Thematic Research

Key highlights from Torsten Slok’s, Chief International Economist, Monthly Chart Book detailing macro and economic drivers impacting markets today. [more]

Many investors think of themselves as apolitical, however, recent market turbulence has reinforced just how much politics can affect business and finance. This issue of Konzept offers incisive opinion on some pressing political issues, including the trade war between China and the US, next year’s US presidential election, European populism, technology regulation, Brexit, and more. We also examine how the latest developments in artificial intelligence and machine learning are helping investors forecast the market impact of political events. [more]

Deutsche Bank Research launches the twentieth edition of the Quantcraft series, a one of a kind deep dive into new trading and analytical models across different asset classes. It helps clients understand structural drivers of market returns and how to systematically extract value from them. The latest report focusses on foreign exchange. Not only does it assess the sensitivity of global currency returns to pertinent drivers including sentiment, valuations, monetary policy and interest rate differentials, but it also guides the investor on how to use those drivers to make economically rewarding decisions. Our research targets all investors involved in foreign exchange, from the corporate treasurer seeking to efficiently manage currency risk to the institutional investor building absolute return strategies. [more]

Tensions in financial markets have increased significantly since the populist/Eurosceptic Five Star/League in Italy took power in May and presented a budget in violation of EU rules. In an unprecedented move, the European Commission sent Rome back to the drawing board. Italy has now provided the Commission with its latest fiscal plan – which is not much different from the old plan. [more]

The workhorse framework of macroeconomics and monetary policy relies on the build-up of inflationary pressures across the cycle as the economy tightens, and firms have no choice but to raise wages, which ultimately lifts consumer prices. Within that narrative, the estimation of slack in the economy – the output gap – is crucial to monetary policy authorities. A positive output gap means that the economy is away from its long-term steady-state equilibrium, and unsustainable cost pressures are building up. Currently, the OECD / IMF / European Commission estimate of the output gap in the euro-area is slightly positive and reaching close to 1% by the end of next year. [more]

Investors have long attempted to incorporate ESG information into their stockpicking decisions, however, ESG funds have underperformed the market. This issue shows how the latest developments in artificial intelligence and machine learning are finally giving investors the upper hand. Big data catches out ‘greenwashing’ and provides forward-looking market signals that outperform the market. This is a boon for investors who want to determine how ESG issues affect the fair value of stocks. [more]

It may not feel like it, but we live in inflationary times relative to long-term history. Before the start of the twentieth century, prices crept higher only very slowly over time and were often flat for long periods. In the UK prices were broadly unchanged between 1800 and 1938. However, inflation moved higher everywhere across the globe at numerous points in the twentieth century. UK prices since 1938 are up by a multiple of 50 (+4885%). [more]

The constraints that forced a rapid slowing of euro area GDP growth momentum from 3% to 2% annualized in H1 — the pass through of earlier FX appreciation, the slowing of exports to China, the rise of the oil price — have eased or reversed somewhat, helping stabilize the economy through mid-year. Whether this can be maintained is a function of still-robust fundamentals (cyclical and structural drivers) vs. accumulating risk factors. [more]

The 15th September will mark ten years since Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a cataclysmic event which reverberated throughout financial markets and led to the “Global Financial Crisis“. This laid the foundations for an extraordinary period for central bank activity and therefore financial markets. It’s still not clear if lessons from the GFC have been learned. In our 2017 Long Term Study “The Next Financial Crisis” we argued that the global financial system post Bretton Woods remains vulnerable to financial crises, and their frequency has been higher in this period than across all prior financial history. The GFC was clearly an extreme case and likely a once-in-a-lifetime event. However, in solving this crisis we have added more debt to an already heavily indebted system and our central banks have imposed a decade of extraordinary measures, from which most still struggle to withdraw. [more]

EM stress is still largely idiosyncratic, but the risk of a broader fallout is increasing. We have argued that external factors account for two-thirds to three-fourths of EM’s performance – especially for credit markets. The worsening of these external conditions is exposing the weakest links across EM and taking a disproportionate toll on several important economies. So far they are bearing the brunt of EM’s stress. [more]