CoreMacro

Special Report

We test a wide range of strategies designed to capitalize on stock market anomalies. While most have waned over time, they generally remain profitable, especially for small caps. We will be using a mixture of these strategies for our new PowerTrades service.

The Fed’s actions tell us that it has chosen to avoid a recession at the cost of moving its inflation goalposts to 3 percent. Thus begins the slippery slope to price instability. Long-term investors should underweight the dollar, own some gold, but better than gold is bitcoin. Plus, a new tactical trade is short GOOGL vs. SPY.

Special Report

China’s policy-driven constraints prevent the “destruction” part of the creative destruction process. Instead, they entrench overcapacity, deflation, and poor profitability. We are reluctant to chase the rally in Chinese stocks in absolute terms.

Indonesia’s policy easing will boost domestic demand, but fuel inflation. Current account deficit will widen, and the rupiah will weaken. Stay short the rupiah and go underweight Indonesian stocks, domestic bonds, and sovereign credit in their respective EM portfolios.

Special Report

Structural tailwinds help explain tight credit spreads. In Europe, we see room for further tightening. Stay underweight US credit amid cyclical risks, but upgrade Euro Area IG to overweight and HY to neutral.

We are turning more constructive on Chinese internet stocks after several years of caution. We recommend going long offshore internet equities in absolute terms and upgrading MSCI China to overweight in a global equity portfolio.

While it is impossible to know exactly when global equities will peak, there are now enough vulnerabilities to justify keeping one’s finger near the eject button.

The ECB stood pat today, yet the policy path remains fraught with uncertainty as domestic resilience collides with global headwinds. This dichotomy continues to hold important implications for European assets over the coming months.

For the next few months at least, inflation risk trumps recession risk for both US markets and world markets. This because, correctly gauged, the US jobs market is still supply-constrained with ‘jobs looking for a worker’ exceeding ‘workers looking for a job’ by 0.4 percent. A still supply-constrained US jobs market cannot enter a demand-driven recession until it flips back to demand-constrained, so bond investors should underweight duration. Plus: a new tactical trade is overweight India (INDA).

Core Europe’s industrial sector will relapse in the coming months due to US tariffs and a strong euro. Investors can play the imminent deflationary shock by being long Central European bonds. They should, however, hedge the currency risk vis-à-vis the euro.