GeoMacro

Negotiations on trade, Iran, and Ukraine will prove critical this month. Markets will remain volatile because positive data surprises enable the White House to press its hawkish tariff hikes, while negative surprises force the White House to backpedal.

In our Alpha report, we explain how to trade the trade war and then conduct a scenario analysis for global asset allocation. The short version is that a policy induced recession has to be traded based on policy, not hard macroeconomic data.

Special Report

If Trump’s tariffs are ‘America's Brexit’, then UK gilts will recoup ten years of underperformance versus US T-bonds. Meanwhile, as the AI bubble fully deflates, Europe’s stock market valuation versus the US will rerate by about 25 percent. The big ‘currency’ winner of the structural exodus from the US dollar will be bitcoin. Plus: a trade for the next four weeks is to go tactically long USD/CHF.

Special Report

The US and Canada will resolve their trade dispute quickly, leading to a North American deal and better prospects for future relations, as well as for other US trade deals around the world. But even as tariff threats decline, the US economy will slow, weighing on its neighbors. Canada will fare better than Mexico.

The US will continue to lead global trade, but the past winners from China-US tensions face decline. Reglobalization is underway. India Port Infrastructure will be a long-term winner.

Special Report

Cybersecurity is a strategic investment theme, which looks particularly interesting in light of the trade war and heightened geopolitical tensions. It is less exposed to tariffs than other industries and, if anything, benefits from geopolitical tensions as customers seek protection from international cyberattacks and cybercrime. The industry’s fundamentals are improving, while valuations are moderating. A recent pullback presents an attractive entry point into the theme.

Special Report

Do not play the bounce in US and global cyclical assets as Trump backpedals from the trade war. China will talk, but the pace will be slow and the outcome disappointing. Fiscal stimulus will surprise marginally in the EU, China, and even the US, but still may not rescue the business cycle.

Bank Credit Analyst

As high-stakes US-Iran negotiations begin, investors face yet another geopolitical risk, on top of tariffs and trade war. In this collaborative project, we combined BCA’s scenario analysis, probabilities, and financial market impacts with Axioma/Simcorp’s advanced risk analytics platform to produce a valuable contribution to risk management.

Special Report

Upgrade the odds of a full-scale war in the Taiwan Strait from 5% to 10%. Rapid escalation of US-China economic war raises the probability of tensions spilling into the military-strategic domain. Investors should buy insurance against this tail risk while it is cheap. Meanwhile, use this year’s trade shock and equity volatility to increase allocation to EM manufacturing states.

President Trump keeps walking back his tariffs, aligning with our Seven Steps of Maximum Pressure. Investors should expect a lot of back and forth over the next few weeks, including the dreaded Step 5 (“Leave the Bride at the Altar”). Already, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has suggested that the tariff exemptions for electronics – which surged global risk assets today – would not last long. We hesitate to just declare the “all clear” and go outright long but are shifting our posture on global risk assets to neutral.