Bespoke’s Morning Lineup – 7/18/23 – Positive Earnings, Mixed Economic Data
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“Hidden talent counts for nothing” – Nero
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There’s not a whole lot going on in financial market trading this morning. Earnings news from the likes of Bank of America (BAC), Morgan Stanley (MS), and Schwab (SCHW) have been better than expected (as has been the case with every other report this morning), but that good news has been offset partially by a sales miss from PNC (the only sales miss this morning). Trading in Europe has also been subdued with modest gains after a mixed session in Asia.
The economic calendar is jammed packed this morning with Retail Sales (8:30), Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization (9:15), and Business Inventories and Homebuilder Sentiment at 10:00. After the close, the earnings calendar remains quiet, but there will be reports from Interactive Brokers (IBKR), JB Hunt (JBHT), and Omnicom (OMC).
As the market’s rally has started to broaden out, we’ve also seen a modest expansion in the daily percentage of stocks hitting new highs. The top chart below shows the net daily percentage of S&P 500 stocks hitting 52-week highs, and while the recent peaks in this reading aren’t necessarily strong on a long-term relative basis, they are higher than any other readings in the last year. We wouldn’t go so far as saying that it’s a broad rally, but it’s also much more than just seven stocks too.
One interesting sector is Financials. Given the trouble in the bank stocks during the first quarter, the sector has fallen way out of favor among most investors. Even this sector, though, has started to see an expansion in the percentage of stocks hitting 52-week highs and just recently saw the highest percentage in a single day in at least the last 12 months. Not only has the sector seen more of its components hitting new highs, but it has also routinely closed at its highest levels since March 9th (when SIVB started to implode) over the last two weeks.
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The Closer -Earnings Estimates, Crude Supply, Dollar Pause, Bank Loans Slow – 7/17/23
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Looking for deeper insight into markets? In tonight’s Closer sent to Bespoke Institutional clients, we begin with a quick look into earnings estimates as earnings season ramps up (page 1) followed by an update of the term structure of WTI and Brent crude oil (page 2) followed by a look at the drivers of the dollar’s drop (page 3). Next, we show bank deposits (page 4), preview this week’s Treasury auctions (page 5), before closing with an update of the latest positioning data (pages 6-8).
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Daily Sector Snapshot — 7/17/23
Employment Back and Prices Sliding in New York
The economic calendar is having a quiet start to the week with only the Empire State Manufacturing Survey from the New York Fed released today. The headline reading was expected to fall from an expansionary reading of 6.6 back into contraction in July. Instead, the index remained in positive territory at 1.1 which implies the New York region’s manufacturing economy grew modestly in July.
Albeit growing, activity is weak with this month’s reading registering in the 28th percentile of all months in the survey’s history dating back to 2001. The month over month decline was driven by broad weakness across categories. In fact, only three moved higher month over month: New Orders, Number of Employees, and Average Workweek. Expectations indices similarly weakened with most categories at far more depressed levels by historical standards. Of the twelve categories, eight are in the bottom decline of readings.
As noted above, New Orders stood out as one of the only readings to move higher. At 3.3, that reading is far from elevated or at a new high by any stretch. Meanwhile, Shipments indicated a major moderation compared to last month. In June, Shipments registered a reading of 22, which was surprisingly elevated relative to other categories. Falling 8.6 points month over month, now that index is more in line with other areas.
The two other notably strong readings were with regards to employment. Since the end of the first quarter, Number of Employees and Average Workweek have both been making their way higher with the July readings tipping back into expansionary territory. In other words, on a net basis, businesses are once again hiring and increasing hours worked. However, businesses have also appeared to have slowed down their expected spending plans for technology and capex.
On the back of cooling inflation data last week that sent stocks higher in hopes of a more dovish monetary policy, the Empire Manufacturing survey also provided a cheery look into the region’s inflation picture. Both Prices Paid and Prices Received have continued to fall dropping over 5 points month over month resulting in new new lows for each one. With regards to Prices Paid, the index is now at its lowest level since August 2020. Prices Received is similarly at the lowest reading in three years.
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Chart of the Day: Volatility Seasonality and the Dog Days of Summer
S&P 500’s Best and Worst Performers During a Monster Week
After weaker-than-expected inflation data inflated the prices of just about every financial asset, there were some very big winners by the end of last week. The table below lists the 20 top-performing stocks in the S&P 500 last week, which includes eight stocks that rallied more than 10%. Double-digit gains are typically considered very good for an entire year, so when large-cap stocks move that much in a week, it’s impressive. Topping the list, shares of Match (MTCH) gained nearly 14% followed by DR Horton (DHI), Domino’s (DPZ), and MGM Resorts (MGM). Among these four top performers and the other stocks listed, it is a somewhat eclectic group of stocks. One well-represented group on the list is the homebuilders. Along with DHI, Lennar (LEN) and Pulte (PHM) both also made the list. In terms of YTD returns, though, last week’s biggest winners weren’t solely the ones that have been rallying all along or the losers playing catch up; there was actually a little bit of everything. Three of the stocks listed (Etsy, Newell, and Sealed Air) are still down by double-digit percentages YTD while four (Pulte, Align, salesforce, and Monolithic Power) are up over 50%! Besides those extreme movers, there are also a few stocks that merely had single-digit YTD percentage gains before last week’s spikes higher. One thing that just about all of these stocks have in common now, though, is that they headed into this week at short-term overbought levels of a varying degree.
In total, there were just 88 stocks in the S&P 500 that declined last week, and only 53 of those fell more than 1%. Of those 53 stocks, the table below lists the 20 worst performers which all fell more than 3%. This is also an eclectic group in terms of both their lines of business and their YTD performance heading into the week. The only stock down by double-digit percentages was Progressive (PGR) which now makes it down on the year as well. Right behind PGR, shares of Carnival (CCL) fell 9.5%, but unlike PGR, it’s still up by over 100% YTD. Besides CCL, two other cruise operators (Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean) also sank during last week’s rising tide, but they have also seen huge rallies on a YTD basis. Financials are another sector that was well-represented on last week’s loser list. Besides PGR, State Street (STT), Allstate (ALL), Northern Trust (NTRS), Bank of NY Mellon (BK), and Travelers (TRV) all bucked last week’s bullish trend. Unlike just about all of last week’s winners which are now overbought, many of the week’s worst performers are still trading within normal ranges of their 50-day moving averages.
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Bespoke’s Morning Lineup – 7/17/23 – Slow Start, More Easing of Price Pressures
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“The first hundred thousand – that was hard to get, but afterwards, it was easy to make more.” – John Jacob Astor
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It’s looking like a lackluster start to the trading week, but what can you expect after a week like the last one. The main driver of the subdued sentiment is weaker-than-expected economic growth statistics out of China where Q2 GDP came in an entire percentage point below forecasts (+6.3 y/y vs 7.3% est.). It’s going to be a busy week for both economic and earnings-related data, but the week is starting off on a quiet note with Empire Manufacturing the only report of note. The headline reading was modestly better than expected (+1.0 vs -1.8 est). While we haven’t yet fully gone through the report, the Prices Paid component stood out as it plunged from 34.9 to 22 which was the lowest reading since August 2020 and is now back below its pre-COVID average reading of 26.
After 2022, where gains were hard to come by in just about every corner of the equity market, the last several weeks have been a different ballgame entirely, with last week serving as a perfect example. Participation trophies were all over the place as every US equity index that we track in our Trend Analyzer rallied at least 2% during the week. Small Caps (Russell 2000) and Mega Cap tech (Nasdaq 100), which have taken divergent paths over the last several months, managed to come together and top the leaderboard with gains of 3.5% or more.
At the sector level, gains were also widespread. Energy was the smallest winner as it rallied just 0.82%. Besides every other sector rallying over 1%, all but two, Consumer Staples (+1.12%) and Financials (+1.96%) gained at least 2%. Topping the list were Consumer Discretionary (+3.28%) and Communication Services (3.23%) which are now up over 35% on the year and trailing only the 42% rally in the Technology Sector. Outside of those three sectors, though, only one other sector is up by double-digit percentages, and three are in the red (Energy, Utilities, and Health Care).
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Daily Sector Snapshot — 7/14/23
The Bespoke Report – 7/14/23 – Everybody Is A Winner
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Bespoke’s Morning Lineup – 7/14/23 – Positive Earnings Cap Off a Positive Week
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“You don’t reason with intellectuals. You shoot them.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
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For all the talk about how the discourse has become so much more violent in recent years, we have nothing on Napoleon. Shooting people you disagree with??? The only duels these days happen on Twitter.
After a brief scare last week from a stronger-than-expected ADP report, the bull market came back from July 4th vacation this week, and futures are poised for a flat to modestly higher open to close out what has been a very positive week. The only economic reports on the calendar this week are Import Prices at 8:30 (weaker than expected) and Michigan Sentiment at 10 AM. It’s been a busy morning for earnings, and so far, the reports have been positive as all seven of the companies reporting as we write this have reported better-than-expected earnings and five out of seven have topped sales forecasts. So far so good.
European markets are mixed so far this morning with the STOXX 600 essentially flat while France leads the way higher with a gain of 0.3% and Germany lag (-0.2%).
They say a dollar isn’t what it used to be, but it can still have a big impact on equity market performance. Take the recent performance of European stocks. The chart below shows the performance of Europe’s benchmark STOXX 600 index over the last year. After an extended period of sideways trading, the STOXX 600 sold off in late May and ever since has been making a series of lower highs and lower lows. A recent test of the 200-DMA held, but the index is currently bumping up against its downtrend and trying to reclaim its 50-DMA as we close out the week. From a technical perspective, it’s not the greatest picture for European stocks.
If you’re an investor in the US and looking at the performance of European stocks through the lens of the US dollar, you’re seeing an entirely different picture. Instead of lower highs and lower lows, it looks more like higher highs and higher lows as the STOXX just this morning broke above resistance from earlier this year and is now trading at 52-week highs. Technically speaking, the STOXX 600 in dollar-adjusted terms looks a whole lot better. What a difference the dollar makes!
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