Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Stocks Are Fundamentally Sound

The stock market has been like the Starship Enterprise on “Star Trek.” It continues to “boldly go where no man [or woman] has gone before.” The S&P 500 has been setting new record highs with only two significant corrections since March 28, 2013, when it was 1569.19. It is up 58.5% since the prior bull market record high as of the most recent record high of 2480.91 set on August 7.

In other words, it has been 1,594 days in outer space. During the previous bull market of the 2000s, it was in outer space (i.e., exceeded the previous bull market record high) for only 133 days. Granted, the air is thin in outer space, as measured by various valuation gauges. However, there’s no gravitational pull either, so the Starship S&P 500 can continue to fly as long as it doesn’t run out of rocket fuel. The fundamental gauges for the S&P 500 that I watch show plenty of solid rocket fuel:

(1) The Fundamental Stock Market Indicator (FSMI) rose to a new record high during the week of August 19. It has been very highly correlated with the S&P 500 since 2000.

The FSMI isn’t a leading index of the S&P 500. Nothing leads the S&P 500, since it is a leading indicator itself, and is one of the 10 components of the Conference Board’s Index of Leading Economic Indicators. My indicator simply confirms or raises doubts about the underlying trend in the stock market. Its new high certainly confirms that the bullish trend in stocks remains intact.

The FSMI comprises just three components that reflect the underlying strength or weakness in the domestic and global economies. It is the average of the Consumer Comfort Index (which is a four-week average) and the four-week average of the Boom-Bust Barometer, which is the CRB raw industrials spot price index (weekly average) divided by weekly initial unemployment claims.

(2) The CRB raw industrials spot price index is up 30% since it bottomed late in 2015. It had stalled during late 2016 through the first half of 2017, but has been advancing again in recent weeks. One of its 13 components is the price of copper, which has gone vertical in recent days.

(3) The Boom-Bust Barometer (BBB) is simply the ratio of the CRB raw industrials spot price index divided by initial unemployment claims. To smooth it out, I track the four-week moving average, which is extremely procyclical. The BBB has taken off like a rocket ship since late 2015 and has been in record-high territory this summer.

It is also highly correlated with the S&P 500 since 2000. That’s not surprising since it is highly correlated with another very procyclical indicator, namely S&P 500 forward earnings.

(4) Consumer confidence is the third component of the FSMI, which averages the Weekly Consumer Comfort Index (WCCI) and the BBB. While the BBB is highly correlated with the S&P 500, the FSMI better tracks the stock index. That’s because the BBB is highly correlated with forward earnings and the WCCI is highly correlated with the S&P 500 forward P/E. The WCCI has recovered sharply since late 2011, and so has the P/E.

Thursday, August 24, 2017

S&P 500 Earnings: The Shining

The earnings recession is over. S&P 500 operating earnings per share were eclipsed by the energy recession from Q4-2014 through Q2-2016, when the Thomson Reuters (TR) measure was flat to down on a y/y basis. Growth resumed during the second half of 2016 and first half of 2017.

The TR measure of earnings rose 10.1% y/y during Q2-2017 to a new record high, while revenues rose 5.7% y/y.

That put the S&P 500 operating profit margin (based on TR data) at a record high of 10.8%. “Ouch” is the sound you just heard from all those reversion-to-the-mean bears, who can go back to sleep. The 52-week forward outlook looks outstanding:

(1) S&P 500 forward revenues per share, which tends to be a weekly coincident indicator of actual earnings, continued its linear ascent into record-high territory through the week of August 10.

(2) S&P 500 forward operating earnings per share, which works well as a 52-week leading indicator of four-quarter-trailing operating earnings, has gone vertical since March 2016. It works great during economic expansions, but terribly during recessions. If there is no recession in sight, then the prediction of this indicator is that four-quarter-trailing earnings per share is heading from $126 currently (through Q2) to $140 over the next four quarters.

Some sectors shone more brightly than others during Q2. Here is the y/y performance derby for the S&P 500 revenues growth: Energy (14.3%), Tech (9.7), Industrials (7.8), S&P 500 (5.7), Utilities (5.3), Consumer Staples (4.8), Financials ex-Real Estate (4.4), Consumer Discretionary (3.5), Health Care (2.4), Real Estate (0.8), Materials (-1.4), and Telecom (-3.9).

Here is the same for earnings growth: Energy (returned to a profit), Telecom (45.8%), Tech (34.3), S&P 500 (19.6), Utilities (14.2), Financials ex-Real Estate (13.0), Industrials (12.5), Health Care (8.6), Consumer Staples (6.7), Consumer Discretionary (1.9), Materials (-0.4), and Real Estate (-14.6).

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Four Deuces Scenario

While real GDP growth continues to amble along at a leisurely pace of 2.0% y/y, the labor market is sprinting at a fast pace. In the 7/31 Morning Briefing, I described my 2-2-2 economic scenario, with real GDP continuing to grow around 2.0% y/y, inflation remaining at or slightly below 2.0%, and the federal funds rate peaking late next year at 2.00%.

One of my accounts suggested the Four Deuces (2-2-2-2) scenario, adding the unemployment rate to the Three Deuces scenario. The jobless rate was 4.3% during July and could fall to 2.0%, which would be the lowest on record starting in January 1948. The low for this series was 2.5% during April and May 1953. A new record low, even at 2.0%, is conceivable if the Three Deuces scenario, continues to play out. That’s because having slow economic growth with subdued inflation and low interest rates increases the odds of a very long economic expansion, with the labor market continuing to tighten.

That would be ideal for my “long good buy” scenario for the stock market, since bull markets usually don’t end until the unemployment rate falls to its cyclical trough and starts moving higher. The stock market also does well when the Misery Index, which is the sum of the unemployment rate and the inflation rate, is falling. Indeed, there is an inverse correlation between the Misery Index and the S&P 500 P/E since 1979. Consider the following:

(1) The sum of the forward P/E and the Misery Index has averaged 23.9 since 1979. It was 23.6 during June, suggesting that the stock market is fairly valued.

(2) A lower Misery Index, as a result of a further decline in the unemployment rate, would leave more room for P/E expansion without irrational exuberance. If the unemployment rate drops from 4.3% to 2.0% and the inflation rate remains at 2.0%, that would lower the Misery Index, leaving room for a reasonable increase in the forward P/E from 17.8 currently to 19.9 (since 19.9 + 4.0 = 23.9, which is the average of the Misery Index since 1979).

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Investors Hearing Call of the Wild

The Call of the Wild is a short adventure novel by Jack London. It was published in 1903 and set in Yukon, Canada during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush. The central character of the novel is “Buck,” a large and powerful, but domesticated, St. Bernard-Scotch Shepherd dog. Buck is stolen from his home at a ranch in Santa Clara Valley, California, and sold to be a sled dog in Alaska. He becomes increasingly wild as he is forced to fight to survive and dominate other dogs. By relying on his basic instincts, he emerges as a leader in the pack.

This story seems to portray current developments in the White House and, more broadly, in Washington, DC. It also captures the essence of what we may be starting to see in the stock market. Following the stock market debacles of the early and late 2000s, retail investors retreated from the stock market and turned relatively domesticated, with more of their savings going into liquid assets and bonds. Since Election Day, they seem to have heard the call of the wild. Their feral instincts have been awakened, triggering a gold rush into both domestic and global stock markets.

Over the past 12 months through June, a record $357.8 billion has poured into equity exchange-traded funds (ETFs), led by $236.2 billion going into domestic ETFs and $121.6 billion going into ETFs that invest globally. All three inflows are at, or near, recent record highs. Admittedly, some of these inflows came from equity mutual fund outflows, particularly from domestic ones. However, that could be the call of the wild convincing investors that the stock market is going higher regardless, so they are ditching managed funds for passive ones with cheaper management fees. Consider the following developments:

(1) For a few dollars less. Apparently, Fidelity Investments has heard the call of the wild. The provider of both active and index investment products is lowering fees on 14 of its 20 stock and bond mutual funds as of August 1. The average expenses across Fidelity’s stock and bond index fund lineup will decrease to 9.9 basis points, down from 11.0 basis points. The expense reductions are expected to save current shareholders approximately $18 million annually, Fidelity said.

(2) Gold rush. In a July 18 earnings conference call, Walt Bettinger, the CEO of Charles Schwab, said, “Strong client engagement and demand for our contemporary approach to wealth management have led to business momentum that ranks among the most powerful in Schwab’s history. Equity markets touched all-time highs during the second quarter, volatility remained largely contained, short-term interest rates rose further, and clients benefited from the full extent of the strategic pricing moves we announced in February. Against this backdrop, clients opened more than 350,000 new brokerage accounts during the second quarter, bringing year-to-date new accounts to 719,000—up 34% from a year ago and our strongest first half total in seventeen years.”

(3) The howling. All this supports my howling about a possible melt-up since early 2013—when Washington didn’t push the economy off a fiscal cliff, as was widely feared, though not by me. I started to argue back then that the bull market was more likely to end with a melt-up before there was any meltdown.

Today, I am raising the odds of the Melt-Up scenario from 40% to 50%. The Meltdown scenario remains at 20%, while the Nirvana scenario gets cut from 40% to 30%. By the way, a melt-up followed by a meltdown won’t necessarily cause a recession. It might be more like 1987, creating a great buying opportunity, assuming that we raise some cash at the top of the melt-up’s ascent. Our animal instincts will have to overcome our animal spirits, I suppose.

(4) The swamp. The stock market might continue to melt up during the remaining dog days of summer, blissfully ignoring the swamp people in Washington, who are mostly away on vacation. Unfortunately, they’ll be back. The Senate and House have 12 joint working days before September 29, when the Treasury Department would no longer be able to pay all of the government’s bills unless Congress acts. A default could set off turmoil in world financial markets.

Talks among Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Senate Minority leader Charles Schumer broke up Tuesday morning with no progress on raising the country’s debt ceiling, an impasse that could threaten yet another fiscal cliff cliffhanger for the financial markets. That may turn out to be yet another buying opportunity. Stay tuned.