral steepeners. It’s difficult to know exactly when the other segments of the yield curve will transition from their bear-steepening/bull-flattening regimes into bear-flattening/bull-steepening regimes, but we suspect that the current correlations have quite a bit more running room. If we look at what occurred prior to the last time that the Fed lifted rates off the zero bound, in December 2015, we see that most curve segments didn’t start to bear-flatten until a few months before liftoff (Chart 7) Chart 6Bear-Steepening/Bull-Flattening Regime Continues Chart 7Bear-Flattening Started Just Months Before 2015 Liftoff In terms of how to implement a yield curve steepener, we have been recommending a position long the 5-year note and short a duration-matched barbell consisting of the 2-year and 10-year notes. We are sticking with that position for now, as it has performed well even as the 2/5/10 butterfly spread has widened in recent weeks (Chart 8). We expect it will continue to perform well as long as both the 2/5 and 5/10 yield curve slopes continue to steepen. Once we suspect that the 5/10 slope is transitioning into a bear-flattening/bull-steepening regime, we will have to either shift into a curve flattener or a curve steepener that is focused more at the short-end of the curve. Chart 85/10 Slope Still Steepening Bottom Line: The Treasury yield curve continues to trade directionally with the level of yields, except for the 10/30 slope which has now begun to bear-flatten. Investors should continue to position for curve steepening out to the 10-year maturity point. We recommend going long the 5-year note and short a duration-matched barbell consisting of the 2-year and 10-year notes. Economy: Hard Vs. Soft Data Chart 9IP Lags The PMI Chart 10Surveys Suggest Higher Inflation Ahead As noted above, the US economy is at an interesting inflection point where, owing to large-scale fiscal stimulus and an effective COVID vaccination rollout, there is a lot of optimism about the future. This optimism is showing up in how people respond to surveys about their economic and business expectations, but it has not yet translated into better actual economic outcomes. The ISM Manufacturing PMI survey is a case in point. It surged to 60.8 in February, its highest level since 2018, but actual measured industrial production continues to contract in year-over-year terms (Chart 9). In all likelihood, this is simply a result of surveys (“soft data”) leading the hard data. A simple linear regression fit between industrial production and the PMI shows that wide negative divergences have a habit of showing up during recessions, only for the gaps to close very quickly in the early stages of the recovery. We see the same dynamic at play in the inflation data. Actual core CPI inflation has not moved up significantly, but surveys indicate that price pressures are rising fast (Chart 10). Bottom Line: The US economy is at an inflection point where survey data indicate a great deal of optimism about the economic recovery, but where those optimistic growth prospects are not yet evident in the hard economic data. This is typical of post-recession environments where survey data move first and then the hard economic data play catch up.   Ryan Swift US Bond Strategist rswift@bcaresearch.com Footnotes 1 For more details on our Checklist please see US Bond Strategy Weekly Report, “No Panic From Powell”, dated March 9, 2021, available at usbs.bcaresearch.com 2 Please see US Bond Strategy Weekly Report, “Limit Rate Risk, Load Up On Credit”, dated March 16, 2021, available at usbs.bcaresearch.com 3 https://www.federalreserve.gov/mediacenter/files/FOMCpresconf20210317.pdf 4 Please see US Bond Strategy Weekly Report, “No Panic From Powell”, dated March 9, 2021, available at usbs.bcaresearch.com 5 Please see US Bond Strategy Weekly Report, “Life At The Zero Bound”, dated March 24, 2020, available at usbs.bcaresearch.com Fixed Income Sector Performance Recommended Portfolio Specification

Dear Client, Dhaval Joshi has started publishing the new BCA Research Counterpoint product, in which he will continue to apply his unique process to dig up original investment opportunities around the globe. I trust many of you will continue to read Dhaval’s excellent and thought-provoking work. I also hope to keep your readership as I take the helm of the European Investment Strategy product, where I will apply BCA’s time-tested method which emphasizes analysis of global liquidity and economic trends to forecast European market outcomes. Thank you for your continued trust and support. Best regards, Mathieu Savary   Highlights The Eurozone’s economy lags the US’s because of weakness in the service sector. Poor vaccine rollouts and tighter fiscal policy explain this bifurcated outcome. Even though Europe will continue to trail the US this year, the summer period will see a sharp European recovery. Investors can take advantage of this rebound by buying the cyclical equities that have lagged during last year’s rally. Favor the French, Italian and Spanish equity markets over the German and Dutch markets. The Bank of England does not need to fight rising Gilt yields; favor the pound over the euro as the UK-German spread widens. The Norges Bank will be the first G-10 central bank to lift rates, which will hurt EUR/NOK. Fade any hawkish noise coming from the German election season. Feature The service sector constitutes the biggest drag on the Eurozone’s economy, which will cause European growth to trail that of the US further. The euro area’s fundamental problem is that it lags the US significantly on both vaccination and fiscal stimulus fronts. Nonetheless, by the summer, the European service sector will start catching up, which will favor a basket of sectors exposed to the economic re-opening that have lagged until now. The Service Sector Remains Under The Weather The consensus is correct to expect European growth to lag that of the US in 2021, even if the extent of the shortfall does not hit the 4% currently penciled in by Bloomberg. Chart 1The Service Sector Is the Problem Unlike normal business cycles, the service sector is now Europe’s biggest handicap, while the manufacturing sector is performing in line with that of the US (Chart 1, top panel). On both sides of the Atlantic, industrial activity has benefited from the same set of positives in recent quarters. Goods purchases were the only outlet for pent-up demand built up in the first and second quarter of 2020. Extraordinarily accommodative global liquidity conditions and record-low interest rates boosted spending on big-ticket items, especially in light of the housing boom that has engulfed the globe. Finally, China’s rapid recovery fueled a swift rebound in the demand for natural resources, autos and machinery that benefited manufacturers the world over. Service activity did not enjoy a similar unified tailwind. Consequently, while the US Services PMI stands at a seven-year high, the Eurozone’s lingers at 45.7, in contraction territory (Chart 1, middle panel). The weaker confidence of European households sheds light on this bifurcated performance (Chart 1, bottom panel). Health and fiscal policies are the main headwinds in the Eurozone that have hurt its service sector and hampered the mood of its households, at least compared to the US. With regard to health policy, the poor vaccination rates on the European continent create the greatest problem. The vaccination effort has only reached 11.8, 11.1, 11.9 and 12.5 doses per 100 person in Germany, France, Italy and Spain respectively. In the US and the UK, authorities have already delivered more than 30 doses per 100 person (Chart 2). As a result, while infection and death per capita are rapidly declining in the US and in the UK, mortality is once again rising in France as well as in Italy and caseloads are increasing there and in Germany. Moreover, hospitalization rates and ICU usage in France, Germany, Italy or Portugal are once again trending up, and in some cases they are hitting threatening levels for the healthcare system. In response to these COVID-19 dynamics, governments in many major Eurozone countries are resorting to the re-imposition of restrictions. Italy has announced new lockdowns in half of its 20 regions while France just entered its third lockdown over the weekend. By contrast, the stringency of restrictions is set to ease in the UK and the US. In the US, limitations were already imposed or followed more laxly relative to the euro area (depending on the state) and mobility was improving (Chart 3). Chart 2Slow Vaccination In The Eurozone Chart 3The Stringency Of Lockdowns Matter Despite the lower mobility created by stricter restrictions in the Eurozone, the US government has opened the fiscal tap much more aggressively than European governments (Chart 4). Since the beginning of the crisis, the US fiscal help has reached 25% of GDP, while in Italy, Germany, France or Spain the budget deficits have swelled by a more modest 14%, 10%, 9% and 13% of GDP, respectively. True, European governments have also offered credit guarantees totaling EUR3 trillion euros, but these sums only have a very indirect impact on aggregate demand and should mostly be understood as liquidity insurance to prevent a liquidity crisis from morphing into a solvency crisis. Chart 4Tight Fists On The Continent For the remainder of 2021, European fiscal policy is unlikely to be eased compared to the US. BCA Research’s Geopolitical strategy team anticipates the Biden government to add a further $2 trillion dollars of spending by the end of 2021, mostly in the form of long-term and infrastructure outlays, in addition to the $1.9 trillion recently legislated.While the European Union’s NGEU plan is an important step in the integration of European fiscal policy, its generous EUR750 billion envelope will be disbursed over five years. This implies a debt-based fiscal expansion of 1% per annum between 2021 and 2024 (the years of maximum disbursements). Individual state plans are also limited. Bottom Line: The European economy is lagging the US economy because of the inferior performance of its service sector. This disadvantage is the consequence of both a slower vaccine rollout that is negatively impacting mobility and a much more timid fiscal policy. Relief Is On Its Way The Eurozone’s service sector and domestic economic performance is nonetheless set to improve, despite the current health and fiscal policy deficiencies. First, the economy continues to adapt to its new socially distanced form. In the second quarter of 2020, the imposition of lockdowns caused the euro area’s quarterly GDP to collapse by 11%. The contribution to GDP of the retail, wholesale, artistic, entertainment, and hospitality sectors tumbled to -7.3%. In Q4 2020, as European governments were imposing equally stringent lockdowns, quarterly GDP growth fell to -0.1% and the contribution to growth of the same sectors only hit -0.54%. Second, the continental vaccination campaign is progressing. It is easy to worry that it will take a very long time to vaccinate the entire population, but the main reason to impose lockdowns is to preserve capacity in the healthcare system. Thus, the priority is to inoculate 50-year olds and above because they constitute 90% of hospitalizations. Through this aperture, even if the pace of vaccination remains tepid in Europe, the goal to decrease economic restrictions can reasonably be achieved by summer. Moreover, with Pfizer’s logistical issues corrected, the pace of vaccination can accelerate. Concerns remain over the population’s willingness to receive the vaccines, but these issues will fade as well. The current worries surrounding the AstraZeneca vaccines provide an example. The incidence of thromboembolic events is marginally higher than for the general population and the European Medicines Agency deemed the AstraZeneca vaccines safe, especially in light of the human costs of the disease it prevents. As caseloads and mortality rates decline in Israel, the UK and the US, even French elderlies will become more willing to receive their vaccines. Table 1Parsimonious But Constant Fiscal Stimulus… Third, fiscal policy will remain easy. True, European government support is tepid compared to the US, but the continual drip of new policy measures shows that authorities are not intransigent (Table 1). In all likelihood, the various furlough and employment protection schemes implemented since the spring of 2020 are likely to remain in place this year even if lockdowns decrease. Their impact on employment was major and they contributed meaningfully to preserve household income (Chart 5). Finally, COVID-19 is a seasonal illness and summer is on its way in Europe. The experience of 2020, when vaccines and testing were much more limited than they are today, has taught us that in the summer months, this coronavirus spreads much less. Therefore, seasonal patterns will allow a relaxation of social distancing measures. Chart 5Furloughs Played A Crucial Role In this context, service activity in the Eurozone will improve, which will boost GDP. European households, like their US counterparts, have accumulated significant excess savings (Chart 6). Furthermore, global manufacturing activity will remain robust, which will support employment and household income in the Eurozone. Hence, consumer confidence will improve and some of the EUR300 billion in excess savings will make its way into the economy. The service sector should be the prime beneficiary of this money because households have already fulfilled a large proportion of their pent-up demand for goods. What they now want to do is to go out, go to restaurants and spend their income on experiences. The rebound in the contribution to GDP of the retail and recreation sectors will be accretive to job and household income, unleashing a virtuous circle of activity (Chart 7). Chart 6European Are Building Their Nest Egg too Chart 7Services Will Contribute Again to Growth Bottom Line: In 2021, the euro area’s economy will further lag that of the US, but investors should nonetheless expect a robust uptick in service activity this summer. How To Play The Summer Recovery? Chart 8Buy The Laggards / Sell the Leaders Five weeks ago, BCA Research’s US Equity Sector Strategy service designed a strategy to buy the laggards within a basket of sectors that should benefit from the recovery while selling the “back-to-work” stocks that had already priced in that recovery.  This recommendation protects investors against potential hiccups in the re-opening trade and is simple to implement: sell/underweight the pro-cyclical sectors that stand above their February 19 relative peak and buy/overweight those that remain below their relative highs (Chart 8). In the Eurozone context, this strategy involves focusing on the cyclical sectors, and buying/overweighting these cyclical stocks that stand below their pre-COVID high relative to the MSCI benchmark while selling/underweighting those that have punched above this threshold. Chart 9 illustrates the sectors to favor and the ones to avoid using this methodology. In essence, not only should the “laggards” baskets experience a catch up in earnings, but also, the shift in sentiment should prompt a re-rating of relative valuations (Chart 10). Chart 9Who Are the Laggards And the Leaders? This strategy makes sense beyond the COVID-19 dynamics. From a global perspective, the basket of sectors purchased (the laggards”) outperforms the former “leaders” after global bond yields increase (Chart 11, top panel). This relationship reflects the heavy representation of financials in the “laggards” basket while tech and the interest rates-sensitive automobile sector are key constituents of the “leaders” basket. Additionally, the former “leaders” are more exposed to the Chinese business cycle than the “laggards". Chart 10Relative Valuations will Adjust Chart 11Macro Forces Favor The Laggards over the Leaders The deceleration in the Chinese economy is a problem for the “leaders” relative performance (Chart 11, bottom panel). China’s credit impulse has rolled over as Beijing aims to prevent excess speculation in the real estate sector. Moreover, a regulatory tightening is taking place in the Middle Kingdom, which will further slow its economy. Already, the new orders-to-inventories ratio from the NBS PMI reflects the downside risk for the Chinese economy, which highlights the threat to the previous high-flying leaders. A strategy that favors the former “laggards” at the expense of the previous “leaders” also has implications for geographical allocation within euro area equities. As Table 2 shows, Italy, France and Spain over represent the “laggards” in their national benchmarks while the Netherlands and Germany overweight the “leaders”. On a net basis, the tech-heavy Netherlands is the country to avoid, with a 27% relative underweight for the “laggards”, while Spain and Italy should be favored, with their 24% and 22% overweight in the “laggards” relative to the “leaders”. Spain and Italy in particular will also benefit from a further narrowing in sovereign spreads that will boost the performance of their financial sector while the re-opening of trade continues. Additionally, investors should favor France at the expense of Germany. Table 2France, Italy, and Spain Over The Netherlands And Germany Bottom Line: The economic re-opening favors the Eurozone cyclicals that still trade below their February 19 2020 relative highs as the expense of those cyclicals that have already overtaken their pre-COVID peaks. This means buying/overweighting the Banks, Insurance, Energy and Aerospace & Defense sectors at the expense of the IT, Automobiles and Building products sectors. It also implies a preference for Italian and Spanish equities, especially relative to Dutch equities. Country Focus: The BoE Follows the Fed, Not The ECB Last Thursday, the Bank of England followed in the Fed’s footprints, not the ECB’s. The BoE refrained from adding to its asset purchases, even if this year, 10-year Gilt yields are rising in line with the Treasuries and rapidly outpacing Bund yields. However, the BoE remains committed to keeping short rates at record lows and it keeps the window open for rate cuts if economic conditions ever warrant it. We agree with the Bank of England that the UK’s economic outlook has improved in recent months. The extension of both the furlough schemes and tax holidays, along with the rapid pace of vaccination in the British Islands point to robust growth in the coming quarters. Nonetheless, the picture is not without blemish. Specifically, the UK’s exports to the EU are collapsing in wake of Brexit. Moreover, the pace of vaccination in the UK is set to slow a bit over the coming months. These risks to the outlook are unlikely to topple the economy, because the vigor of the UK’s housing market is an important support to domestic demand. While the UK’s labor market remains frail, the strength of the RICS housing survey suggests that real wages will stay well bid (Chart 12). The increase in household income will cause consumption to accelerate sharply once lockdowns are eased. This could accentuate inflationary pressures this year, and cause inflation over the next few years to trend higher relative to the euro area. Chart 12UK Real Wages Have Upside With this economic backdrop, the market’s pricing of the SONIA curve is appropriate. Over the past month, the OIS curve has steepened significantly (Chart 13). The BoE is comfortable with that pricing and considers the back up in interest rates to be reflective of stronger growth and not constraining of activity. In fact, financial conditions are roughly unchanged since the MPC’s last meeting, which highlights that rising risk asset prices have compensated for an appreciating pound and rising gilt yields. Chart 13SONIA Is Climbing Up, And The BoE Is Fine With It Bottom Line: The SONIA curve will continue to shift higher relative to the EONIA curve. Consequently, the spread between Gilt and Bund yields will widen further and EUR/GBP will depreciate more over the coming six to nine months, especially because the pound keeps trading at a discount. Moreover, thanks to their domestic focus and lower sensitivity to the pound, UK mid-cap and small-cap stocks will outperform the FTSE-100. Country Focus: Norges Bank, First Out Of The Gate Chart 14The Norges Bank Will Raise Rates First Last Thursday, Governor Øystein Olsen indicated that the Norges Bank would increase interest rates from zero later this year, which validates the message of the Norwegian swap curve. Looking at economic fundamentals, investors should not bet against this outcome. BCA’s Central Bank Monitor confirms that the Norges Bank will be the first central bank in the West to lift interest rates (Chart 14). It is the only one of our Monitors in “Tight Money Required” territory. The message from our Norges Bank Monitor reflects the prompt recovery of the Norwegian economy. Thanks to rebounding Brent prices and rapidly expanding production at the new Johan Sverdrup oil field (the largest in the North Sea), Norwegian nominal exports are growing at a double-digit pace. Meanwhile Norwegian retail sales are increasing at a 16% annual rate. Beyond some near-term COVID worries, consumer spending will remain robust because the strong employment component of the PMI points to solid job gains and a rapidly rising consumer confidence. Finally, Norwegian inflation is already above the central bank’s target of 2%, with core CPI at 2.05% and headline inflation at 3.3%. Chart 15A Weaker EUR/NOK ahead Thanks to Norway’s economic performance, the krone remains one of the favorite currencies of BCA’s Foreign Exchange Strategy service.  The global economic environment creates additional tailwind for the NOK. A continued global economic recovery will allow oil prices to rise further on a 12- to 18-month basis, which should lead to a weaker EUR/NOK (Chart 15). In a similar vein, the NOK is particularly sensitive to the USD dollar’s fluctuations. As a result, BCA’s negative cyclical stance toward the USD will create an important support for the NOK, even if the greenback’s countertrend bounce could last another quarter or so. Finally, along with the SEK, the NOK is the cheapest pro-cyclical currency in the G10, trading at a 5% discount to its fair value. Thus, the Norwegian krone should benefit greatly from continued risk taking this year. Bottom Line: The Norwegian krone remains one of the most attractive currencies in the world. The status of the Norges Bank as the front-runner to lift rates this year only amplifies the NOK’s appeal. A Few Words On Germany’s State Elections Chart 16German Party Polling The defeat of Angela Merkel’s CDU party in the states of Baden-Wurttemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate highlights that the German electorate is moving slowly to the left. According to BCA’s Geopolitical Strategy Service, it is too early to tell whether a left-wing coalition will take power in Germany this fall. However, the marginal shift toward the SPD and the Green Party indicates that even the CDU will have to listen to the median voter’s demands (Chart 16).  Practically, this means that German politics will push for more European integration and that ultimately, more fiscal stimulus will materialize in Europe over the coming years. As a result, investors should fade any hit to the euro or European assets caused by hawkish sounds made by CDU potential leaders during the campaign for the September federal election.   Mathieu Savary, Chief European Investment Strategist Mathieu@bcaresearch.com   Cyclical Recommendations Structural Recommendations Trades Closed Trades Currency Performance Fixed Income Performance Government Bonds Corporate Bonds Equity Performance Major Stock Indices Geographic Performance Sector Performance