China’s Out of Sync… In A Good Way
But First: What’s That Up There, A Ceiling? Before we get to today’s main topic, a comment on the debt ceiling. It started innocently as a piece of World War I-era legislation intended to remove the threat of the Federal government running out of cash. But it was weaponized during Read more…
China: Trading Opportunity Emerging… Rest of World: Too Late To Be Bearish, Too Early To Be Bullish
China Recently, developments in China indicate an almost chaotic exit to the country’s “zero covid” policy, suggesting potential opportunities in Chinese equities — which are still highly under-owned by global investors. In our view, as a brief, counter-trend technical euphoria in U.S. markets fades, a recession continues to loom over Read more…
Xi Jinping’s Grip On Power, the Future of China, and What It Means For the Rest of the World
Last weekend concluded the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, at which a new slate of Chinese leaders were presented: the Politburo, and most significantly, the Politburo’s seven-member Standing Committee. As had been widely expected, President Xi Jinping broke with the precedent established by his predecessors which Read more…
Why Afghanistan Matters — and Why the Market Doesn’t Care
Does the collapse of the U.S.-backed Afghan government matter? It certainly matters to many Afghani individuals who hitched themselves to the American star, and seem to have been unceremoniously abandoned in the chaotic rout that passed for an American withdrawal. It matters to the population of young urban Afghanis who Read more…
How Much China Is In Your Index Fund?
In early June, Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing [DIDI] filed for a public stock offering on the New York Stock Exchange. To call DIDI “the Chinese Uber” [UBER] would be an understatement; in fact it might be more accurate to call Uber “the American Didi.” In the past 12 months, Read more…
Taiwan: Critically Important Flash Point
One lasting effect of the pandemic’s disruption of global supply chains has been a shortage of chips. This is not primarily a shortage of the advanced semiconductors which some industry leaders have increasingly favored because of their higher margins; rather, it’s the commoditized, workhorse chips that are now essential components Read more…
Opportunity in Hong Kong, Trouble For Chinese Tech
Hong Kong had a rough 2020, hit by the pandemic, by escalating tensions between the U.S. and the People’s Republic of China, and by ongoing resistance in Hong Kong to the effective early end of the “one country, two systems” policy that had once seen the PRC largely leave Hong Read more…