A roundup of what The Globe and Mail’s market strategist Scott Barlow is reading today on the Web
Ipek Ozkardeskaya from U.K.-based London Capital Group Ltd is not holding much hope for U.S. China trade negotiations this week,
“US imposed travel bans to Chinese officials, after having blacklisted eight Chinese tech companies pointing at the violation of human rights in the Xinjiang region of Northwest China. Uncomfortable with the US sticking its nose into its internal affairs, China said it will retaliate in an official announcement. Tensions around Hong Kong protests and the NBA ban in China added more fuel to the fire.
“All in all, China’s agreement to buy US farm products, which has revived hopes of a potential deal a couple of weeks earlier, may not suffice to break the impasse in trade negotiations. In contrary, it looks like this week’s negotiations will be held in quite a tense atmosphere. The trade war between the US and China is taking a perilous political turn. If it comes down to an ideology clash, then the world should prepare for further disruptions in global trade.“
“@SBarlow_ROB London capital Group not overly hopeful about trade negotiations, "The trade war between the US and China is taking a perilous political turn"” – (excerpt) Twitter
“US puts visa restrictions on Chinese officials over abuses of Muslims in Xinjiang” – CNBC
***
Merrill Lynch analyst Haim Israel listed the company’s picks for most profitable long-term investment themes, including stock ideas.
The exhaustive research report describes 22 investment themes that range from Ageing, Food Security, Education, Obesity and Water conservation.
The report contains a helpful graphic listing companies with the exposure to the most investment themes. Alphabet Inc. tops the list with representation in 14 different themes. Amazon.com, Apple Inc., Honeywell International Inc. and Swiss engineering firm ABB Ltd. are also high on the table.
Mr. Israel emphasized that a few big winners have created the vast majority of equity gains since 1929, and the thematic research is an attempt to find the big winners for the next generation,
“Identifying the next "moonshots" has never been more important: 4% of companies created 100% of net wealth since 1929.”
“@SBarlow_ROB ML: Stocks with most exposure to top long term investment themes” – (table) Twitter
***
The Federal Reserve is set to re-start open market asset purchases but is trying to draw a distinction between now and post-crisis quantitative easing (with mixed success),
“One Wall St analyst sent a note to his clients saying that the new strategy “sure sounds like QE”… when [QE] the policy was implemented after the 2008 economic crisis, it was specifically designed to lower longer term interest rates and to ease financial conditions. This time is different, said Mr Powell on Tuesday. It should not be taken as a shift in monetary policy. It is not being done to boost the general availability of credit.. “Powell was very clear to say it’s not QE, but you are adding balance sheet and reducing rates. It certainly smells like QE to me,” said Andrew Brenner, head of international fixed income at NatAlliance Securities. “You have to call it like it is.””
“Fed restarts debt purchases — just don’t call it QE” – Financial Times (paywall)
***
Tweet of the Day:
Diversion: “Which songs stick in your mind?” – The Economist
Scott Barlow