Schroders
August 23, 2016
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EM debt: rich or risk?

We believe that one of the difficulties with simple arguments that emerging markets have run too fast, or whether emerging markets have much more upside, is that we are in an era where historical comparisons largely lack relevance.

Misled by history?

With $13-ish trillion in government debt trading at negative rates determing what is "risk" and what is "rich" have become exercises without comparative anchors. Nevertheless, the answers we read in Wall Street research still cling to the traditional concepts of comparisons between other periods of relative historical exuberance.

We don't have a solid metric, but we suspect that historical comparisons will lead investors astray.

Without those valuation anchors and an ability to determine with confidence overall market valuation metrics, we think that following our historically reliable indicators that have been well correlated with investor returns remains the best investment path. Those indicators remain positive.

Central banks in centre stage

The key reason for that is the stance of developed market central banks. The commitment to asset purchases remains intact by the Bank of Japan (BoJ), the European Central Bank (ECB), and the Bank of England.

With so much debt subject to purchase by a price insensitive buyer with an unlimited balance sheet, valuations seem to matter less than detecting whether those commitments flag and those central banks return to a more traditional policy framework. There is no sign of this, primarily because those policies continue to show no convincing signs of producing results in the form of growth.

The exception of course is the Federal Reserve (Fed), which continues to jawbone markets when rate hike expectations sink too low and asset prices rise too high too fast.

The past week was a good example when one governor stated that September was still possible for a rate hike, and at least one hike this year was suggested. Rate hike probabilities predictably rose, but the dollar remained relatively unaffected.

The chart below shows the last ten trading days for the dollar, without a whole lot of volatility or a meaningful trend change to stronger levels.

The dollar over the past ten days (source: Bloomberg)

Waning sensitivity

We suspect that the market's sensitivity to such pronouncements is waning. The dollar remaining stable to weaker is historically a very benign environment for emerging markets. Thus we see little reason to guess that that environment will turn around in the absence of observable evidence.

Investors forget that what sent the dollar soaring from June 2014 to January 2016 and caused historically negative returns in emerging market local currency investing was the divergence between these central banks. Both the ECB and BoJ were leaning on negative interest rates and weaker currencies while the Fed was wrapping up quantitative easing and expected to begin a rate hiking cycle.

New world order for monetary policy

Today, negative interest rates have been replaced with a reliance on asset purchases--a much better tool if you are an emerging market investor--and the Fed seems unable to commit. Thus we prefer maintaining risk exposures rather than pointing towards increasingly discredited historical metrics in what is most assuredly a new world order for global monetary policy.

http://www.schroders.com/en/us/professional-investor/insights/fixed-income/em-debt-rich-or-risk/ 
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This site is for informational purposes and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security which may be referenced herein. This site is solely intended for use by institutional investors and institutional-investment industry consultants.

Schroder Investment Management North America Inc. (“SIMNA”) is an SEC registered investment adviser, CRD Number 105820, providing asset management products and services to clients in the US and registered as a Portfolio Manager with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada.  Schroder Fund Advisors LLC (“SFA”) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SIMNA Inc. and is registered as a limited purpose broker-dealer with FINRA and as an Exempt Market Dealer with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada.  SFA markets certain investment vehicles for which other Schroders entities are investment advisers.

Schroders Capital is the private markets investment division of Schroders plc. Schroders Capital Management (US) Inc. (‘Schroders Capital US’) is registered as an investment adviser with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).It provides asset management products and services to clients in the United States and Canada.For more information, visit www.schroderscapital.com

SIMNA, SFA and Schroders Capital are wholly owned subsidiaries of Schroders plc.



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