• Let's just start here because we did finally get a bit of data and some insight into the labor market in the US. Does it change your expectation for what's potentially to come next as far as a market catalyst goes?
    Jennifer Zabasajja
  • Charles-Henry Monchau
    No, we're not that surprised to see some cooling data on the job market actually. Looking at the alternative data, it's a kind of a mixed picture. The ADP one was indeed on the weak side but we have seen last week order data which were firmer. So we think that the job market is definitely cooling down, but nothing too serious. I think also the weakness on the bond yields this morning is coming from private data on the inflation side. There was a release from Open Brands which shows a meaningful drop in inflation in the US, mainly coming from rents. It seems that there is very serious cooling down on the inflation side with deflationary pressure coming and that comprises about 33% of the CPI basket. If you combine the job market data plus these private data on inflation, it seems that we are not for the time being going into a heating up scenario of inflation and that's probably a good thing for markets to see bond yields staying where they are.
  • Do you still expect to get some insight into what we hear from Fed officials? There is still some expectation of a December cut, 25 basis points or potentially 50.
    Jennifer Zabasajja
  • Charles-Henry Monchau
    Yeah, well, I think the 25 basis points seems very plausible. I'm also very interested to see what is going to happen on the balance sheet side. You'll remember we heard that quantitative tightening is going to stop. Last week the New York Fed President talks about the start of QE. If they stop quantitative tightening, that's the equivalent of another rate cut. If they start QE, that's also the equivalent of another rate cut. So I think that the Fed is probably going to balance between the number of rate cuts and also what they do on the balance sheet side. They need to act because we have seen in the last few weeks some issues on the funding markets, so I think they are very vigilant on that side and want to avoid a scenario similar to what we saw in 2019. So I'm not only looking at what they will do on the rate side but also I want to focus on the balance sheet, which is very important for the market.
  • You also expect if we do see the end of the government shutdown that a wave of liquidity is to follow. Is that your expectation for today?
    Jennifer Zabasajja
  • Charles-Henry Monchau
    Yeah, I think this is indeed a very important development. We have seen the replenishing of the Treasury General Account, which is now above $1.3 trillion. That has acted basically as the equivalent of a rate hike over the last two weeks. That's very mechanical. If we see the end of the shutdown, that means there is indeed a massive amount of liquidity which could be reinjected into the market and into the economy. That could be a bullish trigger for the end of the year. So all of the mechanics around this TGA are very important to monitor.
  • Can we finish on the discussion around potentially an AI bubble that we are seeing and the concentration in markets really on the MAG seven in tech? What is your feeling on where we're at right now?
    Jennifer Zabasajja
  • Charles-Henry Monchau
    So, point number one, the generalized AI story is not over. The AI story is broadening; for instance, in the metals sector. So it's not just all the tech stocks that are benefiting from this AI story. It goes much broader, and metals are indeed reacting quite aggressively to this AI story. But point number three, we need to be vigilant in terms of concentration. I think the SoftBank move is interesting but also there is the debt story. There was a JP Morgan report mentioning that it is expected that there will be $1.5 trillion a year of borrowing due to AI capital expenditures. $1.5 trillion is almost the amount that the Treasury is borrowing on a net basis every year. So that's massive, and that means that obviously rising debt is not always comfortable. These companies before were cash rich and net debt positive, and now they're going to borrow much more money. We need to also monitor credit spreads, look at Oracle for instance, the CDS which keeps moving up. So there are new opportunities but also new risks.
  • When do we start to see this broaden out though, Charles? Does it start to broaden out in the metal space? Does it start to broaden out globally?
    Jennifer Zabasajja
  • Charles-Henry Monchau
    Yeah, well, we have seen some move in China. To give you an idea, there is a small company in Italy called Christian, created back in 1876. They were going nowhere but as they manufacture cables, the stock is up almost 30% this year because there is high demand for cables. That's a very old Italian company but they also benefit from the AI story. So I think it's not very clear in the numbers so far because the maximum has been really so well. But from a macro and micro perspective, this AI story is indeed broadening much beyond what we could see with the MAG7. It’s not just a tech story; it is a power story, it is a metals story.
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