CoreMacro

The stimulus measures announced at last week's NPC were not a game changer. As in 2023, we expect aggregate government spending will fall short of the budgeted amount again this year.

Presently, our four high-conviction themes are: (1) the US dollar will rally as US growth continues to outpace the rest of the world; (2) US equities will continue to outperform EM and European stocks until a major sell-off occurs; (3) a US profit margin squeeze is imminent; (4) EM domestic bonds and sovereign USD bonds are due for a setback.

After the significant devaluation of the pound, we now recommend going into Egyptian assets again.

Despite the economy being on the verge of a recession, the South African Reserve Bank will not ease policy meaningfully. Doing so will accentuate the currency depreciation, which, in turn, will push up bond yields – an outcome the central bank would like to prevent.

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.

Special Report

The odds of a “Minsky Moment” for the Chinese banking sector are low. They, however, will continue facing cyclical and structural headwinds, including a dismal asset quality and profit outlook. Bank stocks remain a value trap. Absolute-return investors should sell rebounds in Chinese bank stocks.

Over the next six months, the deterioration in non-US growth will occur earlier and be more pronounced than in the US. This expectation reinforces our confidence to bet on the strength of the US dollar. As usual, the flip side of the US dollar strength will be weakness in EM risk assets.

Special Report

The global memory chip market will improve in 2024, characterized by a further rebound in memory chip prices and decent demand growth. Artificial intelligence (AI) memory and a replacement cycle of servers, smartphones, and PCs will propel memory chip shipment. We remain overweight South Korean equities within the EM equity benchmark. we also recommend a new relative trade of long Korean tech stocks and short the EM equity benchmark.

Chinese A-shares will probably begin forming a volatile bottom. The basis is that authorities will likely throw the kitchen sink at the onshore market in an attempt to stabilize share prices. The same is not true for offshore listed stocks. Hong Kong-traded Chinese share prices will likely continue to fall. Beijing is less concerned with offshore stocks as their holders are primarily foreign investors.

The stars have aligned for a major outperformance of Chilean stocks versus the EM equity benchmark. Plummeting inflation in Chile will push monetary authorities to continue their aggressive rate cuts, engineering a quick economic recovery this year. We maintain our overweight stance on Chilean stocks and fixed income, and recommend investors go long Chilean banks / short the overall EM index, buy 10-year government bonds, and go long CLP / short COP.