Fidelity Answers: The Investment Podcast

What are the big themes that will shape the investment world in the years ahead? For this final episode of the current series of Rich Pickings, Richard Edgar is joined by Fidelity's Head of Equities for Europe Ilga Haubelt, and Portfolio Managers Kris Atkinson and Caroline Shaw to discuss long-term trends and how investors are grappling with them. With additional contributions from Global Co-CIO Andrew McCaffery. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The story of China's economy and stock market has long been one of rapid growth. But as policymakers pivot to focus on the quality - instead of the velocity - of growth, investors are turning their attention to something more long-lasting: shareholder returns. Dividends and buybacks are moving up the agenda of regulators and companies in China, generating interest for investors across the market, even in sectors of the so-called ‘old’ economy. In this episode, Catherine Yeung, Investment Director, and Marty Dropkin, Head of Equities for Asia Pacific, are joined by two of Fidelity International’s portfolio managers: Lynda Zhou and Dale Nicholls. Together, they explore a change in the mindset of Chinese management teams, which industries are most prepared to ramp up payouts for their shareholders, and the role of regulators and investors in the process. With additional contributions from Shanghai-based analyst Bunny Huang and Singapore-based Portfolio Manager Jochen Breuer. Read To read more on the rise of dividends in Asia, please visit fidelityinternational.com to find Lynda and Jochen’s recent article or click the following link: https://www.fidelityinternational.com/editorial/article/asian-stocks-enter-the-dividend-age-b65424-en5/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Where people live within China - and why - is fundamental to understanding the country’s changing demographics. That, in turn, has important implications for the Chinese economy, consumption trends, and where investors should be looking. In this episode, Catherine Yeung, Investment Director, and Marty Dropkin, Head of Equities, Asia Pacific, take you across China through the lens of Fidelity International’s Asia Economist, Peiqian Liu, and Jarlon Tsang, Managing Partner and Head of China at the venture capital firm Eight Roads, Fidelity’s sister company. What role do migrants play in the past, present, and future development of the Chinese economy? Which Chinese provinces and cities could be home to the next unicorn? What do emerging migration patterns mean for China's cities and their businesses? And what does all of it mean for property markets? With additional contributions from Portfolio Manager Hyomi Jie and Shanghai-based analysts Eric Zhu and Fiona Shou. Read more at fidelityinternational.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Asia and emerging markets are our focus this month. Richard Edgar is joined by Fixed Income Portfolio Manager Paul Greer, Asia Economist Peiqian Liu, and Senior Sovereign Analyst Andressa Tezine to discuss whether they're being overlooked by investors. And, as interest rates pivot and pirouette around the world, where income seekers can find harbour. With additional contributions from Fidelity's Global Macro Economist Anna Stupnytska. You can read more analysis from Peiqian Liu here, and you can hear more insights on our sister podcast The Investor's Guide to China here. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Catherine Yeung, Investment Director, and Marty Dropkin, Head of Equities, Asia Pacific, tackle a topic that often flies under the radar, but could in fact hold great potential for investors: China’s bond market. Investors focused on the stock market, and the challenges Chinese property developers are facing, have often overlooked China’s bonds, which have boasted some of the best returns over the past few years. Hong Kong-based Head of Asian Fixed Income, Lei Zhu, and Fixed Income Portfolio Manager, Alvin Cheng, from our independently run mutual fund business in China, join Catherine and Marty to discuss why the same economic narrative about China is playing out so differently in equities and bonds, and where investors should start their search for opportunities in this vast market. With additional contributions from Singapore-based Multi-Asset Portfolio Manager George Efstathopoulos and Shanghai-based Senior Credit Analyst Crystal Cui. Read more at fidelityinternational.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How confident are CEOs as they lean in to 2024? Is inflation still a major worry for businesses or has it been banished? How concerned are company managers about shifting geopolitics? For well over a decade we’ve been asking our worldwide network of sector analysts these questions (and about 80 more) - to get a unique bottom-up picture of the companies they cover. Their conclusions form Fidelity International's annual Analyst Survey. This month, Fiona O'Neill, Head of Global Cross-Asset Research Capabilities, Gita Bal, Global Head of Fixed Income Research, and Kris Atkinson, Fixed Income Portfolio Manager, join Richard Edgar to dig through the results. With additional contributions from analysts Liz Brockway, Eric Tse and Aki Takaesu. You can read the Analyst Survey in full here or on your local Fidelity website. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From artificial intelligence to US resilience, Richard Edgar discusses the big themes of 2023 with a panel of multi asset portfolio managers: Taosha Wang, Ian Samson and Talib Sheikh. What can the investment stories of the year teach us about the year ahead? With additional contributions from Lee Sotos and Patrick Graham. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Catherine Yeung, Investment Director, and Marty Dropkin, Head of Equities, Asia Pacific, explore the critical role of transition materials — minerals and elements, such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel, that are essential to developing and deploying clean energy technologies. Demand for these materials around the world continues to grow so securing a reliable supply of them is a priority for countries trying to get to net zero. China has many of them in abundance and it dominates their production and processing, which in turn makes the country indispensable to a successful and sustainable transition. Catherine and Marty are joined by Analyst and Portfolio Manager, James Richards, from London and Shanghai-based Director of Research for Equities in China, Monica Li, to discuss what investors can do to share in this boom and prepare their portfolios for a greener future. With additional contributions from Hong Kong-based Analyst and Portfolio Manager Karen Zhou and Shanghai-based Sustainable Investing Analyst Binyu Zhao. Read more at fidelityinternational.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Richard Edgar is joined by Steve Ellis, Global CIO for Fixed Income, Marty Dropkin, Head of Equities for Asia Pacific, and Global Macro Economist, Anna Stupnytska, to discuss the four scenarios Fidelity's investment teams are watching for 2024. With additional contributions from Fidelity's Chief Sustainability Officer Jenn-Hui Tan, Head of European Real Estate, Neil Cable, and Head of Private Credit Strategies, Michael Curtis. You can read Fidelity's 2024 Outlook in full here. Do you have a question you'd like to put to one of Fidelity's investment team? We're handing the microphone over to you again for our next episode. To take part please send your investment related question to editorial@fil.com by Friday 1st December, and we'll put the best ones to our experts. Look forward to hearing from you! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this special edition of The Investor’s Guide to China, Catherine Yeung, Investment Director, is joined in Hong Kong by Louis-Vincent Gave, the founder and CEO of Gavekal, a leading independent provider of global investment research. They tackle questions from the development of China’s AI landscape and what it means for the country’s youth unemployment, to what the stellar performance of the Chinese bond market means for the country, and the internationalisation of the renminbi. With an additional contribution from Portfolio Manager Tina Tian. Read more at fidelityinternational.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Richard Edgar is joined by Steve Ellis, Chief Investment Officer for Fixed Income, Gita Bal, Global Head of Fixed Income Research, and Salman Ahmed, Fidelity’s Global Head of Macro and Strategic Asset Allocation, to discuss whether the levers central banks have to pull are working. With additional contributions from Multi Asset Portfolio Manager Caroline Shaw. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When you look at some of the big economic issues China is dealing with today—lacklustre growth, a real estate slump, price disinflation, or an ageing population—you quickly realise Japan has been through a lot of the same challenges. What can we learn from Japan’s experiences? Is there a policy playbook there for how to respond to similar economic pressures for China, or indeed, any other country confronting these challenges? In October’s episode, Catherine Yeung, Investment Director, and Marty Dropkin, Head of Equities, Asia Pacific, are joined by Miyuki Kashima, Head of Investments, Japan, and Eric Nie, Co-Head of Investments, China, to talk through the lessons learned from Japan’s economic journey and what’s going on in China today. With additional contributions from Ying Lu, Analyst & Portfolio Manager, and Reggie Pan, Investment Analyst. Read more at fidelityinternational.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This month's guests challenge the consensus on recession risk and sticky inflation - and where central banks are getting it wrong. Richard Edgar is joined by Fixed Income CIO Steve Ellis, Global Macro Economist Anna Stupnytska, and Portfolio Manager Rosanna Burcheri. And Nina Flitman takes a look at what the destocking trend in the chemicals sector could tell us about wider market stress with three analysts who cover the industry from different asset class perspectives. You can read more on their discussion here. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When it comes to currencies, it often feels like it's all about the US dollar. Although the greenback has dominated international trade and finance for decades, some subtle shifts have started playing out among the currencies of major economies. Rising geopolitical tensions and the changing structure of global trade are prompting some countries to rethink and scale back their reliance on the dollar, a process now referred to as ‘de-dollarisation’. At the same time, China has been pushing to increase the use of the renminbi in international markets with the hope that someday it could challenge the dollar as a major reserve currency. This comes despite China's capital account remaining mostly closed and the renminbi not being freely convertible, and also despite the dollar's current dominance as the world's go to safe haven asset. In July’s episode, Catherine Yeung, Investment Director, and Marty Dropkin, Head of Equities, Asia Pacific, ask Portfolio Manager, Morgan Lau, and Asia Economist, Peiqian Liu, how far can de-dollarisation go? Could it disrupt how companies or countries pay for imports and exports? Or even how the US funds itself as the world's biggest debtor nation? With additional contributions from Amit Goel, Portfolio Manager, Monica Li, Director of Research, and Shing Zhu, Investment Analyst. Read more at fidelityinternational.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

China’s economic rebound hasn’t been as strong as many anticipated. But then, it’s not that surprising, as no one was expecting any major stimulus like in previous cycles, such as the global financial crisis. However, the Chinese consumer was really the one that was expected to underpin and power this recovery. At the beginning of June, Fidelity’s global investment team embarked on a research trip to Shanghai and Hefei in eastern Anhui province where they met with dozens of companies. To get their on-the-ground insights, Catherine Yeung, Investment Director, and Marty Dropkin, Head of Equities, Asia Pacific, are joined in this episode by portfolio managers Dale Nicholls and Hyomi Jie. With additional contributions from Eric Zhu, Research Associate, and Eric Tse, Investment Analyst. Read more at fidelityinternational.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With the shifting fortunes of economies, what role could Private Credit play in traditional portfolios? Richard Edgar is joined by Fidelity’s Head of Private Credit Strategies, Michael Curtis, and Portfolio Managers Camille McLeod-Salmon and Marc Preiser to discuss what investors can expect from the market in future. With additional contributions from Oliver Newman and Nina Flitman. You can read more of our private markets coverage here. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr Doug Gurr, Director of London's Natural History Museum, joins Richard Edgar to discuss the urgency of tackling biodiversity loss and what the financial community can do to help. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How do you measure biodiversity? From the forests of Borneo, with the help of a pioneering team of scientists, Fidelity have followed a project to explore if sound recordings - layered with artificial intelligence - could help to solve biodiversity's data issue. Analyst Minlin Lee travelled to Indonesia to see, and hear, the data gathering in action, while Charlotte Apps followed the analysis in the south of France. Back in the studio, Richard Edgar is joined by Fidelity International's Global Head of Stewardship and Sustainable Investing, Jenn-Hui Tan, to discuss why investors should be aware of nature loss. With additional contributions from Portfolio Manager Velislava Dimitrova and Director of the Natural History Museum in London, Dr Doug Gurr. You can hear Dr Gurr's conversation with Richard in full here. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

2021 was a big year for the global fight against climate change. China's president, Xi Jinping, again pledged that China would hit peak emissions by 2030 and be net zero by 2060. Then at COP26 in Glasgow, over 100 countries pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions and eliminate deforestation. But that appeared to come to a screeching halt when the world was hit by the triple blow of Omicron spreading globally, the war in Ukraine breaking out, and the Fed starting to hike interest rates. For some people, it looked like fighting climate change took a back seat as priorities shifted towards energy security and economic stability. Coming back to 2023: China is still the biggest greenhouse gas emitter. But has the country slipped on its path to decarbonisation? Or is progress indeed moving ahead? In this episode, Catherine Yeung, Investment Director, and Marty Dropkin, Head of Equities, Asia Pacific, are joined by Flora Wang, Portfolio Manager & Head of Stewardship, Asia, and Dhananjay Phadnis, Portfolio Manager. With additional contributions from Senan Yuen, Head of Investments, China, Bunny Huang, Investment Analyst, and James Richards, Senior Industry Analyst. Read more at fidelityinternational.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What impact will climate change have on portfolios? Should investors ready themselves for a disorderly transition to net zero? And what if it all gets sorted out - what are the investment implications for a greener, decarbonised future? Richard Edgar is joined by Global Macro Economist Anna Stupnytska and Portfolio Managers Kris Atkinson and Caroline Shaw to discuss how investors can rise to the challenge. With additional contributions from Fidelity's Global Head of Investment Research Ned Salter. Listen to more from Ned's Trade Offs series here. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.