May 9, 2023
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“No one knows what interest rate the market would set, it’s always being manipulated.” – William Dunkelberg, NFIB
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After Friday’s surge didn’t have much in the way of follow-through yesterday, bears have the upper hand this morning as futures are decidedly weaker, and treasury yields are lower (although they’re pretty much exactly where they were at this point yesterday morning). Investors will also be looking ahead to this afternoon’s meeting between the President and leaders of Congress over the debt ceiling. Expectations are low, but you never know. The fact that the President and his advisers are willing to meet after already saying they wouldn’t negotiate, is a small sliver of hope.
The performance of individual stocks grouped by market cap has been interesting to watch this year and for now, has laid to waste the notion that big things come in small packages. The chart below summarizes the average YTD performance of stocks in various major US indices, and while it may look at first like it’s sorted left to right from best to worst, it’s actually by the market cap of stocks that each index represents from largest to smallest. On the left, are the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 100 which are comprised of US mega-caps. The average YTD performance of Nasdaq 100 stocks has been a gain of 11.45% while the 100 components of the S&P 100 are up an average of 4.93% YTD. Broadening out a little bit to the large-cap S&P 500, the average YTD return of those stocks has been a gain of 2.58%.
Stepping down the market cap ladder from large caps, the average YTD return of mid-cap stocks in the S&P 400 has been a gain of 2.13%. Finally, at the bottom rungs, we have small and microcap stocks which are the only two of the six indices shown where the average YTD return is negative (-1.89% for stocks in the S&P 600 and -0.28% for stocks in the Russell Microcap index). It’s at these last two indices where the progression of performance getting incrementally weaker also breaks down.
Given its outperformance YTD, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Nasdaq 100 is closer to a 52-week high than any of its peers. The index has essentially been rangebound since a breakout on March 31, but after last Friday’s surge and Monday’s follow-through, it’s making its best effort to break out again. Based on where futures are trading this morning, it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen today, but a lot can change over the course of a few hours, and Wednesday’s CPI will most certainly have a say in how things play out.
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May 8, 2023
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“If you know the edge of your own ability pretty well, you should ignore most of the notions of our experts about what I call ‘deworsification’ of portfolios.” – Charlie Munger
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While the S&P 500 was still down for the week, last Friday’s rally did a lot to boost sentiment as it turned a hole of over 2.5% to a weekly decline of less than 1%. For its part, the Nasdaq actually managed to finish the week marginally higher. This morning, the week is starting off on a relatively quiet but positive note as the economic calendar is light, and the pace of earnings slow. Thankfully, there wasn’t even any stress in the banking sector to have to contend with! Looking ahead, though, earnings activity will pick up after the close, and even though the mega-caps are behind us, we’re still in the peak reporting period, so the number of reports won’t slow down. Then, on Wednesday, the April CPI will likely be the major report of the week, and that will likely dictate how we finish the week.
Over the weekend at the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting, Warren Buffett referred to Apple (AAPL) as a better business ‘than any we own’. Apple has worked out better than See’s Peanut Brittle for Berkshire shareholders. The chart below shows the quarterly performance of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK/b) over the last 20 years. From 2003 through the end of 2015, before Berkshire started acquiring Apple, the stock’s average quarterly return was a gain of 2.3%. Since 2016, when Buffett first took a bite out of Apple, Berkshire’s average quarterly gain has been more than a full percentage point higher at 3.4%.
Now, to say that the higher average quarterly return is due entirely to Apple would be too simplistic. After all, S&P 500 returns are higher in the post-2016 period (+2.8%) compared to the period from 2003 through the end of 2015 (+2.3%) but given AAPL’s outperformance of the overall market since the start of 2016 (144%) it certainly hasn’t hurt Berkshire, and the stock would almost certainly be lower now had Buffett not placed the bet on Tim Cook.
Not surprisingly, as Apple has become a much larger part of Berkshire, the stock has tended to trade more in line with Apple as well. The chart below shows the rolling 200-day correlation between the daily percentage changes of Apple and Berkshire over the last 20 years. From 2003 through the end of 2015, the average rolling correlation between the two was +0.256. Since Berkshire started acquiring Apple, even though the correlation immediately dipped in early 2016, the overall average correlation has been considerably higher at +0.453.
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May 5, 2023
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“Employment is nature’s physician and is essential to human happiness.” – Galen
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You’ve likely seen a few headlines this morning discussing the ‘rebound’ and ‘surge’ in regional bank stocks led by shares of PacWest (PACW) which are trading up 26% in pre-market trading. Any staunching of the bleed in these stocks is welcome, but when PACW is only back to levels where it was trading at in the final hour of trading yesterday and still down over 60% on the week, it’s hard to call it a surge.
With bank stocks showing some stabilization, equity futures are taking the opportunity to rebound. European stocks are all firmly higher this morning, and that comes despite what has been mostly a round of weaker-than-expected economic data as European Retail Sales, German Factory Orders, and Industrial Production in France all came in significantly weaker than expected.
With the Fed on Wednesday and Apple (AAPL) earnings after the close yesterday, you may have forgotten about today’s April Non-Farm Payrolls, but those numbers were just released. Economists were expecting the total change in Non-Farm Payrolls to come in at 185K with the Unemployment Rate increasing to 3.6% from 3.5%. The actual readings came in stronger than expected with payrolls increasing by 253K and the Unemployment Rate falling to 3.4%. Average hourly earnings were also two-tenths stronger than expected at 0.5% m/m. One caveat to the stronger headline print, though, was that prior month readings were revised lower by about 150K.
The monthly payrolls report has been important because, in its quest to bring down inflation, the Federal Reserve has been on a mission to crush employment. Because of that, the chart below continues to give members of the committee nightmares. While other areas of the economy have clearly shown signs of rolling over, up until recently, employment has been humming along. Recently, we have started to see some signs of cooling as jobless claims (after a major revision) have been trending higher while JOLTS has been rolling over, but the Non-Farm Payrolls report has been another story. With this month’s stronger-than-expected print, we have now seen a record 13 straight months where the headline change in Non-Farm Payrolls was better than expected.
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May 4, 2023
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“When you blow away the foam, you get down to the real stuff.” – T. Boone Pickens
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After a relatively hawkish tone from Fed Chair Powell where he reiterated his view that the regional banking system is doing fine, reports surfaced that PacWest (PACW) is mulling strategic options for its business. Shares of PACW and other regional banks immediately plunged on the idea that things really aren’t fine, and that pulled futures for the broader market lower as well. In earnings news, shares of Qualcomm (QCOM) are down over 7% after the company reported weaker-than-expected EPS and lowered guidance. QCOM’s weak earnings report suggests that sales of handsets have been weak, and on that news, Apple (AAPL) is also trading lower heading into its earnings report after the close.
On the economic calendar today, jobless claims are the primary focus, but we also got updates on Non-Farm Productivity and Unit Labor Costs. Initial claims were slightly higher than expected (242K vs 240K) while Continuing Claims were significantly lower than expected (1.805 million vs 1.865 million). Non-Farm Productivity fell 2.7% versus forecasts for a decline of 2.0%, and Unit Labor Costs rose 6.3% compared to estimates of 5.6%.
All the headlines surrounding the troubles in the banking sector have weighed on sentiment in the last week as the AAII sentiment survey showed that bulls were unchanged at 24.1%, but bullish sentiment jumped from 38.5% up to 44.9%.
When it comes to trends within individual asset classes, the typical pattern is one of a tide lifting or sinking all boats. While it hasn’t necessarily been the case over the last two years, when the stock market rallies, most individual stocks rally and vice versa. Similarly, when bonds rally rates usually fall, even if the move lower is to varying degrees. One area of financial markets where we have been seeing a wide degree of disparity within the asset class is commodities.
The snapshot from our Trend Analyzer below shows where various commodity-related ETS currently stand relative to their trading ranges. At the top of the list and all trading in overbought territory are ETFs related to precious metals like gold and silver. Most of them are also up by double-digit percentages YTD. While these ETFs have performed well both recently and on a YTD basis, most other ETFs in the sector are down sharply YTD and trading at oversold levels. Crude oil ETFs like USO and DBO are down 7% over the last week while Natural Gas is sitting on a 55% YTD decline after falling an ominous 6.66% over the last five trading days. Is it getting hot in here?
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May 3, 2023
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“Men in general judge more from appearances than from reality. All men have eyes, but few have the gift of penetration.” ― Niccolo Machiavelli
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If you were to apply the quote above to the markets, it would be that you should never invest based on the headlines.
It was nice while it lasted, but the Fed blackout will come to an end this afternoon when the FOMC announces its latest decision on interest rates and Powell holds a 2:30 PM Eastern press conference. There’s a bit of a positive tone in the markets ahead of the announcement, but that will all change later on. The ADP Employment report crushed estimates surpassing forecasts by more than 100K, and while it hasn’t been particularly reliable in forecasting the Non-Farm Payrolls report, the strong reading suggests that the labor market is holding up even after yesterday’s weaker JOLTS report. We’ll have to wait and see jobless claims and Non-Farm Payrolls later this week to get a better read on that sector. As far as the rest of the day is concerned, we still have ISM Services at 10 AM.
As large caps have carried the lion’s share of the weight in market performance this year, the performance gap between the Nasdaq 100 and the Russell 2000 has really widened. Year to date, the Nasdaq 100 has rallied by 19.9% while the Russell 2000 has declined nearly 2%, and over the last six months, the gap has been similar at 19.8%. The chart below shows the rolling six-month performance spread between the two indices, and while the spread has spiked in the last few months, it’s still lower than it was at post-COVID extremes in the fall of 2021 and the middle of 2020. At the other extreme, the peak period of outperformance for the Russell 2000 was in Mach 2021 when US consumers were flush with stimulus cash. Over the last 13 years, though, the performance gap has been in the Nasdaq 100’s favor as the spread has been positive 65% of the time since 2010.
With the gap in performance favoring the Nasdaq 100 nearly two-thirds of the time over the last 13 years, its relative strength versus the Russell 2000 has, up until recent years, been in a consistent uptrend. After going parabolic in the early COVID days, relative strength has been in a sideways range for three years now. Tighter credit conditions from the regional banking crisis this year have recently helped buoy the performance of large caps. Now, with the Fed on tap this afternoon, will Powell continue the hawkish tone and keep a tight grip on the credit spigot for smaller companies, or will he take a softer tone and help grease the skids?
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May 2, 2023
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“Time takes it all, whether you want it to or not.” – Stephen King, The Green Mile
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Markets look to be starting off on a sluggish note this morning as Europe returns from the long holiday weekend to some mixed economic data regarding manufacturing and inflation while the Australian central bank announced a hawkish surprise at its policy meeting by hiking rates 25 bps. In the US, futures are just moderately lower ahead of the 10 AM release of the JOLTS- the first of many employment-related indicators on top for the week. Speaking of employment, Bloomberg is reporting that Morgan Stanley plans to lay off 3,000 employees, while IBM will halt hiring and replace up to 7,800 positions and replace them with AI.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. You’ve heard the phrase thousands of times before, and it’s uncanny how often it applies to real-world situations. This morning, though, we wanted to show you an example of how things this year couldn’t be more different than they were last year. Through the end of April last year, the three worst-performing sectors on a YTD basis were Communication Services (XLC), Consumer Discretionary (XLY), and Technology (XLK), while Energy (XLE) was the only sector with any meaningful gains. This year, through yesterday’s close, the three best-performing sectors on a YTD basis have been Communication Services, Technology, and Consumer Discretionary while the worst-performing sector has been Energy. So basically, this year’s market leaders and laggards couldn’t be more opposite from each other.
The only sectors that have been exceptions in any way are Consumer Staples (which is the only sector that was up YTD in both 2022 and 2023) and Financials and Health Care (which are the only two sectors that were down YTD in both 2022 and 2023). When it comes to sector performance so far this year, the more things change, the more they change. Then again, when it comes to broader market concerns, the Fed still seems to be all anyone can focus on, economic indicators suggest weakness or even a recession on the horizon, and the war in Ukraine is still going.
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