January 08, 2016 by Jan van Eck, CEO, Global Growth Spots in 2016. An innovator of investment solutions, Jan van Eck has created a multitude of strategies spanning international, emerging markets, and commodities opportunities. He plays an active role in shaping the firm’s actively managed and ETF investment offerings. Jan’s research focus is on developments in China and technology’s effect on the financial services industry.
2016 Investment Outlook
Jan van Eck, CEO, shares his 2016 investment outlook, Global Growth Spots in 2016.
Van Eck 2016 Investment Outlook
https://youtube.com/watch?v=pROuqN-gtYM
Special Note on Recent Market Activity:
Since the filming of this video at yearend 2015, we have seen some notable market moves. In the past week, we’ve experienced several “OMG days” as China’s stock market has taken a dramatic tumble. Although this has created a lot of negativity and confusion regarding China, particularly in the media, our long-term outlook for China remains positive.
Long-Term Commodities Momentum Suggests a Bottom in Q1
TOM BUTCHER: Jan, let’s discuss your outlook for 2016. First: Commodities.
JAN VAN ECK: 2015 was an awful year for commodities. It was really the culmination of a decade-long bull market, and this has ended and brought commodity prices and the prices of commodity equities really to where they were before 2000-2001, before the commodities bull market started. I think the difficulty for markets — and this has really affected psychology over the last few quarters– is that the supply decreases that are inevitable with the slowdown have not yet hit where demand is. There will be a period when supply and demand will meet. Maybe it’s in 2016 for some commodities; maybe early 2017 for other commodities. But investors just hate this current period of uncertainty. There has also been a big credit crunch that has impacted commodity producers, from Petrobras to Glencore, to the MLP [master limited partnership] sector.
It is really difficult right now to look at all the fundamentals and figure out what’s going on. We know we’re in a bear market, and we know there will be a turn. The typical commodity cycle does take about 18 months, and that would mean the current cycle should end in the first quarter of 2016. We believe that is a good a guide as to when we are likely to see the bottom of this commodity cycle.
Opportunities for 2016: Growth Spots in Emerging Markets
BUTCHER: If there’s uncertainty in commodities, what about the emerging markets?
VAN ECK: Some countries are affected much more than others by commodities among the emerging markets. It’s really funny because we’ve read so much this year about China and the stock market fall, but really, the country that had the most difficulty in 2015 was Brazil. Brazil was impacted by the fall in commodities, the over-leveraged commodities in its economy, political uncertainty, corruption, and a whole number of different factors that has led to a fall in not only Brazil’s financial markets, but also in its currency. We are likely to enter 2016 with a lot of uncertainty around Brazil.
Everyone knows now that China’s growth is slowing down. 2015 was a hugely pivotal year for China, in which it really entered the world’s capital markets. What I like to say is that 2001 and 2015 were the most important years for China in the last 30 years. In 2001, China entered the world trading system and trade interaction with other countries exploded. Last year, 2015, it became clear that there was enough money moving in and out of China, that China couldn’t separate its interest rate from its exchange rate. Given this, we know that China’s interest rate cycle is on a downward trajectory. That means China’s currency will probably weaken in 2016. We just don’t think it’ll be too chaotic. Perhaps something on the order of 10% to 15%, and it’s already started depreciating now.
For emerging markets, we like to focus on where there are growth spots, and there are a number of sectors and countries that are doing quite well in the emerging markets in this slow-growth world.
BUTCHER: Can you give me two examples of such growth spots?
VAN ECK: I think in 2016 and looking forward, that global growth is not going to accelerate, as we have said before. Monetary and fiscal policies in the U.S. are on the margin contractionary and will likely stay generally the same in 2016, and the same structural issues that the developed world has will likely continue to exist. Growth in the emerging markets is not even. But there are several industries that are growing relatively aggressively. There are growth spots that we are excited about in 2016. I will identify a couple of examples that represent trends that are less mainstream. Everyone knows about the more mainstream trends, like the internet consumption in China through Alibaba and other internet players. First, Turkey created some tax incentives for savings plans, like a 401(k) savings plan we have here in the United States. And that growth has been 20% to 40% a year, because it’s just taking off. Mobile payments in Africa are another trend. With several emerging markets, payment systems have leap frogged what we’ve done here in the United States, and people make most payments and transactions using mobile phones, and cell phone penetration in Africa is relatively high. A third example would be private banking in India, which is just another secular trend where the financial sector is reforming, and private players appear to be benefiting. Again, it has been a 20% growth industry. These are the types of emerging markets trends and sectors that investors can take advantage of, but are difficult to access. They are not always available through a mainstream index, so accessing them generally favors an active management approach.
Credit Markets are Historically Cheap and a New Asset Class Provides Opportunity
BUTCHER: Can you talk about fixed income investing?
VAN ECK: There are two points that we would make about fixed income investing. First, spreads have increased quite a bit over the last year. In fact, interest rate spreads for corporate debt are as high as they’ve really been over the last 15 years, putting aside the credit crunch of 2008-2009. This means you’re getting paid a lot to invest in high-yield debt, in MLPs, and other types of fixed-income closed-end funds. Is this the time to buy? Over the next 12 months or so, we think it could be pretty interesting to buy fixed income. That’s the first point. People talk about the rate increases, but really, spreads have been widening over the course of the year, and so we believe that makes fixed income more attractive.
Secondly, there is this new asset class that we’re very interested in that accesses loans that are originated from online lending platforms like Lending Club and Prosper. They’re called marketplace loans or online loans. And what this asset class does is allow investors, for the first time, to invest in consumer credit. If you think about it, there is bank lending, company bonds, and the bond market. Individual investors have always been able to invest in company bonds. But we’ve never been able to invest directly in the debt of individuals. It’s always been through financial institutions. But now, consumer debt can be invested in through online platforms. To me, this represents a new asset class, and it’s a trillion-dollar asset class, which is huge. We feel The American consumer is in pretty good shape, and currently that the asset class is relatively attractive.
BUTCHER: Wonderful, thank you.
IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE
This content is published in the United States for residents of specified countries. Investors are subject to securities and tax regulations within their applicable jurisdictions that are not addressed on this content. Nothing in this content should be considered a solicitation to buy or an offer to sell shares of any investment in any jurisdiction where the offer or solicitation would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction, nor is it intended as investment, tax, financial, or legal advice. Investors should seek such professional advice for their particular situation and jurisdiction.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the speaker(s) and are current as of the posting date. Commentaries are general in nature and should not be construed as investment advice. Opinions are subject to change with market conditions. All performance information is historical and is not a guarantee of future results.
You can obtain more specific information on Van Eck Global strategies by visiting Investment Strategies.
Please note that Van Eck Securities Corporation offers investment products that invest in the asset class(es) and which may hold securities mentioned in this video. Commodities: You can lose money by investing in a commodities fund. Any investment in a commodities fund should be part of an overall investment program, not a complete program. Commodities are assets that have tangible properties, such as oil, metals, and agriculture. Commodities and commodity-linked derivatives may be affected by overall market movements and other factors that affect the value of a particular industry or commodity, such as weather, disease, embargoes or political or regulatory developments. The value of a commodity-linked derivative is generally based on price movements of a commodity, a commodity futures contract, a commodity index or other economic variables based on the commodity markets. Derivatives use leverage, which may exaggerate a loss. A commodities fund is subject to the risks associated with its investments in commodity-linked derivatives, risks of investing in wholly owned subsidiary, risk of tracking error, risks of aggressive investment techniques, leverage risk, derivatives risks, counterparty risks, non-diversification risk, credit risk, concentration risk and market risk. The use of commodity-linked derivatives such as swaps, commodity-linked structured notes and futures entails substantial risks, including risk of loss of a significant portion of their principal value, lack of a secondary market, increased volatility, correlation risk, liquidity risk, interest-rate risk, market risk, credit risk, valuation risk and tax risk. Gains and losses from speculative positions in derivatives may be much greater than the derivative’s cost. At any time, the risk of loss of any individual security held by a commodities fund could be significantly higher than 50% of the security’s value. Investment in commodity markets may not be suitable for all investors. A commodity fund’s investment in commodity-linked derivative instruments may subject the fund to greater volatility than investment in traditional securities. Emerging Markets: Investments in foreign securities involve a greater degree of risk including currency fluctuations, economic instability and political risk. Changes in currency rates and differences in accounting and taxation policies outside the U.S. can raise or lower returns. Investing in emerging markets, of which frontier markets is a subset, involve a heightened degree of risk, including smaller sized markets, less liquid markets and other risks associated with less established legal, regulatory, and business infrastructures to support securities markets. Due to these factors and others, the risks associated with emerging markets are increased in emerging markets. Fixed Income: Bonds and bond funds will decrease in value as interest rates rise. Please note that generally, unconstrained bond funds may have higher fees than core bond funds due to the nature of their strategies. Online-Sourced Loans: Online-sourced loans are subject to certain investment risks, including interest rate risk. When interest rates rise, the market value of a loan will generally fall. This risk may be particularly acute because market interest rates are currently at historically low levels. There is currently no active secondary trading market for platform loans. Online loans may be unsecured and have speculative characteristics and therefore may be high risk.
Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal. An investor should consider investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of any investment strategy carefully before investing. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form, or referred to in any other publication, without express written permission of Van Eck Securities Corporation.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the speaker and are current as of the posting date. Commentaries are general in nature and should not be construed as investment advice. Opinions are subject to change with market conditions. All performance information is historical and is not a guarantee of future results.
You can obtain more specific information on Van Eck Global strategies by visiting Investment Strategies.
Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal. An investor should consider investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of any investment strategy carefully before investing. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form, or referred to in any other publication, without express written permission of Van Eck Securities Corporation.
Van Eck Securities Corporation, Distributor 666 Third Avenue New York, NY 10017 800.826.2333
“A single search query on Chat GPT consumes around 1500% more energy than a simple search google search. The overall energy amounts are marginal on their own. Even taken in aggregate, it is a blip in terms of total global energy demand. However, it is illustrative of the potential big increases in electricity demand that will come from the AI revolution.
“Over the past 20 years, the US has seen its electricity demand stagnate. While its economy has grown, it has been able to avoid the need to add electricity generation thanks to efficiency savings. But this is now changing, and a big reason is the boom in data centre demand, with AI datacentre demand in particular.
“For example, Virginia has one of the densest clusters of data centres in the US. Dominion, the utility company servicing the state, had previously forecast net energy to increase by 2.9% between 2022 and 2037. Now they forecast a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 4.4% between 2023 and 2028, principally due to energy demand from data centres. Similar patterns can be expected across the country.
“So, while many investors are chasing the AI theme through exposure to tech stocks, especially through big names such as Microsoft, it is also worth highlighting the materials or commodity angle — a literal picks and shovels approach.
“Nuclear energy will provide a key role in supplying the electricity for this expected boom in electricity demand, particularly given its zero-carbon credentials. We’ve already seen Amazon purchase a data centre situated next to a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania for Amazon Web Services.
“With more nuclear energy generation, uranium will see greater demand. The uranium market is already tight with forecast deficits of supply vs demand. Primary uranium mine supply is significantly trailing demand, with a cumulative forecasted supply shortfall of approximately 1.5 billion pounds by 2040. This added component will put more pressure on the uranium price, to the benefit of the miners.
“But generating electricity is only one part of the story. At the same time, getting the electricity generated by nuclear energy to the end user requires transmission. That requires a lot of copper. A build of new data centres will require a buildout of copper-intensive transmission lines.
“As with uranium, the copper market is facing a supply deficit. Copper will be a key metal in the energy transition, with 2.5x more copper wiring in an EV vs a conventional car, while solar panels and wind turbines require grid expansions and upgrades. The additional demand for copper from the AI revolution and data centre build up simply adds to this.”
“Gold has hit several new all-time-highs this year, breaching $2,431/oz. This has been driven by central bank buying, geopolitical-driven safe-haven buying, emerging market investment demand, as well as anticipation around forthcoming Federal Reserve rate cuts, albeit with declining expectations regarding the latter.
“But it is worth looking into some of these drivers themselves. Let’s start with anticipated rate cuts. Gold looks more attractive when interest rates are low or expected to be cut. Gold is a non-yielding asset, so it becomes more attractive the lower yields are on other assets such as bonds. So, with the year starting with expectations of several Federal Reserve rate cuts, gold came into focus.
“But the curious case of this year’s gold market rally is that, despite expectations around these rate cuts gradually receding, with more cautious language from the Fed and some less than positive inflation data prints, the gold rally has continued unabated.
“There are several reasons for this. First, the geopolitical climate is increasingly top of mind for investors. The war in Ukraine continues and we’ve seen a potentially dramatic escalation in the Middle East with Israel and Iran launching missile attacks on one another.
“At the same time, we’ve continued to see central banks buying gold for their reserves. This has principally, but not only, been driven by China. This is geopolitics related, as many see the Chinese central bank’s gold buying being driven by a movement among the BRICS countries towards de-dollarisation. But a key point here is that central banks are a potentially less price-sensitive buyer – their demand is driven by other strategic considerations.
“But while gold has rallied, gold ETF and ETC investors have been absent. This is not how it usually works. Inflows into gold ETFs and ETCs have historically been fairly well correlated with the gold price, but this year a gap opened up. US and European investors were selling gold while the price went up. However, latest data from the World Gold Council now shows that in March, there were slight positive inflows in gold ETFs among American investors. Europeans were still selling, but the uptick in gold ETFs in the US does potentially suggest a trend change.”
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