CoreMacro

Special Report

The US-China trade truce is getting bigger and better, but a grand strategic bargain on Iran and Taiwan is not happening.

Special Report

A market becomes inefficient, illiquid, and vulnerable to a phase transition when the ‘wisdom of crowds’ switches to the ‘madness of crowds.’ This switch from market wisdom to market madness may be the most significant recurring behavioural opportunity in active fund management and can be exploited in real-time by measuring the market’s complexity.

Special Report

The dollar's retreat is creating the most compelling window for euro internationalisation since Maastricht, but Europe is missing the one instrument that would make it real. In this report, we make the case for the Eurobond, assess which model is most likely to prevail, and explain why the trade is long euro on dips and overweight Central and Eastern European sovereign spreads.

We take stock of earnings, AI capex and the labor market and explain why we think the repeated new highs in the S&P 500 are justified.

India is probably the most vulnerable among the G-20 economies should the Strait of Hormuz not reopen fully by the end of this month. Growth will slow, while inflation will rise materially. Investors should brace for further weakness in the currency and stock prices.

New Fed Chair, Kevin Warsh, is betting that an AI-driven productivity acceleration will get the Fed out of jail for persistently missing its 2 percent inflation target. But history informs us that while new technology adoption is exponential, total productivity growth is not. So, if Warsh’s bet goes wrong, as is likely, the US inflation overshoot will persist. We discuss the investment implications. Plus, a new trade is short cotton.

China’s K-shaped economy is widening, with resilient exports and subdued domestic consumption. Over the next 6–12 months, we see a higher probability that global capex momentum persists than China delivers meaningful consumer-focused stimulus.

The global economy has weathered the oil shock reasonably well so far. However, the risk of a recession will increase meaningfully if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed into June.

Central banks remain on hold amid heightened uncertainty. We rely on BCA’s Central Bank Monitors to assess the current policy stance of major central banks, and highlight the tactical opportunities across bond markets and currencies.

MacroQuant recommends an underweight position in equities, favors a below-benchmark duration stance in fixed-income portfolios, is neutral-to-slightly positive on the US dollar, remains neutral on gold, upgrades copper to neutral, and is very bullish on oil.