Developed Countries
Our Central Bank Monitors support the recent shift in tone from central bankers in Europe. Find out what it means for European fixed-income portfolio allocation.
Macroeconomic and business conditions are gradually becoming more favorable for Tech as the bottoming of demand is in sight. Yet, we don’t believe that now is an attractive entry point - the good news is fully priced in, and technicals signal a pullback. However, the sector is worth monitoring as we are getting closer to a sustainable rebound. Our positioning remains unchanged.
The tempo of China’s and the US’s military operations is picking up sharply. The risk of a sudden, perhaps unintended, escalation of military conflict, therefore, is rising in the South China Sea. So is the risk of another shooting war in the Middle East. Against this backdrop, China’s reopening, marginally stronger GDP growth, and massive fiscal stimulus to support renewables and defense is being rolled out. In states with high debt-to-GDP ratios like the EU and US, the risk of fiscal dominance is rising, and with it higher inflation. We remain long the XOP oil and gas ETF; the XME metals and mining ETF, and long the commodity COMT ETF to hedge this risk.
In this Strategy Insight, we go over the RBA’s recent decision and the implications of its hawkish message for AUD trades.