Latest from BCA Research
In the ongoing Middle East crisis, anti-fragile markets will remain relatively resilient while fragile markets will break. We describe how to draw the distinction. Plus, a new trade is a 50:50 combination of long USD/MXN and overweight Consumer Discretionary.
The recent oil price shock reinforces our view that inflation will surprise to the upside during the next few months but fall rapidly in H2 2026.
China's slowdown coincides with at least a minor global oil shock – a combination we have long feared.
In this monthly iteration of our chartpack, we focus exclusively on just two questions. First, we present four scenarios for how the situation in the Middle East develops. Second, what happens if the pernicious scenarios come to dominate, how investors should play a global recession, were it to occur.
Close oil trades tactically, but beware lingering economic costs of the Iran war this year.
If the 2022 roadmap is any guide, equity markets and cyclical currencies will trough only after confirming that the peak in energy prices is in the rearview mirror. In the very near term, investors should focus on P&L preservation. Reduce exposure to equities, and seek refuge in gold, and inflation-linked bonds (ILBs). Amid a very different demand side than in 2022, today’s supply shock is unlikely to generate lasting inflation, and investors should fade rate-hike odds.
Growth, inflation, and rate risk drive sector returns and fundamentals, but macro’s explanatory power is at multi-decade lows. Long/short industry-group baskets show the equity market has turned pessimistic about growth, a potential opportunity as the macro data firm. The market’s inflation view has climbed, a move that may be harder to fade given rising oil prices.
