Latest from BCA Research

The latest edition of our Big Bank Beige Book suggests the expansion remains intact, though weakness in C’s private-label credit card portfolio could be a harbinger of distress among lower-income consumers. We remain tactically neutral with a bias to turn defensive once clearer signs of a recession emerge.

Special Report

In this Special Report, we introduce our Euro Inflation-Linked Golden Rule – a framework to profitably trade and invest in Euro Area inflation-linked bonds versus nominals. The Rule is currently signaling that nominal government bonds should outperform inflation-linked bonds over the next year as disinflation in the Euro Area continues.

Investors anticipate a record growth gap between the US and the Eurozone in 2024. Does this skewed expectation create market opportunities?

Our latest views on the recent increase in Treasury yields and some key things to watch at next week’s FOMC meeting.

Special Report

The UK labor market remains far too tight to expect wage growth to slow to levels consistent with the Bank of England inflation target. A true recession with rising unemployment is needed to finally slay the UK inflation beast. 2024 rate cuts are off the table, with the central bank having to keep monetary policy tighter for longer than markets expect and the UK economy now rebounding. We recommend downgrading UK gilts to underweight in global bond portfolios, while also looking for opportunities to buy the British pound on pullbacks versus the euro, Canadian dollar and Swedish krona.

We go overweight Late-Stage Venture Capital and APAC Private Equity but remain underweight North America Buyouts. We maintain our neutral outlook towards Hedge Funds and are positive on Long-Short Equity, Event Driven, and CRO strategies. We are cooling towards Direct Lending strategies as competition and relative opportunities increase. CRE’s downturn continues to unfold; we are starting to be buyers.

Bank Credit Analyst

Special Report

A deep dive into the balance sheets of top listed firms around the world suggests that corporate health differs substantially across key equity markets. To profit from these differences when the next recession arrives, we recommend that equity investors favor the US and Japan, be neutral on Europe while being wary of China for a range of compelling reasons.

Bank Credit Analyst

In a guest authorship of Section I, Doug Peta addresses the recession skepticism often raised by investors. Excess savings are nearly or already drained, labor market indicators remain consistent with an eventual contraction in payroll growth, and there are no signs that credit growth will keep consumer spending afloat. Additionally, this month’s Section II is a guest piece written by Ritika Mankar of BCA’s Global Investment Strategy service. Ritika checks in on the balance sheet health of large, global, listed nonfinancial firms. Firms in the US and Japan appear to be the most resilient in advance of a coming recession, followed by Europe. Chinese firms are the least resilient from a balance sheet perspective.

Special Report

Investors should not underrate the chance of an oil shock ahead of the US election as Israel needs to push back against Iranian proxies, and Iran needs to demonstrate its regional reach to put a wedge between Israel and the US. We remain strategically long energy commodities and equities, and defense stocks via the COMT, XOP and PPA ETFs, which will continue to outperform cyclicals.