Selloff Puts Emerging Markets on Trial While Bulls Hang Tough

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Selloff Puts Emerging Markets on Trial While Bulls Hang Tough

Farah Elbahrawy, Simon Flint and Sydney Maki

(Bloomberg) -- After a one-month trial of 2021, the shoppers of emerging-market assets can point to any number of reasons for wanting their money back.

Yet the balance of evidence suggests they’ll stick with the product for a while.

For all the factors that triggered last week’s selloff, the prospect of stronger growth ahead as stimulus kicks in, vaccines are distributed and restrictions lifted continues to underpin confidence. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Societe Generale SA and Loomis Sayles & Co. were among those talking up emerging markets in the past week, even as the Cboe Volatility Index had its biggest daily jump in about three years on Wednesday.

“I see the current backup as an opportunity to fade weakness, rather than the start of another sustained leg down,” said Ilya Gofshteyn, a senior emerging-markets strategist at Standard Chartered in New York. “Assets can rally once U.S. equity market volatility rolls over. Emerging-market currencies were on the back foot even ahead of the recent spike in VIX, so positioning is much cleaner now.”

MSCI Inc.’s gauge of developing-nation shares had the worst week since March in the five days through Friday, falling 4.5%, as the uneven rollout of inoculation programs and gyrations brought about by retail traders in U.S. markets sapped risk appetite.

Investor anxiety, as measured by expected price swings for equities, reached the highest in almost three months last week even as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell pledged to keep monetary spigots wide open. Implied volatilities across emerging-market currency pairs jumped on Friday, while local bonds fell for a third straight week.

February may still get off to a rocky start. Kicking off a week of economic releases, an official gauge of China’s manufacturing output slipped for a second month in January, while activity in the services sector slowed to the lowest reading since March, data published on the weekend showed. Most Middle East markets retreated Sunday.

Defaults and Restructurings

Zambia skipped a $56.1 million coupon payment on Jan. 30 on its Eurobond maturing in 2027, the Finance Ministry confirmed Sunday

It became Africa’s first pandemic-era sovereign to default after it missed a $42.5 million Eurobond coupon payment in NovemberEthiopia’s State Minister of Finance Eyob Tekalign said the nation will seek to restructure its external debt under a Group-of-20 programIts Eurobonds plunged the most on record on FridayChad was the first country to request the restructuring of its external debt under the G-20 common frameworkElsewhere, Argentina’s Salta province reached a deal with an ad-hoc creditors group for amendments to its foreign bonds due in 2024

Central Banks Decide

The Bank of Thailand is expected to keep interest rates on hold on Wednesday by unanimous consensusBloomberg Economics believes that this does not preclude other easing measures to build on relief for retail borrowersThe central bank may also express further concern about the Thai baht’s strength and discuss steps to “address structural problems in the foreign-exchange market and encourage more balanced capital flows,” as described in the most recent minutesThe baht remained unchanged last weekRead: Shorter Thai Bonds in Demand Ahead of Rate Verdict: SEAsia RatesThe Reserve Bank of India’s decision will be closely watched on Friday. Consensus expects policy makers to stand patHowever, Bloomberg Economics says the central bank has scope to ease rates after December inflation dropped to within its target bandIf they do cut, analysts will watch how much shorter-tenor yields can fall even with the expected rate cut as the RBI has signaled its willingness to withdraw liquidityPoland’s central bank is expected to hold rates Wednesday, according to all economists surveyed by BloombergThe zloty was one of the biggest gainers in January among emerging-market peersThe regulator pledged to return to currency interventions to avoid zloty gains and allow the economy take full advantage of ultra-lax monetary conditionsCentral banks in the Czech Republic, Ghana and Egypt are also expected to keep rates on hold this week

Central Banks Intervene

A number of Asia’s large holders of reserves are due to report January foreign-exchange levels this weekJanuary shouldn’t have been a heavy dollar-buying month given the recovery in the U.S. currency. For those countries that experienced depreciation pressure -- like South Korea -- the figures will provide an illustration of the asymmetric nature of reserves accumulation; Asian countries are generally more willing to buy dollars than to sell themSouth Korea reports on Wednesday. Valuation effects alone could reduce the figure to $441.6 billionThe calculations of valuation-adjusted reserves accumulation are done on the assumption that 40% of currency reserves are denominated in non-dollar currencies -- broadly along the lines of the International Monetary Fund survey dataThe Korean won was the worst-performing Asian currency in JanuaryIndonesia, Thailand, Taiwan and the Philippines release data on Friday. Valuation alone would cut Taiwan’s figure to $528.1 billionChina releases its numbers on Feb. 7The yuan was the strongest currency in Asia last week, as the authorities continued to battle the attraction of rising interest rates and corporate demand for the Chinese currencyRead: Yuan Bulls Take Comfort From High FX Conversion Rate: Macro View

PMI Pulse

A slew of factory activity data from Indonesia to India, Russia and Brazil will offer further clues on the pace of recovery across the developing world as investors assess whether market valuations are stretchedChina’s official PMIs -- especially services -- were poor in data released on SundayThe Caixin manufacturing numbers also disappointed in data released on Monday, falling 1.1 points below consensusChina aside, Asia’s January Markit manufacturing PMIs have so far come in strong. The average outcome -- excluding China and India -- rose for the ninth consecutive month, by 0.5Back of the envelope calculations suggest that PMIs should have been expected to come in roughly flat. On the one hand, the tightening of lockdown conditions across the region and spill-over from China’s official PMI slowdown were expected to constrain these figures. On the other, strong U.S. Markit figures for January, and impressive export data from South Korea suggested support for the numbersChina (Caixin) and India’s (Markit) service PMIs are due Wednesday. China’s number is expected to lose a little momentum

Inflation Watch

January CPI data will be closely watched. Any sign of slowing inflation would boost real yields in a low interest-rate environment -- a relief to bond investorsIndonesia’s number on Monday is expected to creep higher on a headline basis, but remains below the central bank’s target rangeSouth Korea’s figure is due on Tuesday. Philippines, Thailand, and Taiwan report on Friday -- consensus expects most to remain stableA reading of Colombia’s January consumer price inflation, scheduled for Friday, may show a small increase while lingering below the targetArgentina’s central bank is expected to release its monthly survey on inflation expectations on FridayPeruvian headline inflation for January is expected to rise from a month earlier while staying near the midpoint of target, according to Bloomberg Economics

Other Data & Events

Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi and other top leaders have been detained in an early-morning raid in what her party called a “coup,” raising the risk of protests in move that came after the country’s military disputed the party’s landslide win in a November election

Still, it’s unlikely that there will be a spill-over into other Asian marketsIndia’s budget is due on MondayBloomberg Economics expects the central government fiscal deficit will be targeted to narrow to 5.5% of GDP in fiscal 2022, from an estimated 6.6% in fiscal 2021Gross borrowing through dated securities will likely drop to 10.6 trillion rupees ($145 billion) from an estimated 12.6 trillion rupees in fiscal 2021. However, as this would still be up from the pre-Covid level of 7.6 trillion rupees in fiscal 2020, it might not be enough to relieve pressure on Indian bond yieldsIndian 10-year yields are up around 3 basis points thus far in 2021South Korean export data, due Monday, are expected to show a growth rate of about 10% in year-over-year terms, while the nation’s current-account balance is due FridayIndonesia’s fourth-quarter GDP report is due on Friday, and is expected to show a continued contractionBrazilian developments around a strike planned for Monday by truckers, unhappy with higher diesel prices, should be monitoredA nationwide truckers’ strike in 2018 (mid-May to early June) all but shut down Latin America’s No.1 economy and cost billions alone in lost outputThat said, Monday’s reaction in Brazilian exchange traded funds in Japan has been limitedOn Tuesday, Brazilian December industrial production figures are expected to show a continued rebound from the pandemic plunge.

A reading of Chile’s December economic activity on Monday will probably flag a tepid recovery while lingering below levels from a year earlier

Investors will also monitor a gauge of January business confidence for signs that vaccine rollouts in the nation will be enough to stoke a comeback

Meeting minutes from Colombia’s January meeting may offer investors a more dovish tone and hint at further accommodation if inflation remains subdued, according to Bloomberg Economics

Policy makers held their key rate at an all-time low for a fourth straight month last week

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