China
The downgrade of the US credit rating highlights the risk of fiscal dominance overriding the Fed’s long-standing monetary dominance focused on its dual mandate. This threatens to push inflation and long-term interest rates higher. It also will redound to the detriment of the USD, and governments’ and investors’ willingness to hold it. China’s liquidity trap will keep its inflation subdued in the short run, but not forever. We remain long gold as a hedge against fiscal dominance and USD debasement risks.
China has generated 41 percent of the world’s economic growth through the past ten years, al-most double the 22 percent contribution from the US. Now that the Chinese growth engine is failing, we explain why it is arithmetically impossible for world growth to maintain the altitude of the past few decades. And we discuss an important investment implication.
Although the RMB has cheapened, macro conditions are not yet favorable for the Chinese currency. We expect the RMB to decline by at least another 5% in the next six months. A weak currency and subdued economic growth lead us to maintain a cautious stance on Chinese equities.
The global economy will not enjoy an “immaculate disinflation” but will suffer a very maculate one due to China’s growth slowdown and restrictive monetary policy in the developed world. Investors should stay overweight low-beta assets.
China’s extremely high savings rate is the real culprit behind its current economic woes. The authorities have been slow to stimulate the economy, and the risks of “Japanification” have increased. For now, the fact that China is exporting deflation is not such a bad thing. However, if global recession risks were to flare up again, a lethargic Chinese economy would be a cause for concern. Chinese stocks are quite cheap but lack a clear catalyst to move higher. Favor EM markets where earnings and sales estimates have been moving up lately.
The odds of Russia cutting oil output will rise going into 4Q23, as Ukraine’s endgame increases pressure on it, and it actively seeks to undermine President Biden’s re-election. We reckon a 2mm b/d cut would push Brent above $140/bbl by December 2024. This would push inflation and inflation expectations higher and raise the odds of more Fed rate hikes. BCA Commodity & Energy Strategy will remain long the COMT and XOP ETFs. At tonight’s close, we will be getting long December 2024 $100/bbl Brent calls.