Emerging Markets

Brazilian policymakers are stuck between a rock and a hard place. There is no combination of fiscal and monetary policies that can assure decent growth, on-target inflation, a stable exchange rate, and public debt sustainability. We recommend investors maintain an underweight allocation to Brazilian fixed-income markets versus their EM peers and continue shorting BRL versus MXN. We have been bearish on the Bovespa in absolute terms and are now downgrading Brazilian stocks from neutral to underweight within an EM equity portfolio.

The South African government seems to believe that some fiscal retrenchment can stabilize the public debt-to-GDP ratio. But that’s a misconception. The country will need draconian spending cuts to achieve this.

Trump’s foreign policy can be explained by rational US interests, but it requires settling the trade war with allies sooner rather than later. Book gains on EUR-USD for now.

Colombian financial markets have rallied on the expectation that a right-wing government will be elected in 2026. We take a contrarian bearish stance on the nation's financial markets. Colombia is suffering from two structural macro issues – unsustainable public debt and plunging energy exports – that will not be easily solved by a conservative administration in 2026. Continue underweighting Colombia within EM equity and fixed-income portfolios, continue shorting the COP versus the USD and the CLP, and bet on yield curve steepening.