East Europe & Central Asia

Highlights EM risk assets will continue to plunge as U.S. bond yields and the U.S. dollar have more upside. Asset allocators should maintain an underweight allocation to EM within global equity and credit portfolios. Upgrade Russian stocks from neutral…

Highlights The inexorable shift of refining eastward would be accelerated if the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and Russia fail to curb crude oil production as we expect. Prolonging the crude oil market-share war - particularly between opposing camps led by…

Highlights By now, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and Russia have figured out that if each cuts 500k b/d of production, the revenue enhancement for both will be well worth the foregone volumes. Even without additional cuts from other OPEC and non-OPEC…

Highlights The U.S. is not yet a "high-pressure" economy, but slack is dissipating. U.S. growth, while not torrid, will remain high enough to push interest rates higher. The euro area continues to exhibit tepid domestic demand growth, and slack there…

Highlights The resilience of EM industrial commodity demand, which is helping to lift inflation and inflation expectations in the U.S., will be tested over the next few months, as markets gear up for a possible oil-production deal between OPEC and Russia,…

The volte-face being attempted by OPEC and non-OPEC producers in an attempt to keep oil prices above a pure-competition market-clearing level arises from the dire financial circumstances key states in both camps find themselves. Now begins the arduous process of determining just how much the Gulf Arab states within OPEC, led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA); and non-OPEC states, chiefly Russia, can cut oil production without giving shale-oil producers in the U.S. a huge windfall.

Hillary Clinton has a 65% chance of winning the election; she receives 334 electoral college votes according to our model. Trump still requires an exogenous shock to win. Meanwhile, the USD is poised to rally - and leftward-moving policymakers will applaud its redistributive effects while MNCs suffer the consequences.

In a February <i>Special Report</i> titled "Assessing Fair Value In FX Markets" we introduced a set of long-term valuation models based on various fundamentals. We have updated the results and added KRW, INR, PHP, HKD, CLP and COP to our analysis. The dollar still remains expensive, albeit with no signs of a dangerous overvaluation. The yuan is now at its cheapest level since 2009.

Investors stand to benefit from Czech koruna revaluation versus the euro and also from positive carry, while waiting for the central bank to remove the exchange rate floor. Go long CZK / short euro. Economic fundamentals and policy divergence between Poland and Hungary point to a stronger zloty versus the forint. Go long PLN / short HUF.

We put the odds of an oil-production freeze agreement between OPEC and Russian officials next week in Algiers at slightly better than a coin toss.