Rising Global Bond Yields Drag Asian Stocks | The Asia Trade 5/20/2026
Speakers
Jonathan Garner
— Chief Asia and Emerging Markets Equity Strategist, Morgan Stanley
Seth Fischer
— CIO and Founder, Oasis Management
Mark Cranfield
— Cross Asset Strategist, Bloomberg
Brett Woods
— CEO and Managing Director, Beach Energy
Summary
The video covers the impact of rising global bond yields and geopolitical tensions on Asian markets. Key topics include the Iran war threat, US-EU trade deal progress, Japan-South Korea energy cooperation, and the AI/semiconductor outlook. Morgan Stanley's Jonathan Garner provides a bullish target on Japanese equities and discusses a memory super cycle.
- Global bond yields surge to multi-year highs on inflation fears and fiscal risks.
- President Trump threatens renewed strikes on Iran, keeping oil and geopolitical risks elevated.
- US and EU expedite trade deal text finalization, with auto sector relief in focus.
- Japan and South Korea agree on energy stockpile sharing and crude oil swapping arrangements.
- Jonathan Garner of Morgan Stanley sets a TOPIX target of 4,300, citing strong earnings revisions.
- Memory semiconductors are moving to long-term contracts with hyperscalers, signaling a potential super cycle.
- SoftBank's massive OpenAI bet raises internal concerns about risk and overexposure.
- NVIDIA earnings loom as a key catalyst for AI and chip stocks.
Trade Ideas
TOPIX target 4,300 over 12 months.
Japanese equities (TOPIX) have upside to a target of 4,300 over the next 12 months because earnings growth, particularly in AI-related capex upstream sectors, remains strong enough to overcome rising nominal and real yields. Japan's earnings revisions are the most positive globally, and the fiscal position is stronger than perceived.
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This Bloomberg Markets video, published May 20, 2026, features Jonathan Garner discussing TOPIX. 1 trade idea extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.
Speakers: Jonathan Garner · Tickers: TOPIX