Is 2019 About To Repeat 2018? 3 Similarities, 3 Differences... And JPM's Ominous Conclusion

For several months at the start of 2019, analysts, pundits and the media argued that the year was shaping up as a mirror image of 2016, and specifically a repeat of the Shanghai Accord in January 2016 which resulted in a global credit explosion emanating from China and meant to arrest the global bear market. To be sure, in January of 2019 we saw a similar "gargantuan" credit tsunami out of China after the injection of an unprecedented 4.64 trillion yuan in January.

However, several months later, it appears that China's determination to reflate at all costs fizzled, Europe failed to piggy back on China's spike in the credit impulse, and suddenly comparisons to 2016 were quietly scrubbed. This is how Horseman Global's Russell Clark explained the shift in sentiment:

Markets turned around in 2016 when it became obvious that the Chinese policy of cutting capacity and pushing up commodity prices was the real deal. This was Chinese policy to create inflation internally to the benefit of corporates and the financial sector. However, it seems these polices have been reversed, and share prices of Chinese steel companies and banks are beginning to reflect these problems again. If the US dollar stays strong, and China cannot create inflation internally, then they are going to be forced to devalue. Many of the long positions of the fund began to reflect this at the end of April, including mining stocks and currencies.

As a result, Clark writes that "the likelihood of sustained inflation is beginning to disappear" and "deflation again looks more likely, just as it did from 2011 to 2016."

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