Correlations

This week, we cover the main questions we fielded during our latest client trip in Europe. Among the many topics broached are Europe’s recession odds, the impact of China’s stimulus, and the outlook for European markets.

As we head into a more turbulent macroeconomic and geopolitical period, investors should favor countries with newly elected government, small government size, and ample room to cut policy rate. Ideally, they should also be in a stable region, and not so dependent on the US or China. Hence, we are introducing the Global Political Capital Index as a way to integrate these factors into a score that can help narrow down the countries with the best and worst abilities to deal with the incoming challenges.

German Bunds have cheapened considerably, and the ECB is about to start cutting rates. Does this combination guarantee immediate profits from buying these bonds?

Q1 earnings results of the largest US banks have demonstrated that the engine of recent growth in profitability, NII, has faltered as funding costs are rising fast. However, the resurgence in non-NII thanks to a revival in corporate activity has been a saving grace. Earnings growth appears to have bottomed, while valuations are attractive. To play up portfolio exposure to an upcoming surge in capital markets activity, and minimize exposure to declining profitability in traditional banking services, overweight Diversified Banks and Capital Markets, and underweight Regional Banks.