Daily Sector Snapshot — 9/12/23
Bespoke Stock Scores — 9/12/23
High Rates Dampen Expansion Expectations
Early this morning, the NFIB published their latest read on small business sentiment. The headline index fell to 91.3, 0.2 points lower than expectations. Sentiment continues to sit near some of the lowest levels of the past decade, albeit off of the worst post-pandemic period when it had reached a low of 89.0 this past spring.
With the decline in the headline index, it is just shy of the bottom decile of its historical range reinforcing the point that small businesses are historically pessimistic. Breadth in this month’s report was fairly mixed with five inputs to the composite falling month over month, three rising, and two going unchanged. As for the other indices, five rose and the remaining three fell.
Employment metrics are some of the areas that have remained somewhat elevated versus history. For example, while many categories are in their bottom deciles of historical readings, job openings hard to fill, compensation, and compensation plans all rank in the 93rd percentile or better. Even plans to increase to increase employment have held up in the top quartile of its historical range. Although current readings would indicate a healthy labor market, conditions have not necessarily improved. As shown below, most of these categories have been trending lower for some time meaning small business labor markets have cooled. However, compensation plans spiked by 5 points in August which is tied for the fifth largest month over month jump on record.
Expectations for changes to sales remain in negative territory meaning that on net more small businesses expect their sales to fall than rise. In August, that reading worsened, and at -14, the index is in the bottom 3% of all readings on record. As with the headline number, although that is a disappointing result, it is off of recent lows. Conversely, actual sales changes are hitting more new lows with the weakest readings since the spring of 2020 and late 2012 before that.
The share of respondents reporting now as a good time to expand their business is another category where readings are at the low end of their historical range without any improvement or further deterioration in August. The NFIB provides a breakdown into the reasons responding firms report their expansion outlook. As shown below, the vast majority report poor economic conditions as the reason which checks out when compared to a very low reading on expectations for the economy to improve. Behind economic conditions, interest rates are the next most quoted reason. That lends to some evidence that the Fed’s rate hikes are working as intended.
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Bespoke’s Morning Lineup – 9/12/22 – Low Energy
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The negative tone in futures this morning is largely attributable to the negative reaction to Oracle’s (ORCL) earnings after the close on Monday. The stock is trading down over 10% which put the stock on pace for its most negative reaction to earnings since December 2011. Besides ORCL, the focus is on Apple (AAPL) which will unveil the new iPhone early this afternoon. In economic news, the only report on the calendar was the NFIB report on small business sentiment. The headline index for that report came in slightly weaker than expected (91.3 vs 91.5) and declined modestly from last month’s reading of 91.9.
In yesterday’s email, we noted the absolute and relative strength of the Energy sector in the first five trading days of September. When the opening bell rang on Monday, it looked as though that strength would continue to start the week. Within the first few minutes of trading, the Energy sector was up just under 1% and trading at a YTD high, but from there it ran out of gas and proceeded to drift lower all day. By the time they rang the closing bell, the Energy sector finished the day down well over 1%.
When a stock or index makes both a higher high and a lower low relative to the prior day’s range, technical analysts refer to it as an outside day, and it is considered a signal of a potential reversal in the prior trend. The actual record of these patterns playing out as expected is mixed, but we would note that the S&P 500 had a similar outside day right at the high in late July and has yet to get back to those levels in the seven weeks since.
Getting back to the Energy sector, in its history since 1990, yesterday was just the sixth time that the sector had an outside reversal day that was comprised of an intraday high of at least 0.5% relative to the prior close but where it closed the day down over 1%.
In today’s Morning Lineup post, we looked at how the sector performed following prior reversals like Monday’s, and if you sign up for a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium to you can check out the full details.
The Closer – Bank Conference, Call in SAVE, NY Fed, CoT – 9/11/23
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Looking for deeper insight into markets? In tonight’s Closer sent to Bespoke Institutional clients, we begin with a look at a number of individual stock news from some of the biggest banks (page 1) and Spirit Airlines (SAVE) (page 2). We then dive into the latest data from the New York Fed’s Consumer Expectations Survey (pages 3 and 4). Next, we recap today’s disappointing 3 year note auction (page 5) before closing out with a rundown of the latest positioning data (pages 6-8).
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