What signals should market cryptologists be looking at? One measure is exports of semiconductors from South Korea, says Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief economist for Asia at Natixis, an investment bank, who is based in Hong Kong. South Korea is pivotal to Asia’s supply chain, she says, and its shipments of semiconductors help predict exports in the region more generally. After a brutal 2019 the trend has bottomed out and is turning (see chart). Another signal is the financial health of big Asian chip companies, such as Samsung and SK Hynix. Those averse to digging deep into financial statements could simply monitor industry share prices. Or they could look for inflection points in the price of DRAM, a type of memory chip used to store data on servers and computers.
Economy
What the semiconductor industry tells us about the world economy – The Economist
THE SETTING for Robert Harris’s thriller, “Enigma”, is wartime Britain, where everything is rationed except for the rain. It follows Tom Jericho, a young prodigy stationed at Bletchley Park, the real-life centre of code-breaking operations, who is part of a team of cryptologists trying to break the code used by Germany’s armed forces. The work has frustration built in. Any progress can be undone if the enemy changes the code—which he will if he suspects that it has been cracked.
The novel comes to mind when considering the mysteries of shifts in the economic cycle and market reactions. The mood has clearly changed for the better since the middle of last year. Fears of recession have receded. Global equity prices have rallied. Bond yields have perked up. A truce in the trade war, however fragile, has helped. But the improvement in mood coincided with signs of life in Asia’s manufacturing hubs.
The key to these coded messages is the semiconductor industry. Cars, smartphones, gadgets and cloud-computing servers rely on components, notably memory chips, that are disproportionately made in emerging Asia. The mood-sensitive parts of aggregate demand—capital spending by firms and non-essential purchases by consumers—have microchips in there somewhere. The chip industry itself has savage mini-cycles. When it turns down, it is a sign of trouble ahead in the world economy. When it perks up, as it has done recently, there is reason to be more optimistic.
The cost structure of the chip business is central to this enigma. A semiconductor fabrication plant, or fab, costs billions of dollars to build. A sudden jump in orders, such as occurred in 2017, is met with increased capacity. But when demand falls, the fabs just keep producing. They are highly automated with few staff, so running costs are low. Continuous output makes sense but leads to occasional gluts and sagging prices, as happened through most of last year. Stocks become bloated. When demand picks up again, as it did late last year, stocks are drawn down and prices begin to stabilise.
Until quite recently the industry’s rhythms, and the tautness or slackness of Asia’s supply chains in general, were dictated by the two- or three-year life-cycle of smartphones. Export orders for Taiwanese electronics, for instance, tended to spike whenever a new Apple or Galaxy handset was launched. But the smartphone market is now saturated. Consumers find that an old model works almost as well as a newer one—and this might still be the case even when the new 5G generation of phones reaches the market. What drives growth in demand now is cloud computing, electrification of cars, wearable gadgetry and gaming, says Shawn Kim of Morgan Stanley. The cloud is a particular force. As firms ramp up capital spending of all kinds, that in turn spurs investment in cloud capacity, where business-related software lives.
Technology’s share of global GDP will continue to grow. In principle, then, these signals will become even more closely watched. But other forces are at work. China has designs to be self-sufficient in electronic components, a goal made more urgent by the trade-tech wars. The short-term effect is to give a boost to Asia’s tech industry. But in the longer term, firms might find themselves displaced by Chinese rivals, at least in China’s own market.
To the extent that China succeeds, it will devalue the signals that arrive from the more open parts of emerging Asia. Market-watchers will come to feel the same frustration felt by Mr Harris’s fictional codebreakers at Bletchley. The codes keep changing. For now, though, the message from Asia is that the sun is peeking through the clouds—or, at least, that it has stopped raining.
This article appeared in the Finance and economics section of the print edition under the headline “What the semiconductor industry tells us about the world economy”
The ‘poor borrower’ narrative rules in media coverage of the Bank of Canada and high interest rates, and that’s appropriate.
A lot of people have been financially slammed by the rate hikes of the past couple of years, which have made it much more expensive to carry a mortgage, lines of credit and other borrowing. The latest from the Bank of Canada suggests rate cuts will come as soon as this summer, which on the whole would be a welcome development. It’s not just borrowers who need relief – the boarder economy has slowed to a crawl because of high borrowing costs.
But high rates are also a big win for some people. Specifically, those who have little or no debt and who have a significant amount of money sitting in savings products and guaranteed investment certificates. The country’s most well-off people, in other words.
Lower rates will mean diminished returns for savers and less interest paid by borrowers. It’s a stretch to say lower rates will improve financial inequality, but they do add a little more fairness to our financial system.
Wealth inequality is often presented as the chasm between well-off people able to pay for houses, vehicles, trips and high-end restaurant meals and those who are driving record use of food banks and living in tent cities. High interest rates and inflation have given us more nuance in wealth inequality. People fortunate enough to have bought houses in recent years are staggering as they try to manage mortgage payments that have risen by hundreds of dollars a month. You can see their struggles in rising numbers of late payments and debt defaults.
Rates are expected to fall in a measured, gradual way, which means their impact on financial inequality won’t be an instant gamechanger. But if the Bank of Canada cuts 0.25 of a percentage point off the overnight rate in June and again in July, many borrowers will start noticing how much less interest they’re paying, and savers will find themselves earning less.
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Rob’s personal finance reading list
A look at two strategies for paying off debt – the debt avalanche and the debt snowball. I’ll go with the avalanche.
How not to ruin your kitchen countertop
Anyone who has renovated a kitchen lately knows how expensive stone countertops can be. Look after yours by protecting it from a few common kitchen items.
What you need to know about stock market corrections
A helpful explanation of stock market corrections. It seems an opportune time to look at corrections, given how volatile stocks have been lately. Like scouts, investors should always be prepared.
Food inflation requires more careful grocery shopping. Here’s a roundup of food products – cookies, snacks, ice cream – that don’t taste as good as they used to. Food companies have always adjusted their recipes from time to time. Is this happening more because of inflation’s impact on raw material prices? A U.S. list – most products are available are familiar to Canadians, too.
Ask Rob
Q: I have Tangerine children’s accounts for my kids. Can you suggest a better alternative?
A: The rate on the Tangerine children’s account is 0.8 per cent, which actually compares well to the big banks and their comparable accounts. For kids aged 13 and up, check out something new called the JA Money Card.
Do you have a question for me? Send it my way. Sorry I can’t answer every one personally. Questions and answers are edited for length and clarity.
Tools and guides
A comprehensive guide on how to build a good credit score.
In the social sphere
Social Media: An offbeat way of fighting high food costs
Watch: Is now the hardest time ever to buy a home?
Money-Free Zone: Singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers has a new album called Don’t Forget Me and it’s generating some buzz because it’s a great listen. Smooth vocals and a laid back countryish vibe that hits a faster pace on one of my favourite cuts, Drunk.
More PF from The Globe
– He keeps ‘a few thousand in crisp new bills’ at home – is that a good idea?
– The pension pivot: Employers recognizing that workers need help with debt as much as retirement
– Her bond ETF is ‘a dud and not promising at all’ – should she sell?
– Despite high fees, Canadians remain perplexingly loyal to mutual funds. Here’s why
More Rob Carrick and money coverage
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Even more coverage from Rob Carrick:
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- ✔️ The housing file: A house isn’t special. Get your head straight about the reality of home ownership • The good, the sad and the unaffordable: Saving for a home downpayment in Canada’s big cities • Property taxes are popping in some cities – how worried should you be about other tax hikes? • Our other real-estate problem – people have too much wealth tied up in houses • Borrowers and savers, here’s how to time the eventual rollback of interest rates
- 📈 Investing: Canada’s top digital broker is TD Direct Investing, with an assist from the TD Easy Trade app • 2023 Globe and Mail ETF buyer’s guide part one: Canadian equity ETFs • For the ultimate in cheap investing, check out the Freedom .08 ETF Portfolio • Yes, there is risk in Canadian bank deposits for the unwary and complacent • CDIC covers bank deposits, but who protects your investments if your broker goes bust? • Answers to your questions about the low-risk ETF paying almost 5% • Happy fifth birthday to one of the all-time best investing products for everyday people • An investing strategy that wins cleanly over the long term by outperforming in bad years like 2022
- 💰 Your money: Mortgage holders, savers and GIC investors, it’s time to change your thinking on interest rates • How much debt is each generation of Canadians carrying, and how do you compare? • For the sake of their financial futures, young people should leave Toronto and Vancouver • This practical new spin on a savings account might just peel you away from your big bank • Rental fraud grows amid rise in fake, falsified tenant applications • Are Canadians worse off financially now than in the 1980s? • From groceries to auto loans, here’s how much more it costs to live right now • When saving for retirement, should you change your asset mix over the course of your career? • Do retirement income needs always rise alongside inflation? Not necessarily • When the bank suggests you lock in your variable rate mortgage, it has an angle
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LIVE: Freeland joins panel on Indigenous economy CTV News Montreal
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