Rethinking Matters

RETHINKING MATTERS

Asia’s 2026 outlook: resilient growth amid policy shifts, global risks

Region enters the year buoyed by liquidity tailwinds, hinging on China’s pivotal shift towards consumption

Workers transporting soil containing rare earth elements for export at a port in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, China.
RETHINKING MATTERS

China’s Fourth Plenum – planning or prepping?

Beijing’s new-found willingness to go head-to-head with the US in its trade and tariff war marks a new, muscular change in mindset

Many of Japan’s longer-dated government bond yields have recently spiked and are now at – or close to – record highs. This has created a rare moment of flexibility for Japanese investors who now enjoy the luxury of choice: invest domestically or abroad – without surrendering yield.
RETHINKING MATTERS

The great sucking sound: Japan’s capital shifts

Why the 30-year Japanese government bond yield could be the most important ‘risk indicator’ in the world now

Despite the tumultuous backdrop of US trade policy, US equities in the first half rebounded more strongly than anticipated.
RETHINKING MATTERS

Plain sailing and successful investing

How to navigate 2025’s trade policy uncertainties and geopolitical tensions

It is entirely possible – even likely – that the US’ trading partners do not fully buy into Trump’s “trade distortion” narrative; yet such is their need for continued, unfettered access to the US consumer market that concessions will likely be made, and reciprocity around tariffs on US imports into their countries enacted.
RETHINKING MATTERS

Trump’s tariffs end Asia’s era of fence-sitting

As the US-China trade war intensifies, new lines of trade and allegiance are being drawn

Hong Kong’s role as China’s financial gateway gives it both a role and an edge, certainly in the ability to offer local companies liquidity for financing purposes.
RETHINKING MATTERS

Hong Kong – Canary in a goldmine

The city’s East-West history positions it in the crosshairs of tensions between the world’s two great superpowers

A container port in Jiangsu, China. The country's external dependency is sobering – over the last five years, exports have been critical in offsetting the property sector's collapse and weak consumption.
RETHINKING MATTERS

Blinkmanship

For weeks, both US and China have played hardball, escalating tariffs and seeking to out-stare each other, but recent reports suggest concessions and compromise are possible

The Port Of Long Beach, California.  A trade war triggered by President Trump’s tariffs alone could result in a US$1 trillion hit to the US economy over the next decade, according to the latest analysis from Yale University’s Budget Lab.
RETHINKING MATTERS

Liberation Day for USA Ltd

The chaos, confusion and outrage around the imposition of US trade tariffs have roiled markets. Brace for more shocks as ‘America First’ embraces mercantilism

Perhaps there exists now a cautious optimism among working people in the US who have witnessed factory closures, stagnating wages, job losses to China, and soaring corporate profits.
RETHINKING MATTERS

The new great game

Trump’s shift to an ‘America First’ focus may benefit US consumers but risks abound

In 2016, US journalists and commentators famously observed that Trump's critics took him literally but not seriously, while his supporters took him seriously but not literally.
RETHINKING MATTERS

Planet Trump

Here, markets and goalposts move fast, which means the benefits of a diversified and balanced portfolio cannot be stressed highly enough