China

Symptoms of a liquidity trap for Chinese households are appearing. Our proprietary indicators for the marginal propensity to spend among households and enterprises continue falling. There has been a paradigm shift in Beijing’s approach to policy stimulus. Authorities will be slow to introduce large stimulus. Hence, China-related financial markets are set to fall further.

Risk assets would perform well over 12 months only if inflation falls to 2% without triggering a recession. That would be unprecedented. We recommend investors stay defensive.

The CCP is poised to roll out a re-boot of China’s economy that will focus on its comparative advantage in the processing of base metals – particularly copper – and the export of metals-intensive products like EVs. The re-boot will emphasize deeper policy coordination to revive construction, manufacturing, exports and renewed efforts to attract and retain FDI. This will be bullish for commodities – particularly conventional energy and metals – as funding flows to SOEs.

We expect the CCP to pivot toward more fiscal stimulus – and less credit stimulus – this year, which will put a bid under energy and metals prices. On the back of this view, at tonight’s close we are getting long 4Q23 Brent futures vs short 4Q24 futures, and re-establishing our XME and PICK ETF positions expecting higher prices and steeper backwardations in metals markets. We also are getting long 4Q23 COMEX copper vs short 4Q24 futures.

In Section I, we review the three possible economic scenarios over the coming year, and underscore that the “soft landing” scenario remains improbable. A “no landing” scenario could occur, but it would ultimately lead back to the recessionary path and thus is not a basis for investors to maintain pro-risk portfolio positions. US stock prices continue to be buoyed by rate cut expectations, but nonrecessionary cuts still appear to be a long way off. In Section II, we present our best estimate of the inflationary threshold that results in a positive or negative stock price / bond yield (SBY) correlation, and whether investors are likely to approach this level over the coming one-to-two years. US core inflation does not likely need to return to the Fed’s target in order for the SBY correlation to return to positive territory, but a move back to a positive correlation will very likely occur in the context of falling equity prices.

China’s recovery is losing steam. Its industrial segments will disappoint, while the pace of consumer spending will be moderate. Overall, the Chinese economic recovery will underwhelm in the months ahead. Odds are that interest rate expectations in China will drop even lower, which will weigh on the RMB.