Stock Market Internals Earnings Momentum, Small/Mid/Large Caps, Growth/Value/Cyclicals, and Additional Factors
Earnings Momentum
With the second month of Q1-22 earnings in the books, our Up/Down ratio is a very weak 1.06. Even if we are nearing a cycle peak, the level of earnings is still impressive. S&P 500 four-quarter trailing earnings are now 34% higher than the previous peak just three years ago.
Small Cap vs. Mid Cap vs. Large Cap
Our Ratio of Ratios sits right at the 12-month moving average with no clear trend. Small Caps seem priced to outperform but that’s been the case for the better part of four years.
Growth vs. Value vs. Cyclicals
Beat up Small Cap Growth has returned to its September 2020 price level with much improved fundamentals. Over the last twenty months, that segment’s median P/E multiple has moved from 39.7x to 27.1x and is now below its 1982-to-date average.
Additional Factors
The gyrating S&P 500 found a way to end the month perfectly flat. Retailers, casinos, hotels, and resorts all felt the pressure of passing along higher prices to consumers. Energy firms benefiting from an increased slice of consumers’ budgets made up most of the top-25 performing firms in May. That sector has grown from 2.7% of the S&P 500 to 4.8% in the first five months of 2022.
Earnings Momentum
With the first month of Q1-22 earnings in the books, our Up/Down ratio is 1.08. Gone are the easy hurdle rates of 2020. This abysmal figure sits in the sixth percentile of observations for our 38-year history.
Small Cap vs. Mid Cap vs. Large Cap
Our Ratio of Ratios sits at its twelve-month average after an awful month for stocks in both market-cap tiers. The absolute trailing P/E ratios for both Small- and Large-Cap stocks in our L3000 Universe are down significantly from the start of the year.
Growth vs. Value vs. Cyclicals
Our Ratio of Ratios sits at its twelve-month average after an awful month for stocks in both market-cap tiers. The absolute trailing P/E ratios for both Small- and Large-Cap stocks in our L3000 Universe are down significantly from the start of the year.
S&P 500: Kicked In The FAANGs
Those once high-flying FAANG stocks continue to run into rough pockets of air. Following Facebook’s 33% dive in February, Netflix (-49%), Amazon (-24%), and Google (-18%) followed suit in April as the latter two trillion-dollar firms posted their worst monthly returns since 2008. Only Apple—which still carries an enormous 7% weight in the S&P 500—has avoided a recent gut-wrenching plunge.
Earnings Momentum
With the final month of Q4-21 earnings in the books, our Up/Down ratio is 1.30. This figure is looking more and more “late cycle,” and earnings growth is not equal across the market cap tiers.
Small Cap vs. Mid Cap vs. Large Cap
Our Ratio of Ratios sank a little deeper into Small-Cap discount territory as Large Caps outperformed in March’s bounce. The young bull market, when Small Caps bid to normalize this relationship back to the historical median, seems to be long gone.
Growth vs. Value vs. Cyclicals
A uniform drubbing for Growth in Q1, as all three of our Growth style boxes lost between 13-14%. The Value segments all held up nicely, with returns between -2% and +2%. The 15.6% performance gap between our Royal Blue Value (+1.8%) and Royal Blue Growth (-13.8%) is the widest since Q2-2009.
Additional Factors
The first quarter of 2022 saw crude prices surge 33%. The largest three Energy firms, CVX (+39%), XOM (+35%), and COP (+39%) posted similar gains, resulting in XLE’s best quarterly performance in its 23-year history (+38%). Despite the last three months’ windfall, XLE has a total return of just +5% over the last eight years compared to +168% for the overall index.
Earnings Momentum
Our Up/Down ratio is 1.54—the second consecutive “two-month” figure coming in right at the long-term average. This vignette’s message remains consistent: For earnings growth, the boom-time off of pandemic lows has come to an end.
Small Cap vs. Mid Cap vs. Large Cap
The Russell 2000’s 4% outperformance over the S&P 500 in February narrowed the discount back to its 12-month average.
Growth vs. Value vs. Cyclicals
Our Royal Blue Growth segment was far and away the worst performing style box in February (again). That once-powerhouse segment has already lost 16.3% YTD. In the last 18 months, Small Cap Value has almost entirely erased Small Cap Growth’s last five years of outperformance.
Additional Factors
The Tech giant—formerly known as Facebook—shed a dramatic 33% of its market value in February. A shocking reversal among the seemingly bulletproof Social/Mobile/Cloud names. That trouncing, combined with much more subtle losses from the much larger AAPL and MSFT, contributed 40% of the S&P 500 losses for the month.
Earnings Momentum
With the first month of Q4-21 earnings in the books, our Up/Down ratio is 1.86. This is just a tick below the long-term “one-month” average. The ultra-soft 2020 lookbacks are a thing of the past; building on 2021 earnings figures will prove to be a much more formidable task.
Small Cap vs. Mid Cap. vs. Large Cap
This is the fourth consecutive month with a Small Cap discount greater than 20% for our Ratio of Ratios. The Small Cap discount had narrowed to as little as 8% last March, but since then, the S&P 500 has gained 13% (price only), while the Russell 2000 has lost 8%.
Growth vs. Value vs. Cyclicals
The monthly performance gap between Royal Blue Value (+1.9%) and Royal Blue Growth (-11.8%) is the largest we’ve seen since 2009.
Additional Factors
For a brief period during the January 24th trading day, the S&P 500 was down 12% from the all-time closing high it set just three weeks earlier. The index went on to halve those losses and mask the carnage experienced by the small cap and growth subsets. Big Oil and Big Banks came to the rescue in our Equal-Weighted mega cap basket.