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A roundup of what The Globe and Mail's market strategist Scott Barlow is reading today on the Web

Goldman Sachs strategist David Kostin, who's been bearish through much of 2017, notes that the recent rally in North American equities has been well grounded in fundamentals, but that the good times may be coming to an end,

"Economic growth is the most important driver of corporate earnings and equity performance. Since the Tech Bubble, S&P 500 returns have generally tracked the pace of US economic activity as captured by the ISM Manufacturing Index. After dipping in 2Q, the index has surged in recent months and in September hit 60.8, the strongest reading in 13 years (since May 2004)… Although economic data are extremely strong now, an ISM reading above 60 typically marks the peak of growth and presages economic and equity deceleration."

"@SBarlow_ROB GS: equities tracking growth, which may have peaked" – (research excerpt) Twitter

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Thanks to global central banks, equity returns have been very much driven by macroeconomic factors in the past decade – the effects of low interest rates on dividend stocks is only one prominent example. Citi's global strategy team recently noted their "Big Macro Calls" for the remainder of the year,

"The global Cyclical/Defensive sector trade is still 75% correlated to UST yields. Bond bears should Overweight Cyclicals (especially Financials) and Underweight defensives (especially Consumer Staples, Utilities, Telecoms)… Stock-pickers who don't want to be bond traders should neutralise their Cyclical/Defensive exposure. Or they should stick to sectors which don't slavishly follow bond yields (IT, Materials, Energy)."

"@SBarlow_ROB Citi's Big Macro Calls: "global cyclicals defensives is 75% correlated to UST yields" – (research excerpt) Twitter

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The government of Singapore has joined the anti-car movement by capping the number of drivers at current levels,

"The government will cut the annual growth rate for cars and motorcycles to zero from 0.25 percent starting in February, the transport regulator said on Monday. "In view of land constraints and competing needs, there is limited scope for further expansion of the road network," the Land Transport Authority said in a statement. "

"Singapore to Stop Adding Cars to City From February 2018" – Bloomberg

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The Atlantic's online business magazine Quartz highlights a study attempting to pick the winners and losers from electric vehicle sales,

"Globally, the share of electric vehicles (EV), not including hybrids, is under half a percent even as it edged ahead in a handful of countries… Selling a combined 45.5 million cars per year, [China and the U.S.] are set to put the most electric cars on the road in the coming year.. Tesla leads the world in devoting its entire lineup to electric vehicles, but Volkswagen, Volvo, and GM have announced they will go all-electric the coming decades. "

"Ladies and gentlemen, the winners and losers of the electric car race (so far)" – Quartz

Related: "Oil Investors Jump Back Into the Fray" – Bloomberg

"The "fundamental rule" of traffic: building new roads just makes people drive more" – Vox

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Tweet of the day: @chigrl Barclays: #Chinese economic slowdown to pressure commodities #energy #metalsDiversion: " – (chart) Twitter

Diversion: "Falsehood: "If this was the Stone Age, I'd be dead by now"" - Greg Laden's Blog

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