2020-Feb-13

Macro Dragon:+15K New Virus Cases + Put a fork in Biden & perhaps also Warren?

US Elections Checks in & Other Thoughts…

• Bernie took NH, with Buttigieg close on his heels… As has been flagged to KVP (& believe we mentioned that IO & NH are very white states), Buttigieg base seems to be progressive, wealthy white folks, with actually very little traction on millennials despite at 38 him being much younger than the rest of the field. Millennials love ‘The Bern’. Klobuchar likely also took some wind out of Buttigieg sales (lucky for Sanders), yet she came in above Warren.
• Unless Bernie stumbles any time soon (Unlikely), Warren is likely done – some massive time decay on that vehicle. Buttigieg & Klobuchar are likely going to struggle again the non-white base, as well as the less wealthy… stay tuned.
• Meanwhile markets don’t really seem to care on any risk of a Sanders nomination – whether that’s because its priced correctly (i.e. he has not chance), its too early in the cycle & is not dominating enough, Trump has it in the bag, etc… too early to tell.

Covid-19 Update Thu Asia Mrn 12 Feb & Thoughts…

• We’ve expanded our thoughts this wk with a combination of updates, potential scenarios around opportunities & risk surrounding the Novel Coronavirus (a.k.a. 2019-nCoV / Wuhan Coronavirus) including WK 7 Mon 10 Check-In, Fri 7 Feb Context on Virus Piece,  on “Speechless…” Thu 6 Feb, on Wed 5 Feb, on Tue 4 Feb, start of WK 6 Mon 3 Feb, here on Fri 31 Jan, here on Thu 30 Jan, here on Wed 29 Jan & here on Tue 28 Jan.

Quick update & thoughts on the Virus since the Yest’s check in:

• As of this Wed 13 Asia morning, the China figures we are getting are at c. 45,200 confirmed cases, +1120 deaths & +5,150 recovered. So suggesting a considerable slowdown in confirmed cases in China & big uptick in those recovering.   
• However a breaking news headline suggest that we may need to add up to +15,000 new cases stemming from the province of Hubei (60m people), given new methods used to test & screen for the coronavirus
• This has sent S&P futures from positive territory to c. -0.40% to -0.50% lower this early morning Asia. If this is true, that would take confirmed cases in China to +60,000. As the Macro Dragon have conservatively stipulated before, given the population & seasonal dynamics of China – we likely get into the 6 figures before the Covid-19 is fully contained. And again 60,000 in a province of 60m (funnily enough the number of Americans infected with the H1N1 swine flu virus that broke out in the US in 2009), is only 0.10%.
• One last point, a lot of countries are starting to put restrictions on travel to places like Singapore – this again is the paradox of circles of silence (just because the data is not there, does not mean there is no data). What people should be instead thinking is, if Singapore with its incredible experience, resources & organization honed through SARs has found these 50 cases, what is the “REAL” case count in other countries? i.e. Indonesia with 230m, Thailand with 70m, all whom also do a tremendous amount of business & travel with China.
• Obviously an element of this is political – you have to be seen to be doing something, regardless of whether that action is actually fruitful or futile.
• BoC’s Poloz is saying to early to really process the effects of the virus. And RBA’s Lowe point out that China has indicated that they will stimulate which should be good for the Australian economy. You have to wonder whether we could see an RBA similar to RBNZ o/n which did not cut rates as per expectations, yet seemed to signal that there would be no cuts in 2020 – sending the kiwi higher against crosses, there could be quite a bit of juice left here over the year (i.e. get to the other side of CH data gaining).

Outside of China the countries with confirmed cases over 10 are:

• Japan 202 (174 from the cruise ship)
• Hong Kong 50 (+1)
• Singapore 50 (+3)
• Thailand 33 (+1)
• South Korea 28
• Taiwan 18
• Malaysia 18
• Germany 16
• Australia 15
• Vietnam 15
• United States 13 (+1)
• France 11
• Macau 10

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Have a fantastic, gratitude & abundant filled close to the wk everyone, stay healthy as well as keep your mind open to profitable & abundant opportunities. Life happens for us, not to us.  

Namaste,

-KVP

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Some Anchor Pieces from #SaxoStrats:

• Jakobsen & SaxoStrats team with our 2020: Outrageous Predictions

• Our latest 1Q 2020 Quarterly Outlook: The Great Climate Shift

• Eleanor on a Meta trend: Climate Deeply Embedded in Risk & Opportunity

• Garnry on The Godzilla theme: Green stocks are the next mega trend in equities

• KVP on the Fed: The Half-Life Fed & Min. One Cut By 1H20