In today’s briefing:
- Korea Small Cap Gem Insights – Relative Outperformance Vs KOSDAQ
- BNM Holds For Broadly Balanced Outlook
- Asia Economics: Washington’s New Tariffs Not Yet a Game Changer
- Walker’s Weekly: Dr. Jim’s Summary of Key Global Macro Developments – 4 Sep 2026
- Morning Market Notes: Perhaps a Near-Term Market Top, But War Likely to Extend Through Year End
- Sentiment Matters: Economic Policy Uncertainty Primer – Part 2
- The First-Mile View on Commodities Making News (4 Sep 2026)
- CX Daily: China’s Autonomous Driving Race Shifts From Hype to High Stakes
Korea Small Cap Gem Insights – Relative Outperformance Vs KOSDAQ
- In this insight, I provide the data analysis regarding the relative performance of my Korea Small Cap Gem series insights (for 27 KOSDAQ listed companies) versus KOSDAQ last two years.
- These 27 companies’ share prices are up on average 3.9%, 11.5%, and 13.8% over one week, one month, and three months, respectively from one day prior to their insight publications.
- I compared these performances versus KOSDAQ which was up on average 0.1%, 1.2%, and 3.4%, respectively from one day prior to these insight publications (same time periods).
BNM Holds For Broadly Balanced Outlook
- The BNM held its OPR at 2.75%, in line with expectations, while signalling a prolonged pause unless inflation drifts above its projected bands.
- Robust growth near 5% and moderate core inflation leave little case for cuts, but nor is there much desire to lean into the commodity‑driven price shock unless it’s sustained.
- Future rate moves hinge on energy pass‑through, wage dynamics and global tech and financial cycles, broadly keeping the policy bias balanced overall.
Asia Economics: Washington’s New Tariffs Not Yet a Game Changer
- The introduction of the “forced labour” tariffs increased headline rates for some economies, but the list of exemptions has expanded as Washington seeks to mitigate domestic impact.
- The exemptions imply that effective tariff rates facing Asian exporters are broadly stable from the Section 122 regime, and most economies will pay only modest additional tariffs.
- While the direct trade impact is manageable for now, the indirect impact of trade policy volatility on the US fiscal position, monetary policy, and investor sentiment may be material
Walker’s Weekly: Dr. Jim’s Summary of Key Global Macro Developments – 4 Sep 2026
- August Asian PMIs were published earlier this week, most Asian countries were above the 50 boom-bust line with Singapore leading the way at 59. There were only two countries reading below 50, one was Indonesia and the other one was Hong Kong, the readings were 49.8 and 49.5 respectively. It appeared that everyone had a good summer.
- Japanese industrial production was up 4.1% YoY, which was not a bad headline number and compares well with a lot of countries in the region and Europe. However, in absolute terms it took Japan industrial production back to 2023 levels. In other words, Japan is bumping along the bottom of where it’s been in the last three years in terms of overall industrial production activity.
- Philippines exports in July were up 10.8% YoY but imports went up 19.8% YoY at the same time. The worrying part is the trade deficit is now at $6 billion a month and international reserves are sitting at about $81 billion only. The numbers do not imply a crisis point at the moment, but the country surely is vulnerable.
Morning Market Notes: Perhaps a Near-Term Market Top, But War Likely to Extend Through Year End
- It may be our imagination, but we believe we are coming close to the peak in oil price, at least for the near term.
- Even if we are correct in this regard, there are a number of factors that support our long-standing belief that the U.S.-Iran conflict will continue through year end.
- Our thoughts derive in part from the political reality of the U.S. mid-term elections.
Sentiment Matters: Economic Policy Uncertainty Primer – Part 2
- EPU can work as a contrarian indicator: periods of very high policy uncertainty have historically been followed by strong equity returns.
- Broad news-based EPU measures have produced the strongest backtest results, while non-news components and specialised categories have generally been less reliable.
- Trade Policy Uncertainty is becoming more promising in both monthly and daily data, although the history of genuinely extreme readings remains limited.
The First-Mile View on Commodities Making News (4 Sep 2026)
- Treefera’s first-mile view of the US hard red winter wheat belt reads 925.5 million bushels, 6.5% below USDA’s August estimate of 989.9 million, adding a domestic supply story to the Black Sea-driven rally.
- Treefera’s drought-stress tracking shows Cote d’Ivoire’s cocoa crop 78% less stressed than a year ago, running counter to headlines framing El Nino as a fresh threat to the 2026/27 harvest.
- Treefera detects Indian cane area down just 1.22% across Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka, concentrated entirely in Maharashtra, a gap too small on its own to explain sugar’s climb to a 14-month high.
CX Daily: China’s Autonomous Driving Race Shifts From Hype to High Stakes
- In Depth: China’s Autonomous Driving Race Shifts From Hype to High Stakes For years, China’s hyper-competitive smart electric vehicle (EV) market ran on a heady cocktail of AI breakthroughs and marketing bravado.
- To match the hype Tesla Inc. created with its end-to-end automated driving system, Chinese automakers coined jargon of their own, such as “Level 2++” and “Navigate on Autopilot,” promising technology that could guide vehicles through chaotic city streets with the skills of a seasoned chauffeur.
- (London) — The U.K.’s financial regulator has fined and banned former executives of Dolfin Financial (UK) Ltd. for orchestrating a “visa loan” scheme that helped nearly 100 Chinese nationals — including a fugitive billionaire — fraudulently obtain U.K. residency.
💡 Before it’s here, it’s on Smartkarma
Sign Up for Free
The Smartkarma Preview Pass is your entry to the Independent Investment Research Network
- ✓ Unlimited Research Summaries
- ✓ Personalised Alerts
- ✓ Custom Watchlists
- ✓ Company Data and News
- ✓ Events & Webinars
