Insights

This month we assess why the market is unfazed by Japan’s upcoming leadership change; we also explain how a bid for a prominent Japanese convenience store operator has highlighted how affordable domestic firms now look in the eyes of their foreign counterparts.

As the November 2024 US presidential elections draw ever closer, we explore the global trade, economic and geopolitical implications from an Asian equity perspective, focusing on the uncertainties and opportunities that could arise if Donald Trump secures a second term in office.

The Global Equity Team answers the following questions related to the key trends they see emerging: 1)does the AI investment theme still offer significant long-term potential? 2) will the market leadership broaden beyond technology names into other sectors? and 3) what are the main risks and challenges equity investors may face in the remainder of 2024?

For August we reduced our overweight on growth assets amid volatility in the markets and maintained a neutral position on defensives. We expect volatility to be quelled, given that the markets have factored in the Fed cutting interest rates in September and with more easing anticipated over the following 12 months.

On 13 August, the Global Investment Committee held an extraordinary session to review the impact of recent volatile market movements. We maintain our central scenario for positive GDP growth in most major economies, although we see heightened downside risks to our US GDP growth outlook.

India remains the long-term growth story in Asia and continues to attract fresh investment flows. China, on the other hand, has become the value play waiting for positive catalysts to turnaround sentiment.

We expect the broader trend of easing global yields, prompted by expectations for the Fed to begin lowering interest rates, to support a downward bias in Asian bond yields. We continue to favour Indian and Philippine government bonds over their regional peers.

The weak yen has played a key role in Japan’s economic recovery by boosting its corporate profits, gross national income and current account surplus. However, it may be time to consider ways Japan can retain its recovery without help from a weak yen should the financial markets eventually change direction. The need for portfolio diversification and Japan’s structural reforms are some of the factors that could incentivise investors to trim their exposure abroad and reinvest domestically.

The Nikkei experienced its worst single-day fall early in August after reaching a record high just the previous month. Despite the recent slide, domestic factors supporting Japanese equities remain relatively unchanged, in our view. We believe that the narrative of Japan overcoming deflationary pressures due to increasing real wages is still intact.

We assess the extreme turbulence this week that rocked Japanese equities, which had reached record highs just last month. We discuss the factors that led to the sharp downturn at the start of the week and consider what could be in store for the market, including prospects for recovery.