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China's economy falters over trade-war threat
Donald Trump's threats to ramp up his trade war have provided a nasty shock to China's economy and stockmarkets.
China's stimulus might have worked too well, says Thomas Gatley of Gavekal Research. Beijing responded to slowing GDP growth last year with a mix of monetary and fiscal measures including roughly $2trn in tax cuts. Yet stronger than expected March data has prompted the Politburo to pivot back to calling for "structural reform", a tonal shift implying that easing is over for now.
Downbeat manufacturing surveys have also injected some "healthy scepticism" into the China rally, says Laurence Fletcher in the Financial Times. The country's CSI 300 benchmark of domestic stocks had rocketed 30% this year, but with factory output gauges virtually flat in April investors are re-examining their assumptions about how much the stimulus can do for China and other emerging markets. And that was before this week's trade threat by US president Donald Trump (see below) provided a nasty shock. The CSI 300 fell by almost 6% on 6 May, its worst day in more than three years. The yuan also suffered its worst daily decline since 2016.
Retail investors return
More stimulus arrives
Headwinds for China, notably further trade hostilities, imply a choppier outlook for other emerging markets too given their exposure to global growth. The South African, Mexican and Turkish currencies all followed the yuan downwards this week. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index had jumped by more than 10% this year, but new doubts about US-China relations have "thrown a monkey-wrench" into the notion that a "stable yuan would anchor developing nation assets as a whole", SocGen analyst Jason Daw told Bloomberg. Expect a bumpy ride over the coming weeks.
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The US has already imposed tariffs on $250bn of Chinese goods, with Beijing retaliating with levies on $110bn of US products. Chinese exports to the US have fallen 47% since June last year, according to Reuters. Estimates of the economic damage from existing measures are relatively modest, but a full-blown escalation could be expensive.
The International Monetary Fund has calculated that such a scenario would reduce US GDP by up to 0.6% and Chinese GDP by as much as 1.5%. The losses could rise to as much as 2% for both sides if the European car industry is also sucked into a prolonged trade war, according to a note from Deutsche Bank, putting the continent's tentative recovery at risk.
The outlook for trade was not that rosyto begin with, says Simon MacAdam for Capital Economics. Global trade volumes fell by 1.8% month-on-month in February,the fourth decline in six months. Forward-looking indicators also suggest slowing momentum.
The global rally has been fuelled by optimism about a trade deal, so there is a great deal at stake for stocks. Most analysts think that Trump's latest gambit is an attempt to wring concessions out of Beijing, Charlie McElligott of Nomura Holdings tells Bloomberg. It remains to be seen whether this is an "epic incidence of poker playing" or "a raging miscalculation".
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Alex is an investment writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2015. He has been the magazine’s markets editor since 2019.
Alex has a passion for demystifying the often arcane world of finance for a general readership. While financial media tends to focus compulsively on the latest trend, the best opportunities can lie forgotten elsewhere.
He is especially interested in European equities – where his fluent French helps him to cover the continent’s largest bourse – and emerging markets, where his experience living in Beijing, and conversational Chinese, prove useful.
Hailing from Leeds, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Manchester.
