FICC

China’s re-opening – powered by the fiscal and monetary stimulus required to achieve at least 5% real GDP growth after flattish 2022 growth – and a weaker USD will catalyze demand growth this year and next, lifting global oil consumption by close to 2mm and 1.7mm b/d in 2023 and 2024. We lowered our Brent forecast slightly for this year to $110/bbl, and expect 2024 prices to average $115/bbl. WTI will trade $4-$6/bbl lower.

We remain bullish the yen, despite the BoJ maintaining yield curve control. In this report, we outline a few reasons for this stance.

We remain bullish the yen, despite the BoJ maintaining yield curve control. In this report, we outline a few reasons for this stance.

This insight presents an outlook on USD-Denominated Emerging Market Bonds.

In this Strategy Insight, we assess the best and worst opportunities for inflation-linked bonds within the major developed markets. We see a case for underweighting inflation protection in the euro area, while overweighting Japanese inflation-linked bonds with the Bank of Japan moving away from yield curve control at a time of relatively high Japanese inflation.

In this week’s report, we look at whether global growth conditions remain conducive for a continued decline in the dollar. Our findings are mixed, while there are some economic green shoots, the overall growth picture remains weak. This argues for some consolidation of dollar losses in the near term.

Special Report

CCP policy stimulus will boost growth in China this year. Copper prices breached $4.00/lb on COMEX this week, as expected. We continue to forecast $4.50/lb this year, with upside price risk dominating. Iron ore also will rise, but economic and regulatory policy uncertainty clouds the outlook. We remain long the COMT and XME ETFs. We are getting tactically long BRL/USD and AUS/USD on the back of our metals view, which is constrained by China’s reversion to absolute autocracy and ability to reverse policy suddenly and unpredictably.

The Fed will respond to December’s CPI report by downshifting to a 25 bps hike pace next month. We anticipate two more 25 bps hikes before the Fed goes on hold.

In this report, we present our review of the BCA Research Global Fixed Income Strategy (GFIS) model bond portfolio for the full calendar year 2022 and the initial outlook for 2023. We envision a changed game plan for fixed income investing this year, as the focus of bond investors begins to shift from high inflation to slowing global growth. In this environment, asset allocation decisions between government bonds and spread product – rather than duration management – will represent the more important expected driver of bond portfolio performance.

This week we present our Portfolio Allocation Summary for January 2023.