What to Watch in 2023

Looking ahead to 2023

So much for last year’s picks. What are we willing to stick our necks out for in 2023?

To begin, we will make a slight departure from last year’s approach. While we normally want to have a benchmark to measure our forecasting successes and failures, we also feel it is important to highlight key themes that will occupy investors over the next 12 months (or longer). Our choices for 2023 are therefore more thematic in nature.

But trust us. We will fairly judge what we get right and wrong this time next year. We are not shy about claiming success or admitting failure.

Blockchain goes mainstream

Our first 2023 forecast is that the proponents of blockchain financial technology will seek regulatory frameworks under which they can offer their innovations. That outcome seems increasingly likely given the November 2022 implosion of the FTX exchange.

Regulation of blockchain finance was always probably going to happen. After all, regulation of financial markets is a fact of life. Quasi-libertarian ideals for a parallel set of unregulated and unsupervised currencies, assets and securities have always been fanciful.

Financial regulation is burdensome, and one can openly question whether in some cases it may be excessive, but at the heart of all finance—old and new—reside asymmetries of information and misalignments of incentives that, if left unchecked, impair the functioning of financial markets, and stunt their growth. Regulation enhances trust between the providers and users of financial services. In that regard, proper regulation enables the financial services industry to reach its potential.

Blockchain finance, in all its forms, has begun to recognize that regulation is a step toward its broader adoption, a step that we feel most of the industry will make in 2023.

Balanced bounces back

2022 was a dreadful year for so-called “balanced” portfolios comprised of stocks and bonds. High inflation undermined both asset classes via rising interest rates and soaring risk premiums.

But no investment strategy can be judged, much less discarded, based on one year’s performance. That is particularly true if—as we believe—the 2021-2022 inflation surge proves to be temporary. Already tighter monetary policies are slowing growth and cooling price pressures. Bond yields have tumbled nearly a full percentage point from their cyclical peaks. Expected rates of inflation are receding and ought to decline in the course of 2023 toward the norms of the past two decades.

Bond returns are already improving. But it will likely take longer for stock markets to find their footing. After all, weaker economic growth also implies weaker profits, for which stock market analysts and investors may not yet be fully prepared.

But the key point is this: as inflation falls back toward central bank desired levels, bonds will provide ballast in portfolios, diversifying the risk of a possible profits’ recession. Once equity market valuations more appropriately discount future profits growth, we believe both stocks and bonds will likely offer attractive returns. We think those preconditions will fall into place by mid-2023. “Be balanced” is a key theme for 2023.

A new-new normal

Prior the pandemic, the “new normal” described a world of moderate growth, low inflation and low interest rates. The successful restoration of inflation from its 2022 highs, however, will not result in a restoration of the “new normal.” Rather, a “new-new normal” is likely to emerge.

Some things may look similar. Inflation will likely recede to more desirable levels, drawing interest rates down. But recessions in the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, perhaps Japan, and many emerging markets are likely to mark the first half of 2023. Downturns already underway in capital expenditures, housing, construction and many goods-producing industries are foreshadowing that outcome.

But the new-new normal will exist beyond a brief period of recession. Aging societies, falling labor-force participation rates, and the growth of informal employment in the gig and hybrid-work sectors will be become durable hallmarks of the new-new normal. Skills shortages will continue to push up real wages for some workers. Worker shortages will spawn innovation and investment in labor-saving technologies. We believe those trends will extend well beyond 2023—they will become decade-long stories.

Other trends will emerge next year. For example, large gaps between median household income and housing affordability are likely to postpone the ability of younger generations to get on the housing ladder. Technological advances in communications and remote working, together with shifting attitudes about leisure and environmental awareness, will further erode conventional approaches to work, commuting and living. Pandemic changes in workplace attitudes and lifestyles are not reverting to the status quo ante.

But perhaps the biggest challenge of the new-new normal resides in the paucity of productivity. There is perhaps no greater irony of our age than the observation that we live in an era of staggering innovation and yet wretched productivity growth. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, in years from 2007-2019, the United States experienced the weakest period of nonfarm productivity growth since the 1970s, and the second-worst such period since the end of World War II.⁵ Given an aging population and stunted labor-force participation, restoring productivity growth has become the single greatest economic challenge this decade for the United States (and for most developed countries).

China searches for a new way

Our fourth theme for 2023 regards China. In China, too, there is no return to the old new normal. In the four decades since 1980, burgeoning trade and investment engagements with the rest of the world drove China’s rapid ascent, but are unlikely to be as successful in the future. Beset by domestic indebtedness, confronted by a global populist backlash against its exports and skepticism about its geopolitical ambitions, and burdened with a rapidly aging population, China must find new ways to balance the competing demands of markets, geopolitics, demographics and debt, as it vies with the United States as the world’s largest national economy.

Having solidified his political leadership in 2022, President Xi Jinping must now navigate China in new directions. Like all middle-income countries that came before it, China’s route to sustainable increases in living standards resides in innovation and productivity. In 2023, we should therefore expect China’s government to double down on investing in the industries of the future: renewable energy, artificial intelligence, and advances in computing technology (particularly given US export restrictions on China for advanced computer chips).

But even China cannot prosper if it does not address inefficiency, above all the enormous misallocation of resources made over the past two decades into housing, urban development, and infrastructure. We should also therefore expect China to embark on significant asset and debt restructuring efforts in 2023 and the years beyond.

Putting energy into energy

Our final theme to watch in 2023 is energy transformation. In key respects, of course, the energy transformation is well underway, as countries, industries and individuals worldwide shift away from carbon sources of energy toward renewables.

But other factors—above all geopolitics—compound the need for all actors to put more energy into energy. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions much of the world has put on Russia are forcing dramatic changes in energy supply and distribution. The United Kingdom has now signed an agreement for the delivery of US natural gas, while Germany has made similar arrangements with Qatar. Liquified natural gas terminal shortages across Europe must be addressed, and oil and gas distribution networks need to be reconfigured.

In the United States, the Inflation Reduction Act represents a significant shift in US environmental policy, embracing subsidies to encourage a switch from oil, natural gas and coal to solar and wind. As laudable as that transition is, it does not sit easily alongside international trade agreements that discourage subsidies that protect domestic industries. Expect squabbling and disagreement, and perhaps even rising trade tensions, between the United States, Europe, Japan and perhaps China in this arena during 2023.

Finally, despite the headlong rush into renewables, it is worth noting that tight supply/demand conditions characterize global energy markets. The erosion of Russia’s crude oil and natural gas energy exports is one reason, as is OPEC production restraint. Chronic underinvestment in key producing countries such as Venezuela is another factor limiting world output of crude oil. If geopolitics or some other shock deals a blow to Iranian or other key producer capacity, 2023 could easily see a significant spike in energy prices just as the global economy dips into recession.

2023 has the potential to begin the pivot toward what the next few decades might look like. Look for us to dig deeper into the themes from this piece in future newsletters. May you all have a wonderful holiday season!

WHAT ARE THE RISKS?

All investments involve risks, including possible loss of principal. The value of investments can go down as well as up, and investors may not get back the full amount invested. Stock prices fluctuate, sometimes rapidly and dramatically, due to factors affecting individual companies, particular industries or sectors, or general market conditions. Bond prices generally move in the opposite direction of interest rates. Thus, as prices of bonds in an investment portfolio adjust to a rise in interest rates, the value of the portfolio may decline. Investments in foreign securities involve special risks, including currency fluctuations, economic instability and political developments. Investments in emerging market countries involve heightened risks related to the same factors, in addition to those associated with these markets’ smaller size, lesser liquidity and lack of established legal, political, business and social frameworks to support securities markets. Such investments could experience significant price volatility in any given year. Buying and using blockchain-enabled digital currency carries risks, including the loss of principal. Speculative trading in bitcoins and other forms of cryptocurrencies, many of which have exhibited extreme price volatility, carries significant risk. Among other risks, interactions with companies claiming to offer cryptocurrency payment platforms or other cryptocurrency-related products and services may expose users to fraud. Blockchain technology is a new and relatively untested technology and may never be implemented to a scale that provides identifiable benefits. Investing in cryptocurrencies and ICOs is highly speculative and an investor can lose the entire amount of their investment. If a cryptocurrency is deemed a security, it may be deemed to violate federal securities laws. There may be a limited or no secondary market for cryptocurrencies. The opinions are intended solely to provide insight into how securities are analyzed. The information provided is not a recommendation or individual investment advice for any particular security, strategy, or investment product and is not an indication of the trading intent of any Franklin Templeton managed portfolio. This is not a complete analysis of every material fact regarding any industry, security or investment and should not be viewed as an investment recommendation. This is intended to provide insight into the portfolio selection and research process. Factual statements are taken from sources considered reliable but have not been independently verified for completeness or accuracy. These opinions may not be relied upon as investment advice or as an offer for any particular security.

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1. See “Turning the Page: How 2022 Might Be a New Chapter for Capital Markets, by Stephen Dover, on LinkedIn. December 22, 2021.

2. Source: GM Q2-2022 Corporate Update, EVvolumes.com report on Global EV sales for H1-2022.

3. See “Turning the Page: How 2022 Might Be a New Chapter for Capital Markets, by Stephen Dover, on LinkedIn. December 22, 2021. Total market capitalization of the cryptocurrency market as measured by the Maha-CoinGecko Digital Asset Index that aggregates price and total circulating supply across all cryptocurrency exchanges.

4. Crypto Market Capitalization, Coin Gecko as of November 30, 2022.

5. Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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