Mexico

Continue overweighting Mexican stocks, sovereign credit, and local bonds relative to their respective EM benchmarks. That said, the peso is overbought and will correct versus the US dollar. Therefore, we recommend that investors hedge the currency risk for their outright long positions in Mexican equity and local bond markets for the next few months.

While 2024 will see various election risks, global geopolitical uncertainty is driven by the US election and its struggle with Russia, China, and Iran. The stock market can manage local domestic political risk. But it will correct upon a major outbreak of geopolitical uncertainty.

While Mexican markets will continue selling off in absolute terms, their recent underperformance versus their EM peers is a temporary setback in a cyclical and structural bull market. Domestic politics are evolving from stable to bullish: the new president will rule in a technocratic manner, respecting private sector interests. The Mexican economy will achieve a soft landing even if the US enters a recession.

In absolute terms, Mexican markets may correct given their impressive rally and an impending EM risk-off move. Relative to EM however, Mexico will continue to outperform given its unique cyclical and structural macro fundamentals, as well as attractive valuations.

In this short weekly report, we review some of our favorite FX trades.

Mexico is caught between crosscurrents. On the one hand, headline and core inflation are at multi-decade highs. On the other hand, genuine inflationary pressures are subdued, and fiscal and monetary policies are hawkish. Going forward, the economy will decelerate meaningfully, but likely achieve a soft landing as the central bank will be able to cut rates in H2 2022. Further, the nation’s healthy external accounts will put a floor in the domestic slowdown. We continue to overweight Mexico across all EM asset classes.