Recession-Hard/Soft Landing
Commodity currencies have been rather resilient, despite the broad rise in the dollar this year. In our view, we are about to experience a big rotation in commodity currency market performance at the crosses, from NZD, to CAD and finally to AUD.
The Chinese government will repress social unrest, then relax Covid-19 social restrictions to try to stabilize the economy. Russia will be aggressive in the short term but will pursue a ceasefire before March 2024. European and Italian risk will stay high on energy constraints.
Today, we are sending you the BCA annual outlook for 2023. The report is an edited transcript of our recent conversation with Mr. X and his daughter, Ms. X, who are long-time BCA clients with whom we discuss the economic and financial market outlook for the next twelve months toward the end of each year.
In this report, we look at the possibility of a dollar decline during any pending recession. In our view, the evidence is mixed. We are probably in one of the most anticipated recessions in recent history, and the dollar has risen a lot. But the dollar also tends to rise during most recessions. We recommend a neutral stance on the DXY, with a bet on some trades at the crosses.
Excess job vacancies in the US and UK reflect a labour market that cannot efficiently match unemployed workers with vacant jobs. This is because excess job vacancies reflect the shortage of labour supply in the 50 plus age cohort, whose skills are difficult to replace. In economic jargon, the post-pandemic ‘Beveridge curve’ has shifted outwards. Absent an unlikely shift in the Beveridge curve to its pre-pandemic version, killing US wage inflation will mean killing jobs. And killing jobs will mean killing profits. We go through the investment implications.
In this Special Report, we consider what some common monetary policy rules are recommending for the major central banks and derive conclusions on duration strategy and country allocation for bond investors. We conclude that rate hike expectations in most countries may appear appropriate given the current global backdrop of high inflation and low unemployment, but look elevated on a forward-looking basis versus slowing global growth and peaking global inflation.
Airlines have staged an impressive recovery this year, exceeding all expectations. While companies are optimistic, we are cautious. Just as pent-up demand for travel will fade, headwinds from slowing growth and high inflation will intensify. While it is highly likely that Airlines will continue to rally into the yearend, we will stick to our underweight as our three-to-six-month outlook remains negative.
The narrative that the US can tolerate much higher interest rates, compared to the rest of the world has helped the dollar in 2022. In this report, we examine the sustainability of this thesis, from our holistic assessment of global growth indicators.
A client concerned about the slump in asset prices, the stubbornness of inflation, and rising bond yields asks what went wrong, and what happens next? This report is the full transcript of our conversation.