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Each earnings season, we become accustomed to certain patterns. One pattern involves the biggest tech companies reporting earnings before many other smaller and medium sized firms. In what we know is a very difficult economic backdrop, it’s important to look for signals that some of the world’s largest companies are giving us. Additionally, since Microsoft Azure,...

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The end of an era The global stock of bonds yielding sub-zero yields has been erased at the start of 2023, after peaking at US$18.4Trn in late 20201. The fight over inflation has caused central banks from the US, Europe, UK and across the world to exit their low to negative interest rate policy. Even the Bank of Japan – the world’s last dovish monetary authority-...

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In 2022, we saw some of the highest levels of inflation in the US and Europe since the 1980s (Figure 1). Not only had central banks left the punch bowl at the party for too long, but many supply shocks had sent prices rising sharply. The Ukrainian war, for example, sent energy and food prices higher. Adjusting complex supply chains that showed their weaknesses in...

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Let’s begin with a recap. In 2022, precious metals were down 4.4% when the S&P500 Index was down 19.4%. That is an outperformance of 13.8% for precious metals against equities. Still, many firm believers of gold were, at times, questioned why gold was not scaling new highs in a year when inflation was doing exactly that. As Nitesh Shah outlines in his model,...

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A cold weather snap forecast across much of the United States is driving demand for natural gas as a heating fuel higher. Prices of front month Henry Hub Natural Gas Futures have risen over the past week as a result. The front of the curve has moved more than the rest of the curve. The curve is now close to where it was two weeks ago. Natural gas in storage is...

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Despite facing the unknown external shock of a war, the Eurozone economy’s growth has been resilient in the first three quarters of the year. Eurozone Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rose by 0.3% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) in Q3, easing from a 0.8% increase in Q2 2022 aided by the rise in government spending alongside an improvement in inflation adjusted trade surplus...

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Trialogue discussions in progress The ‘Fit for 55’ legislative package proposed by the European Commission in the summer of 2021 is likely to be the catalyst for the most meaningful reform of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme since the programme began in 2005. A lot of progress had been made in getting to a final agreement, with the European Parliament...

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We have written a series of blogs on how artificial intelligence (AI) is advancing other megatrends: AI Continues to Build the Foundation for a Remarkable Future in Biology Can AI Replace People? The Truck-Driving Case Study The World Needs More Metals. Maybe AI can Find Them. By exploring these connections between themes, we can view AI less as a black box...

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“We tell ourselves stories in order to live”, Joan Didion (writer and journalist). Thematic investing brings this notion to the fore. Avenues of investing aligned with megatrends are inherently predicated on visions of the future. But what makes thematic investing a lot more palatable than prophesising is that certain megatrends are already in motion. Thematic...

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Oil prices were whipsawed this week with swings of more than 6%1 after a report from the Wall Street Journal suggested that Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+) is looking to possibly increase output by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd). The rumour could have easily been justified by President Biden’s decision to offer sovereign immunity to the...

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What happened with FTX: Rumours began circulating starting on the week of 1st November that the balance sheet of Alameda Research, a quantitative trading firm, and a sister company of FTX, a Bahamas-based offshore crypto exchange, might be in trouble. They both have the same owner, a 30-year-old crypto’s “golden boy”, Sam-Bankman Fried. It now appears FTX might...

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Recession may be a red herring for a market fuelled by a supercycle While broad commodities have outperformed most major asset classes year-to-date1, the pressure of rising interest rates, a strong US dollar and fears of several large economies tipping into recession has led to a pull-back since the summer of 2022. In our Market Outlook, we argued that the...

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We consider gold, with its unique behavioural traits, to be an important building block to consider for any portfolio. The metal’s price can behave defensively which is typically very beneficial in times of economic shocks and it also tends to respond well to inflation which can be beneficial in times of economic growth. Like any core component of a portfolio, we...

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Recently, the following headline caught my eye: ‘Tesla Supplier Panasonic Plans Additional $4 Billion EV Plant in U.S.’ 1 Even in an environment with significant inflation, and a monetary policy that may continue raising rates for some time, significant capital expenditure continues within the battery space. Panasonic is particularly notable because, in July...

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We recently wrote about semiconductors from the perspective of capital spending and government policies aimed towards encouraging further capital spending and ultimately semiconductor independence. However, we’d be remiss to not at least touch on some of the current geopolitics. A simplified look at the semiconductor supply chain If one simplifies a rather...

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On Friday 28 October, EU carbon emission allowances (EUA) had extended their largest weekly gain in 5 years following a strong rally over the preceding six days1. This happened during a week when the first ‘Fit for 55’ proposal was agreed2. The EU has strengthened targets for CO2 emissions from road transportation. To understand this price action, it is important...

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We recognise we have a diverse array of readers, probably some individual business owners, some employees of large companies, some employees of smaller companies and possibly even some people who are retired or between jobs. Whatever your situation—how many different cybersecurity tools are you aware of that you interact with? A password manager? A single-sign-on...

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Those of us following the markets in 2022 have tended to hear certain words again and again: Supply chains Energy shortage Inflation Renewable energy metals We need energy. We want to transition from significant emissions of greenhouse gases towards more sustainable, climate-neutral sources of energy. It is difficult to foresee the demand for batteries...