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We now expect that the US dollar will strengthen somewhat over the next couple of years as the US economy outperforms and its policy mix diverges from that in most other major economies. Last year, the US dollar went through two distinct phases. The …
26th March 2021
In light of our revised forecasts for long-term US Treasury yields, we have raised our forecasts for the yields of 10-year government bonds in most other developed markets. But in most cases we doubt they will rise by as much as yields in the US. We …
24th March 2021
The sharp rise of US yields in response to this year’s shift in US fiscal policy and rapid progress on vaccinations – and the Fed’s apparent willingness to accept higher long-term interest rates – have prompted us to raise our end-2021 and end-2022 …
19th March 2021
We had expected Brazil’s stock market to be among the best performers in the world this year, but with the virus still running rampant and populist policymaking on the rise, we now think its underperformance will continue for some time. In general, we …
17th March 2021
Despite the recent turmoil in bond markets, we continue to expect developed market (DM) equities to gain ground in the rest of this year as real yields remain quite low and economic growth stays strong . DM equities have held up well recently, despite …
16th March 2021
We think that high FX-hedged yields on 10-year US Treasuries will encourage more purchases from non-US investors and may help to limit the rise in US government bond yields even as the economy recovers. Since the start of the year, the prospects for the …
12th March 2021
Just as we expect China’s economy to slow later this year even as growth picks up rapidly elsewhere, we think China’s financial markets could stand out from those in the rest of the world in the coming months. This year we forecast a significant contrast …
11th March 2021
We think that the recent outperformance of the MSCI Japan Index relative to the MSCI USA Index will continue as the world slowly gets back to normal. After lagging for most of 2020, the MSCI Japan Index has been one of the best-performing developed market …
9th March 2021
The rise of government bond yields in the US and other developed markets (DMs) this year has made a significant impact on currency markets and, if it continues, would challenge our forecast for a weaker dollar. For most of last year, the primary driver of …
5th March 2021
We don’t expect the recent rise in US bond yields to turn into a rerun of the 2013 Taper Tantrum. But even if US real yields continued to grind higher, we think that EM assets and currencies would be better placed to cope than in 2013 . The recent …
4th March 2021
A fresh allocation of IMF Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), if implemented, would provide a welcome boost to the depleted foreign exchange reserves of some distressed frontier economies. But an allocation wouldn’t address underlying dire debt dynamics, …
3rd March 2021
Given our latest forecast for oil prices, we now expect the Canadian dollar to rise further in 2021 than we previously thought, but to drop back a bit in 2022. Despite already rising more than 15% against the US dollar from the last year’s low, we think …
25th February 2021
Even if nominal government bond yields kept rising this year, we suspect that this would be driven by rising inflation compensation rather than real yields, in contrast with the past couple of weeks. Chart 1 breaks down the increases in 10-year government …
The pound has performed better than all other G10 currencies so far in 2021 (see Chart 1), rising from $1.36 at the start of January to almost a three-year high of $1.41 now. We expect the strength of sterling against the US dollar to continue and have …
24th February 2021
While we expect that EM currencies in general will rise further this year due to strong appetite for risk and a recovering global economy, we think several headwinds will limit their appreciation. For a start, EM currencies as a group have already …
19th February 2021
We think that the positive equity market rotation that accompanied November’s vaccine announcements will resume before long if, as we expect, vaccines allow restrictions on activity to be lifted later this year. To recap, the MSCI World Index of developed …
17th February 2021
With a large fiscal stimulus package looking increasingly probable in the US, and the Fed unlikely to push back on higher inflation expectations, we think the yield of 10-year US Treasuries may rise a little further. We expect this to be driven mainly by …
12th February 2021
We think that UK equities will outperform their peers elsewhere this year, as some of the headwinds that they faced in 2020 fade or even act as tailwinds. The MSCI UK Index generally underperformed the rest of the MSCI World Index of developed market (DM) …
9th February 2021
We think that concerns about the commitment of Brazil’s government to fiscal sustainability will intensify over the next two years and weigh on its sovereign bonds and the real . While they have recovered a bit over the past few days, Brazil’s sovereign …
8th February 2021
In our view, major central banks will generally take a more cautious approach to tightening monetary policy than they did in the past. This underpins our forecast that the yields of 10-year government bonds in both developed and most emerging countries …
5th February 2021
Indian government bond yields have increased sharply since the Union Budget earlier this week but we don’t think they will rise much further, and they may even decline slightly from here. To recap, Indian bond yields have increased by ~15bp this week, to …
We think that the US will return to a more traditional approach to the greenback under Joe Biden, and we anticipate that the overall effect of his economic policies will favour a weaker dollar. Since the mid-1990s, US policymakers have generally taken a …
3rd February 2021
We think that the recent rally in emerging market (EM) Asian equities outside of China will slow substantially this year, and that they will begin to underperform other EM equities. To recap, a key feature of global equity markets since November’s vaccine …
27th January 2021
While we have revised up our end-2021 forecasts for the Australian dollar and the New Zealand dollar against the US dollar to reflect the strength of their recent rallies, we still think that the Kiwi will outperform the Aussie over the next couple of …
25th January 2021
While the yield of ten-year Italian government bonds has risen recently, we continue to expect it to fall back by end-2021 thanks to ECB support and a benign domestic and global backdrop . To recap, there appear to be three main reasons behind the ~20bp …
22nd January 2021
Although several factors could conceivably support the dollar in the near term, we still think it will weaken overall this year as Fed policy remains accommodative and appetite for risk continues to grow. The first factor that could potentially drive the …
19th January 2021
Although Treasury inflation compensation – i.e. gaps between the nominal yields of conventional Treasuries and the real yields of TIPS with comparable maturities – has risen sharply since the spring, we don’t think this will prompt less accommodative …
15th January 2021
Although Chinese equities have bounced back a bit so far in 2021, they have still underperformed those elsewhere since the news on vaccine efficacy in late 2020. We expect further underperformance this year. There was a stark contrast in the relative …
13th January 2021
Despite the jump in US Treasury yields this week following the Georgia Senate run-off election results, we continue to think that the Fed will keep them from rising much further this year. The 10-year Treasury yield has risen above 1% for the first time …
8th January 2021
We expect both the Swedish krona and the Norwegian krone to appreciate against the euro and the dollar in 2021. However, in contrast to 2020, we expect the NOK to outperform the SEK slightly this year. The fortunes of the Swedish krona and Norwegian krone …
7th January 2021
Risky assets have continued to rally even as the near-term economic picture has turned a bit gloomier, but we do not think this reflects excessive optimism. Indeed, we think risky assets could rally further still. To recap, notwithstanding some wobbles on …
6th January 2021
Emerging market (EM) Asian equities have performed well compared with those in other EMs when coronavirus concerns have worsened this year, but we suspect any further deterioration in the virus situation would not provide the same support. To recap, EM …
22nd December 2020
We think that most risky assets will make further gains next year as policymakers continue to anchor safe bond yields around their current levels and the US dollar weakens further. After a pandemic-driven rollercoaster of a year in financial markets, …
While the real yield differential between the US and the euro-zone has moved against the euro recently we doubt that this trend will continue. And, in any case, we think that factors other than changes in real yield differentials will continue to push the …
16th December 2020
Frontier economies will receive only a relatively small direct economic boost from the roll-out of vaccines next year. But the indirect benefits via higher commodity prices, capital inflows and tourism spending will be more substantial. These indirect …
15th December 2020
Although we have revised up our forecasts for economic growth in many emerging markets (EMs), we generally still expect monetary policy to remain loose, or be loosened further, to the benefit of local currency government bonds. Indeed, we think 10-year …
14th December 2020
While US corporate credit spreads are now close to their pre-pandemic levels, we think that they will fall further in general as the global economy recovers with the help of vaccines. Back in the summer, when the option-adjusted spreads (OAS) of ICE BofA …
10th December 2020
We think that the inverse relationship between the dollar and risk appetite will remain strong over the next couple of years, against a backdrop of low and stable interest rates. We expect that the dollar will weaken further and risky assets continue to …
We expect the recent rise in US inflation compensation to continue as the economy recovers, but doubt that it will be matched by a similar increase in nominal bond yields. As such, we think real yields may fall further. To recap, the 10-year US Treasury …
With positive news on COVID-19 vaccines increasing the chances of a strong global economic recovery next year, risky assets have rallied over the past month. While we think the stage is set for them to continue to do so, in this Update we identify five …
3rd December 2020
We think that the limited reaction of developed market government bonds to positive vaccine news is a sign of things to come. While the introduction of effective vaccines should help drive a stronger economic recovery early next year, it does not …
2nd December 2020
Zambia became the first African government to default during the current crisis and debt risks are high in several other Frontier Markets, including Ghana and Kenya. The G20’s recently-announced ‘Common Framework’ to provide debt relief is a step in the …
23rd November 2020
Although India’s economy has struggled more than most in the COVID-19 pandemic, its equity market has performed relatively well lately. We expect the contrast between the economy and the equity market in India to continue over the next couple of years. …
20th November 2020
We have revised up our forecast for the euro against the US dollar, as we expect that conditions driving the euro’s appreciation will persist over the next few years despite near-term headwinds. The euro has appreciated more than 10% against the greenback …
After underperforming the MSCI USA Index for most of 2020, the MSCI Japan Index has started to outperform it in recent days. Provided COVID-19 is brought under control in most major economies, we think that this trend will continue over next couple of …
19th November 2020
While there could still be more twists and turns to come after this week’s elections in the US, in general we expect equities there to outperform Treasuries between voting day and the end of 2022. The S&P 500 has risen significantly since voting day, even …
6th November 2020
While the final results are yet to be determined, whoever wins the US presidency probably faces continued gridlock in Congress. That may explain why the moves in markets overall so far have been limited. Admittedly, Treasury yields have fallen as the …
4th November 2020
We think that the Swedish krona will appreciate a little further against the euro and the dollar in 2021, but doubt that it will remain one of the best-performing G10 currencies, as it has been this year. The Swedish krona has been the …
2nd November 2020
Although uncertainty about the US election result might temporarily support the dollar, we expect it will continue to decline over the next few years given our forecast for loose fiscal and monetary policy. The ~5% rise in the dollar following the 2016 …
30th October 2020
It is looking increasingly likely that the Brazilian government will violate its constitutional spending cap, or at least the spirit of it. While this could lead to some ructions in the real and Brazil’s bond market, we think its equity market should …
28th October 2020