The Chinese retail buying of gold continues, but Western funds now also see a compelling real-rates case to join the party. The big question is whether the USD will weaken sufficiently to reduce the Asian demand for precious metals.
![Something for your Espresso: The Gold Rush Continues!](https://stenoresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Something-for-your-espresso-1080x675.png)
The Chinese retail buying of gold continues, but Western funds now also see a compelling real-rates case to join the party. The big question is whether the USD will weaken sufficiently to reduce the Asian demand for precious metals.
The inflation report holds the potential to fuel the liquidity beta risk party further, and if we take clues from China, we ought to expect a soft(ish) report. The tide needs to turn on USD vs Asian FX to truly alter the picture.
The JPY is once again suffering from a weak CNY, and the metals trade is not performing despite FX debasement risks in Asia. Have markets gotten tired of the co-ordinated “cry wolf” rhetoric from Asian monetary authorities?
The Chinese apparent copper consumption is absolutely on the floor, while the copper market is turning bid again. Is the Chinese consensus getting too upbeat again? And how will it market in the West during the summer?
While the rate of change is turning bearish on growth- and inflation, we may (temporarily) end up in a goldilocks scenario in July. Bonds tend to perform alongside equities in such a scenario. Buy risk and head for the summer cottage?
We are still observing China’s next moves in the copper market, as inventories at Chinese exchanges are booming while they are running low in the West. Meanwhile, our studies reveal that the physical demand in China is absolutely on the floor!
The short-term macro bet on the Chinese build-up of copper reserves seems more than exhausted. Cluster risks remain excessive in copper contracts maturing in July, while Lat-Am could be an interesting middleman bet in the meantime.
The Chinese profit cycle seems to be improving (from abysmal levels) and the big question is whether the export prices from China to the West will start to increase as a consequence.
The AI wave is suddenly used as an excuse for right about everything in equity markets to commodity markets to rates markets. Is that even fair?
The front-month Copper bet has been extremely popular in recent weeks/months, but is the Copper market being run over by a bus full of tourists or by an actual increase in the demand in the global economy? All roads lead to Shanghai!
Chinese equities and metal proxies continue to surge, but FX settlement numbers from April hint that the FX pressures in CNY space are very very real. Is it generally very expensive to decide on the “slow burning path”.
The next few weeks will be absolutely vital in copper space as we will see whether China will offload Copper stocks to the West as they are currently paid to do. If they DON’T, we can conclude that China is building stock for strategic purposes.
China is exporting inflation again as the industrial production complex is starting to fire on all cylinders. Meanwhile, the consumer remains pessimistic in China and RE woes will leave CNY rates low.
The Chinese industrial production pace is back at pre-pandemic levels, while the stock market has never recovered. We are slowly but surely seeing a build up of momentum that could turn out to be very self-fulfilling.
If the Biden admin moves the needle first in the flared-up trade conflict, China may decide to let go of the USD/CNY exchange rate in response. Things are heating up again!
The weakness in Asian FX is back and there are signs of a bottoming in Oil prices. Will the breathing space only last until next week’s CPI report? Meanwhile, the UK could prove to be a US case T+6.
The RBA echoed the Fed and sees sticky prices as a reason to remain on hold. The RBA has adopted a classic symmetrical stance, something that could spread across the G10, unless the growth picture stalls further.
The US calendar is light in the week ahead, meaning that European central banks take center stage. Will high-beta assets continue to soar on hopes (expectations) of cuts?
The recession narrative has returned after a series of weak PMIs. Betting against the returning recession hysteria has been a profitable strategy since April-2020, but will it be so again this time? Hallelujah!
The list of triggers for a material devaluation of the CNY keeps getting longer and action is probably imminent. The question is how markets will react to such an event and whether it will prove to be a new trend.
The embedded value in risk assets is improving, but the USD wrecking ball will continue into this week. The question is whether we have imminent action ahead from the BoJ/MoF or the PBoC as a consequence.
China is preparing for something major. That seems increasingly obvious judging from the stockpiling of important resources. Could it be that they are preparing a major one-off devaluation of the CNY?
The strong Chinese GDP numbers were overshadowed by a continued weakness in Asian FX trends. Energy and metals typically continue to perform in such an environment.
The strategic shift from Real Estate to Green-tech manufacturing in China is very evident and it will likely impact Europe to a much larger extent than the US. Counterintuitively, it means that two of the strongest inflation hedges stem from China and Mexico simultaneously. Here is why!
While we have booked profits in our long oil bets, we are getting increasingly bullish on the broader commodity complex. Especially a couple of metals look extremely interesting here.
The gap is growing between the US and peers. Both on inflation and unemployment. Will this lead to surprising rates decisions already this week? Meanwhile, we don’t think energy prices will drop because of Israel pulling out troops.
The BoJ delivered a historical hike – its first in 17 years – last week. Does this mark the turning point for Japan for good, or do risks still linger?
The Li Keqiang Index witnessed its most robust monthly surge since 2005 but consumer confidence is rotten?
Understand the paradoxes of the Chinese consumer in this explainer.
This week we hone in on the consequences of the Ukraine’s successful attacks on Russian refiners and how to play it along with some thoughts on our profit taking in metal space as something BIG is cooking in China!
China has been in the limelight recently, and the attention from clients match the evident rotation in managed positioning. While tremendously yielding, we’ve decided to de-risk in metals but keep overall cyclical exposure.