B.I.G. Tips – Nasdaq Negative Reversals From Highs
This content is for members onlyEarnings Season Lurks
After a relatively quiet week for economic data and practically no earnings reports to speak of, the Q2 earnings season will kick off next week. Normally, earnings season starts quietly with just a handful of reports outside of the major banks, but next week will be relatively busy with some major players on the calendar. Things start off slowly with Pepsi (PEP) on Monday. Tuesday, we’ll get reports from Citigroup (C), Delta (DAL), Fastenal (FAST), JP Morgan Chase (JPM) and Wells Fargo (WFC), all of whom are scheduled to report in the morning. Wednesday’s major reports include Goldman (GS), Progressive (PGR), and UnitedHealth (UNH) in the morning, while Alcoa (AA) will report in the afternoon. Thursday will be the busiest day of the week with too many stocks to list here, but Netflix (NFLX) will highlight the schedule of afternoon reports. Finally, Friday’s key reports include Blackrock (BLK) and State Street (STT).
As far as analyst sentiment stands heading into the current earnings season, while we wouldn’t go so far as to say that it has made a full 180-degree turn from last quarter’s negative extremes, it has been close. Over the last four weeks, analysts have raised forecasts for 580 companies in the S&P 1500 and lowered forecasts for 419. That works out to a net of 161 or just under 11% of the index. Besides the S&P 1500, six sectors have positive revisions spreads, while just two are negative. Sectors with the most positive revisions spreads include Consumer Staples, Energy, and Technology, while the two sectors with negative spreads are Financials and Real Estate. Financials just can’t find any love these days.
What does this mean for the equity market’s prospects as earnings season begins? Make sure to check our quarterly preview of the upcoming earnings season for a read on what to expect.
Our quarterly preview of earnings season is extremely useful and a must-read. To see the report, sign up for a monthly Bespoke Premium membership now!
B.I.G. Tips – Death by Amazon – 7/9/20
So far this year, Amazon has added $620bn to its market cap versus $1.12 trillion in market cap declines for the rest of the current S&P 500 membership that was trading at the end of 2019. 357 companies have seen declines in market cap YTD, totaling $3.3trn. In short, equity market cap is consolidating dramatically into the top of the index. A similar process has been underway in economic data. For Q1, the Census reported e-commerce sales topped 11% of total retail sales for the first time, a 0.5% increase versus Q4 of 2019. That increase in share was the largest ever and is indicative of how much market share is being gobbled up by Amazon and a few other e-commerce giants. From an equity market return perspective, huge gains for Amazon are totally consistent with the big underperformance of our Death By Amazon Index over the past few months. Distress leading to de-listings has also mounted, as measured by four different names coming out of our Death By Amazon Index this month.
Our “Death By Amazon” index was created many years ago to provide investors with a list of retailers we view as vulnerable to competition from e-commerce. In 2016, we also created our “Amazon Survivors” index which is made up of companies that look more capable of dealing with the threat from online shopping. To see how the two indices have been performing lately and view the full list of stocks that make up the indices, please read our newest report on the subject available to Bespoke Premium and Bespoke Institutional members.
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The “Miracle” Nasdaq 100
For anyone unfamiliar with the 1969 Miracle Mets, the “Amazins” were 10 games out of first place as late as mid-August and then went on to win 38 out of their last 49 games to finish in first place over the Cubs. From there, the Mets went on to win the first World Series in the history of the franchise in what at the time was one of the biggest turnarounds in the history of baseball. Ironically, in 2007, the Mets were on the other end of another historic turnaround after they blew a seven-game division lead with less than a month left in the season by losing 12 of their last 17 games. But that collapse is a story for another time.
Like the Miracle Mets in 1969, the Nasdaq 100 in 2020 has also staged a historic turnaround. After trading up over 10% earlier in the year, the gains quickly evaporated with the COVID outbreak. Within two months, the Nasdaq 100 went from a YTD gain of over 10% to a decline of over 20% by late March. From there, though, the Nasdaq has gone on an epic run, not only erasing all of its losses but also trading to record highs and a gain of over 20% on the year.
The frequency of positive days for the Nasdaq 100 provides another illustration of the index’s strength this year. So far this year, the index has traded higher on 63% of all trading days. That may not sound like much, but if the year were to end today, it would be the highest percentage of positive days for a given year in the Nasdaq 100’s history. On a side note, it’s interesting to see in this chart how similar the percentage of positive days has been on a year to year basis over time. There has never been a year where fewer than 46% of all trading days have been positive, and prior to 2020, there has never been a year where more than 62% of all trading days were higher.
Obviously, the year is only a bit more than half over, so it’s far from a guarantee that the percentage of positive days will remain as elevated as it is now. To make an apples to apples comparison, in our most recent B.I.G. Tips report we looked at prior years where the Nasdaq 100 saw a similar consistency of daily gains to see how the rest of the year played out. To read the entire report login or start a two-week free trial to either Bespoke Premium or Bespoke Institutional.