Research.LeutholdGroup

Recently, when Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and President Donald Trump both blinked—one on rate hikes and the other on trade wars—the S&P 500 surged by more than 6% in about a week! Many sensed the primary challenges holding back stocks were finally resolving and sentiment quickly turned bullish as investors did not want to miss the Santa Rally! 

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The valuation of the stock market has been under steady pressure this year. The S&P 500 trailing price-earnings (P/E) multiple has declined by about 25% from a recovery peak of 23 in January to about 18. The hope for this bull market is that P/E contraction is almost over, allowing stock prices to again rise with earnings gains. 

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We first published the accompanying chart in March of this year. The PP Ratio had just spiked sharply upward in the previous three months, as it did near the end of the dot-com era in 2000. Since March, in a very similar fashion as shown, the PP Ratio has eerily traced the same path as during the dot-com era.
 

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he velocity of the money supply measures the pace at which cash is spent in the economy, or the amount of total GDP activity created by each dollar of the money supply. Monetary velocity has long been a focal point for the Federal Reserve, economists, and investors because its growth often shapes the character of the recovery.

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From the mid-1920s until the mid-2000s, the performance cycles of small cap stocks relative to large cap stocks (i.e., the small/large market cap factor or SLF) were typically multi-year events.

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Solid economic growth and fabulous profit results have underpinned the stock market in the last couple years. Since the presidential election, the global economic recovery exhibited a rare synchronization for a time, and within the U.S., confidence measures rose from mediocre to near post-war highs...

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The accompanying chart illustrates the annual rate of wage inflation for all U.S. nonsupervisory private nonfarm payrolls. This was the primary wage series used by the Bureau of Labor (BLS) until 2006 when it began using a wage series based on all private sector workers.

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Productivity has been weaker in the contemporary recovery than any other in the post-war era. At just a little above 1% per annum, the pace of productivity growth in this recovery has only been about 40% of the average growth experienced during past periods of economic expansion! 
 

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Amongst a week of elevated financial market volatility, a few random short vignettes on recent action.

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U.S. inflation has been modest for the last 35 years. The annual rate of core consumer price inflation has only briefly been above 5% since 1983, and for the last 20 years has been below 3%! Since inflation has been low for so long, an entire generation of investors often consider it a nonevent. 
 

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A central quandary for equity investors is whether Emerging Markets (EM) represent an opportunity or a risk? Current relative valuations highlight the opportunity. The relative forward P/E multiple (versus the S&P 500) is as low today as it was at the start of this bull market in early 2009, and relative price-to-sales and price-to-book ratios have not been this attractive since the early 2000s!

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Bond yields have taken center stage in the financial markets. Overheat anxieties have awakened, the Federal Reserve is poised for its fourth Fed funds hike of the year in December, and the 10-year bond yield has risen by about 40 basis points in a little over a month!
 

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Inflation has remained low throughout this recovery causing many investors to conclude it is not much of a problem even if it rises a bit further. However, inflation has been trending higher for much of the last four years and has already significantly impacted the stock market. Moreover, because both wage and price inflation recently reached new recovery highs, overheat pressure seems poised to become even more pronounced. 

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Even though the calendar has turned to fall, it sure seems like the Dog Days of Summer have persisted. Volatility across the Financial Markets has been remarkably modest in the last year. It’s not just a low VIX volatility reading in the stock market, but rather, weekly volatility in the stock,

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Despite a very strong economy, defensive stocks have been matching the performance of the overall stock market since early this year. Indeed, in the last three months, while the S&P 500 has returned to a new record high, the top four leading S&P 500 sectors have been those normally considered defensive (i.e., Health Care, Telecom, Utilities, and Consumer Staples), and the five sectors which have trailed the S&P 500 are much more cyclical (Consumer Discretionary, Technology, Financials, Materials, and Energy). 

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Everyone has a favorite stock market valuation tool. For some, it’s the celebrated Shiller CAPE P/E (price/earnings) ratio. Many prefer to value stocks based on expected future earnings or the forward P/E multiple. Others are more comforted by a “show-me-the-money” approach basing the P/E multiple on (actual) trailing earnings.

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Confidence has arguably played an outsized role in the contemporary bull market. It was born amidst widespread fears of the “second coming of the Great Depression,” and until recently, had persevered despite lingering crisis fears and confidence measures which remained below post-war norms. 
 

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Fantastic Fundamentals have pacified the White House, the Federal Reserve, and investors during the last couple years. Is this about the end? 

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The potential for the stock market to rise depends on how much capacity there is for improvement. Can its valuation rise? Could investor confidence improve? Do corporate profits still have room to run? Will stocks become more competitive relative to alternative investments? How spent is the economic recovery?
 

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Potpourri week! No common thread, just a bunch of unrelated thoughts. None are earth shattering, but hopefully each may prove marginally intriguing? So, sit back, grab a refreshing adult beverage, and let your mind wander about a bit…

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Technology stocks have outpaced the overall market during the last five years, and by an accelerating margin since the end of 2016. Naturally, they have become market darlings, replete with stories about remarkably innovative products with phenomenal growth potential.

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The S&P 500 trailing Price-Earnings (P/E) multiple is currently higher than 84% of the time since 1950. Appropriately, high valuations have become a concern for many investors. Although the market’s high P/E profile has reduced future return potential, at least historically, it does not necessarily suggest significant downside risk.

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As it often does, Friday’s jobs report will likely set the tone for the financial markets during the next few weeks. Since the January report, the employment numbers have been reassuring. A rise in the labor force has allowed solid job gains to coincide with a flattening in the unemployment rate near 4%, leaving an impression the labor market still has significant slack. 

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In the last few years, movements in the U.S. dollar have played a huge role in shaping the character of the recovery and the behavior of the financial markets. During the first half of this recovery, the trade-weighted U.S. dollar index (DXY) remained in a narrow range, but since 2014, its volatility has substantially increased.

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We first published the accompanying chart in March of this year. The PP ratio had just spiked sharply upward in the previous three months, as it did near the end of the dot-com era in 2000. Since, as shown, the PP ratio has been largely marking time during the last four months even though technology certainly has not lost its popularity.
 

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On a trailing earnings basis, the S&P 500 has been highly-priced above a 20x PE multiple (or below a 5% earnings yield) for most of the last two years. What does this suggest about future return potential, and perhaps more importantly, about the potential for negative returns? Although the absolute valuation of the stock market does impact future return potential, it has not been particularly useful in assessing the chance of losing money in the stock market. 

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Inflation/overheat worries have eased recently. The advance in the 10-year bond yield has stalled just below 3%, the upward trend in commodity prices paused once the U.S. dollar began rising in April, and wage inflation has failed to break above 3%. Indeed, the latest employment report left a goldilocks impression with a solid jobs gain, a rise in the labor force participation rate, and only a modest increase in wages. 

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Most traditional recession indicators remain uneventful. The recovery is old by calendar standards, the unemployment rate is low, and the Federal Reserve has begun to tighten monetary policy. 

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The contemporary character of the Main Street economy has often been a harbinger of future investment returns. Specifically, the mindset of private economic players (i.e., are they confident enough to engage in aggressive behavior or are worries dominating economic decisions) and the degree of resource slack (the unemployment rate) have often provided a good indication of how the financial markets may perform during the next five years! 
 

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Considering how this bull market began, while it may not be widely recognized, it has simply been too quiet now for too long. The accompanying chart illustrates that the last eight years have been among the four calmest and quietest of all stock markets during the post-war era!

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Another interesting echo, today, of the 1990s’ dot-com era, is how much the S&P 500 Technology sector has come to dominate price momentum (MOM) within the stock market. Like the late 1990s, stock market winners have become synonymous with technology. 
 

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Perhaps the stock market is taking its cue from the NBA back-to-back champion, Golden State Warriors (and winners of three of the last four titles). They employ an aggressive and entertaining “Offense-First” style of play driven by multiple all-stars firing “threes” with rapid abandonment from distances normally reserved for long touchdown passes!

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Haven’t we seen this movie before? Technology takes over the stock market late in a recovery cycle, seemingly making the bull ageless, pushing portfolios toward a more concentrated new-era exposure, stimulating investor greed bolstered daily by watching a chosen few (FANGs) rise to new heights, and convincing many that tech is really a defensive investment against late-cycle pressures which trouble other investments. 

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This year started with strong expectations for economic growth. A substantial tax cut and evidence the global recovery had finally synchronized significantly raised expectations for both the pace of economic growth and corporate earnings results.. 

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Since its early-2011 peak, gold has been a disappointing investment. Despite significant bouts of international turmoil and periodic renewed-crisis fears, the salve often provided by the shiny metal has eluded investors.

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The jobs report this morning was spectacular! A 223K gain in payroll employment, a 15K upward revision to past months’ numbers, a drop in the underemployment rate to 7.6%, a decline in the unemployment rate to 3.8%, and a respectable monthly rise in wages of 0.3%! 

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Equity investors face a dilemma. Since the economy and profitability are doing well, should cyclical stocks be emphasized, or with the recovery getting old and because valuations are high, should defensive stocks be favored?..

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Here are a few unrelated concepts to chew on this week. No major overriding theme. Just a bunch of interesting “one-offs!”

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Fundamentally, the economic recovery has never been this good. U.S. real GDP growth is forecasted to rise by almost 4% in the current quarter, there is regular healthy job creation, the unemployment rate has fallen below 4%, household income gains are solid, profits are spectacular, confidence measures among both businesses and consumers are near historic highs, and for the first-time, economies about the globe are in a synchronized recovery!

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As the Federal Reserve keeps raising interest rates and the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield nears a seven-year high, investors wonder what yield level will bite the stock market? This may be the wrong question...

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