FLAX News and Press, Franklin FTSE Asia ex Japan From 05/18/22

As we entered 2022, many emerging markets were already hurting due to higher commodity prices and rising interest rates; then a war in eastern Europe sent shock waves through the markets. The conflict in Ukraine likely bodes poorly for Eastern Europe more broadly, expanding beyond Rus...

The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent imposition of sanctions by a range of governments have served to reset the global geopolitical compass, with an immediate impact on oil and gas markets and investments. Elevated prices and new sources of demand will create opportuniti...

Global supply chain bottlenecks have made headlines the past couple of years amid the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions. China’s ageing demographics, which lead to a reduction in labor supply, are necessitating higher value-added manufacturing. A shortage of empty...

Emerging Markets are outperforming the rest of the world, due in large part to windfall profits in the commodities-exporting countries of South America and the Middle East. If you want to follow the money, this is a good place to start. Money has been flowing out of tech, consumer dis...

The JPMorgan Global Manufacturing PMI rose from a 15-month low of 53.2 in January to 53.6 in February. The relative weakness of February's global output growth by historical standards contrasted with a more robust expansion of order books recorded during the month. The reduction i...

Despite a broad increase in COVID-19 infections in the ASEAN region, manufacturing conditions remained resilient in February, with the ASEAN manufacturing PMI little changed from the strong reading in January. Manufacturing conditions in the ASEAN region remained resilient in February...

Impact of sanctions against Russia. Boomerang effects of sanctions against Russia. Will the U.S. Fed continue its course to raise rates? For further details see: Will Historic Sanctions Against Russia Impact Global Interest Rates?

Current inflation is supply-led rather than demand-led. Time and market forces will ease this current bout of high inflation. Asia and Europe could use a more accommodative policy than the U.S. For further details see: The Supply-Led Inflation Challenge

Non-U.S. markets, including EM, DM, and Asia, are outperforming the U.S. markets after underperforming last year. After slightly underperforming growth last year, value is where the money is flowing. With the economy still in growth mode, cyclical stocks should do better than defe...

Stocks and bonds sold off in January as markets repriced for a more aggressive pace of central bank tightening and increased pressures on the global earnings recovery. Tech and other pricey high-growth stocks tend to underperform in periods of rising interest rates. Value returns ...