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Yen Trouble. Bond Rally.
Last week started slow. But then stumbled. The stock market realized that i) earnings are not going to be great ii) that the Fed’s “low rates for longer” message means “low growth for longer” and iii) international markets wrestled with what zero bound means. U.S. stocks were flat, the Japanese market fell 6% and U.S. long Treasuries were up 1.5%.
Terrror, Debt And Valuation
The market took a rest last week. Some of it was pure exhaustion from the prior week’s data. Some of it was positioning, and trader absenteeism ahead of the Easter break in most countries. And some was shock at the horrific actions in Brussels. As of Thursday’s close, the market broke its fifth straight week of gains to close more or less flat. Still, that's up around 10% from February lows and other markets; for example, U.S. Small Cap and Emerging Markets, up by even more.
The Fed's Disappearing Act
A busy last week for economic data, most of it good. The S&P 500 rose for the fifth straight week. The broad market is now up 12% in little over a month, up 2% year to date but still down 2% for the last twelve months. Emerging Markets, bonds, treasuries, TIPS and U.S. Small Company stocks are all positive of the year.
Brexit, Banks and Opportunity
Stocks eked out a small gain last week (as of pre-open Friday). We’re now up 6% from the market lows we saw two weeks ago. The S&P 500 has settled into a trading range of 1850-1950. The news flow was mixed. Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela and a few others agreed to “freeze” oil at current production. Trouble is, “current” production is at an all time high. Iran refused to stand by any agreement and the Saudi Oil Minister casually remarked they are prepared to see oil at $20 bbl. Well, maybe. Here’s what else caught our attention.
A Better Week but Traders Have the Upper Hand
A short week and, with China closed the prior week, we thought markets may regroup. And they did. The U.S. market rose around 4%, U.S. small caps by 5% and major international markets by around 4%. We don’t usually like to show weekly market moves...there's a high signal to noise ratio, but here it is.
When Sideways Is Good
You know how it is when you take a reflex test? A doctor thwacks you on the knee and 400 milliseconds later you involuntarily react. You can try it here. Markets are on the same track these days and, as we wrote a back in January, news comes in and there’s a spontaneous reaction.
Tough January. Now What?
Last week was relatively quiet, with stocks pretty much unchanged but still down around 2% since year-end. The action continues to be Treasuries with the Ten-Year note at 1.92% compared to 2.29%, when the Fed raised rates in December. Here’s the Treasury yield curve in mid-December and now.
Verbal Intervention From Draghi
A better week. In markets that are directional and emotional, few large buyers stepped up. But we heard from Mario Draghi at the ECB that policies would be “reviewed and reconsidered”. Admittedly, the Fed is in a blackout period before its first meeting since it raised rates. So the news from the ECB was welcome and stocks rallied.
China Reset
And we’re off. The China stock market sucked the air out of the room last week. It’s a strange beast. The size of the market relative to GDP is around 58% compared to 150% for the U.S. But the free, or tradable, part is about one-third as small again. And it runs on high levels of retail margin. What we saw was pent-up selling, circuit breakers kick in, the market close and then repeat for two more days. The authorities dumped the circuit breaker system and allowed the market to settle.
Coasting into Year End
The Fed made its long awaited increase last week. We think it’s a mistake. The statement was muted and talked about “further improvements” here and there. The only improvement we have seen is in the labor market but, as we mentioned, scratch the surface and it’s not a great picture. At the risk of flogging this to death, we would make two points.
Rates Will Rise. Markets Won’t
The November payrolls reported 211,000. That's enough for a mid-month rate rise of about 25bps. The Fed wants to raise rates. They believe employment is at equilibrium and inflation under control. But neither is correct. To repeat: employment growth in the post 2009 period has been way below past cycles and with an expanding work population. So either people don't want to work, are aging or the U.S. job machine is broken.
How to Kill a Unicorn
The market was strange last week. No real direction in credit or equities. The Fed turned from mildly dovish to decidedly hawkish with several Governors advocating the December rate rise. It's like watching a debate team convince themselves that they are absolutely right, so let’s do it right? All with me? There were also announcements of new Fed governors. Next year’s voters are more hawkish which means we’ll hear less about “one and done” and more about stepped increases through 2016.
Really? Our Best Shot?
We finally got the Nonfarm Payroll number we wanted: 271,000 new jobs in October, the highest of the year and the lowest unemployment rate since April 2008. The market now puts the probability of a December rate rise at 75%, which is where it was in August. The 10-Year Treasury note climbed 10bps to 2.32% and the 2-Year by 8bps to its highest level all year. Another sign was the fall in long-term unemployment.
Good Earnings and Bad Ceiling
The world’s most persuasive central banker, Mario Draghi of the European Central Bank (ECB) , announced no rate changes last week. The overnight rate remains where it was a year ago, at -0.2%. Yes a negative rate. It is not alone. The Swiss overnight rate is around -0.74% and the US Treasury recently issued one month bills at 0% (it is not allowed to sell bills at negative rates). But the Euro area has a bad combination of low growth at around 0.4%, low inflation of -0.1%, unemployment over 10% and a larger current account surplus than China, Japan or Saudi Arabia.
Moving a Little Too Fast
The markets remain Fed led. The theme this week was that we will not see a rate increase until 2016. Why? Well, Federal Reserve board members rarely speak with uniformity. But on Monday, a closed day for the bond market, Governor Brainard delivered a stinging rebuff to the “December, when the economy is at full employment” position with a clear description of the asymmetric risk of lifting rates too soon versus too late.
Three Banks, One Message
Central Banks struggle to make sense of it all. The big three (The Fed, the European Central Bank or ECB and the Bank of Japan) released minutes last week. Japan’s QE is equivalent to 15% of GDP. Even QE3 in the US rarely exceeded 6%, but it at least moved the economy forward. The Japanese economy is stuck at around 0.9% growth. So they left rates at 0.1%.
Cars, Drugs and Risk
Last week, two company stories showed that markets are not always about GDP, growth, inflation and macro economic indicators people (including us) like to talk about. First, Volkswagen (mission statement “…to offer… safe and environmentally sound vehicles”) admitted that well, yes, it had duped emission testers with some clever software. VW employs half a million people and accounts for 4% of the German stock market.
No rate change. Now what?
It is rarely a good moment when the Fed makes the Today show. It’s usually too esoteric a subject first thing in the morning. Most people, including us, thought they would raise rates for the first time since June 2006 by around 25bp. They did not. Here’s why and, more important, what it means for your investments.
China Surprise
Ouch! August is often a month of surprises. In 2011, the S&P 500 lost nearly 7% at the height of the European debt crisis (yes, it’s been going on that long). In 2013, the NASDAQ closed for three hours sending stocks into a mini tailspin. This week’s “I didn’t see that coming” was the devaluation of the Chinese renminbi by nearly 3%.
A Taste of What Tapering Might Mean
A week on from the sparks of the FOMC minutes and we can see how the market handles the subtler parts of Fed communication. Not well. Most of the dove camp talked about adjusting purchases up or down depending on economic conditions (all very reasonable and consistent) but stressed there was really nothing in the data for change. The hawk that counts, Bullard of the St. Louis Fed, even called for continued QE given low inflation. So the employment is too low, continue and "inflation is too low, continue camps agree.
Don't Set Much Store in the Equity Risk Premium
An old measure but a useful one. It should give us some indication of the market after the 23% gain in the S&P since November. The measure is simple enough: the forward price earnings yield less the yield on the GT30. This makes sense because the duration of equities is around 16.5, which is close to the GT30 of 19. By the way, other sources, notably the New York Fed use different approaches, for example Cyclically Adjusted Price Earnings and a shorter duration risk-free rate. But its the vectors that matter not the scale.
Changing Face of High Yield
High yield has been on a tear. A series of fortunate events have made this one of the best asset classes in recent years. It has outperformed the S&P[1] nine out of the last thirteen years. In those that it lagged, underperformance averaged 1.9%. Outperformance averaged 9.7%. From 1985 to 2012, high yield had five down years averaging (-8.8%). The S&P had five down years averaging (-16.6%). Over the entire period, high yield underperformed the S&P by around 180bp but with about half the risk and a 0.58 correlation.
Cruel Top Line Growth
The current earnings season is a very mixed bag. Start with the economic background where nominal growth decelerated in 2012 from around 4.4% to 3.6%. The first quarter may be marginally higher but some of that is from a low base effect. Its very difficult for companies to raise prices, increase share or volumes when demand is simply deficient. Sure, balance sheets are in much better shape, as evidenced by robust bond issuance, but many companies are in excess savings mode. Here are undistributed corporate profits as a percent of GDP.
Harsh Words on Gold
As a graduate trainee in a London accepting house in the fall of 1981, I was given the tour and history of my new, 130 year old bank. It was one of the banks that set the daily gold price and had large bullion deposits somewhere under its location at 114 Old Broad Street. But the tour stopped at the vault door. No one went further (probably someone did but it was beyond my pay grade) and further discussion discouraged. Such was the mystery of gold.
Morning in Japan
There were two very important central bank meetings last week, one from the Bank of Japan the other the ECB. Bank of Japan press conferences have been soporific affairs for years with a few QE programs not leading to much and no changes to inflation targets. Deflation, a declining workforce and falling aggregate demand have been pretty much the unbroken story for the best part of two decades.
Minor Crisis...Not Too Many Hurt
Cyprus proved, over the last two weeks, that markets often overlook the small stuff. Very few commentators we follow saw any of it coming and the theories that sprang up in the interim (Cyprus as vassal state to Russia, return to the Cypriot pound, imminent EU break up, twin euros in circulation, utter disaster for the economy, German intransigence and Schrecklichkeit) were absurd.
Things Could Get Bumpy But Hang in There?
The quality of the Feds Flow of Funds data is about as comprehensive a balance sheet assessment of corporate and private America as you could wish for. Its also great for looking at trends rather than the hot spots over which the market frets. Here are some of the findings:
Weave a Circle Round Us Thrice
There was plenty of news to threaten the recent market rallies but, as of writing, we're within a whisper of all time highs in US stocks and managing to have a very orderly consolidation in bonds. This is surprising because the political process has once again taken careful aim and shot itself in the foot. The sequester has become the dumb answer to difficult questions and will initiate, mostly indiscriminate, across-the-board cuts.
Currency Wars? What Currency Wars?
There's much talk of currency wars right now. We think they're way overblown. The source of the problem lies with Japan, which has made explicit a strategy to lower the yen, increase domestic demand and increase inflation. It needs to do all three. The twenty year old balance sheet recession and deflation in Japan has been a costly error in targeting inflation and not much else.
Some Seasonal Blips
We had a week of big numbers last week of which GDP, Personal Income, Durable Goods, the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence, payrolls and the FOMC were the ones that had our attention. We went to print a little earlier this week, so missed the NFPs. But this is what came at us. First GDP. There's a spin to be told but here are the raw numbers with the center column the one that caught markets wrong-footed.
What Budget Problems?
"Vickers falls on fear of peace." There's an apocryphal story of how on the day after D-Day, the stock of Vickers, a large defense contractor, abruptly fell. I can't find the source but it was a good story going around the City some, ahem, 30 years ago. Last week there was not a lot of price action in bonds until Friday when economic upticks replaced budgets as the main driver. We saw a one point correction in treasuries. The market is right to push budget concerns into the background for now.
Avoid Disappointment, Aim Low
No, it's not a life aspiration. But it can work when it comes to investing. We had a rush of gains coming into the end of the year with the S&P up 22% over the year. But it's also one of the more relaxed markets and start we've had in years. The political agenda is still front and clear and we're in a lull until the debt ceiling arguments gain steam. The markets know this but seem comfortably complacent. They're probably right to be.
Haka Politics and the Slow Crawl
In the last few months we have seen the rise of Haka politics. Familiar to any All Blacks fan, this is the ritualistic Maori war dance, full of noise, bluster and theater. But it rarely intimidates and most opponents sit it out with some amusement. So it is with the political interventions last year. We saw countless announcements and intentions from EU leaders and solemn pledges with little follow-through. And in the US we had a soporific election and a squalid squabble over the fiscal cliff that caught the public but not the market's attention.
Land of the Rising Dead
Yes, you knew we were going to talk about Japan. It's all the rage and the big standout in market performance in the last few weeks. Since November the broad Nikkei-225 average has risen 24% because there's new thinking in town. It's hard to describe Japan's 20 year malaise. Once proud companies shaken, the shattering of a property market and total collapse of stocks. Even if the market rises at the same level of the last few months, it will take six years to re-reach its peak. A more reasonable 10% growth rate will take 14 years. Weird things happen when economies enter deflation.
Brave New Start to the Year
Well that was fun. Negotiations went to the brink, we had politicians dropping the "F" bomb a few steps from the Oval Office, the Senate described as "sleep deprived octogenarians" by a congressman and an all around feeling that it was better than nothing. Welcome to the American Taxpayer Relief Act, which actually, er...raises taxes for everyone. That's right. No one in 2013 pays less than they paid in 2012. This is our best estimate of the fall out. It's definitely better than what was at risk back in November but it's still a net drag on the economy of around 1.0%.
Results 1–50
of 110 found.
