Chart of the Day: Flying On Fed Follow-Through
Big Revision in Claims
Initial jobless claims continue to disappoint. Although this week’s release technically fell down to 256K, it was from a 10K upwardly revised number of 261K last week. Both this week and last’s readings are the highest since the fall and would also mark the highest readings since the fall of 2017 outside of the historically elevated readings of the pandemic.
The pandemic was a volatile time period for jobless claims data as readings rose into the millions. As such, revisions over the past couple of years have gotten historically large in turn, albeit less so over the past year. Although it may not sound like much, last week’s 10K revision was actually sizable. It was the largest revision since the week of July 4th last year, and prior to the pandemic, the week before Christmas in 2012 was the last time there was a double-digit revision.
In his post meeting presser, Fed Chair Powell mentioned how the rise in initial jobless claims may be seasonal in nature. While we will provide some more in depth analysis to these comments in regards to the data in tonight’s Closer, as we have noted in the past, jobless claims have been roughly following standard historical seasonal patterns this year. July typically sees a temporary seasonal spike higher, but as we noted last week, that seasonal peak appears to have been put in place a bit later than usual which is rare but not exactly an unprecedented occurrence. While claims will likely get some seasonal tailwinds in the coming weeks (including this week of the year as claims have fallen around 90% of the time historically), the actual level of claims for the current week of the year is now well above comparable weeks for the few years prior to the pandemic. In other words, before or after seasonal adjustment, claims have come off their strongest levels and revisions have not exactly made things any better.
As for continuing claims, the latest week saw a 25K decline to 1.359 million. While that does mark some deterioration from the strongest levels, unlike initial claims, continuing claims are still well below levels from prior to the pandemic indicating a still very healthy labor market the likes of which has not been seen in decades as the insured unemployment rate (continuing claims as a percentage of the number of those covered by state insurance programs) continues to hover near 1%. Click here to learn more about Bespoke’s premium stock market research service.
LIKS Report: 7/28/22
Bespoke’s Little Known Stocks (LIKS) report highlights a company that may not be on the traditional radar of most investors. In this report, we provide an in-depth analysis of the little known stock, including industry insights, growth lever analysis, insights to the competitive landscape, equity performance, relative valuation, operational efficiency, pros & cons, and more. Today’s report is about an innovative software company with exposure to recession-resistant industries.
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Bespoke’s Morning Lineup – 7/28/22 – Three Down, Two to Go
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“In a world that changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” – Mark Zuckerberg
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After Fed Chair Powell downplayed the significance of the initial read on quarterly GDP reports and then today’s negative print for Q2 GDP, conspiracy theorists will say yesterday’s comments were made so the Fed could downplay today’s negative print. Whatever. We now have seen two straight quarters of negative GDP, and while that may not meet the ‘official’ definition of a recession, it still doesn’t change the fact that the US economy shrank in the first half. Add to that, initial jobless claims remain right near their post-COVID highs. This morning’s print of 256K was above last week’s print of 250K, but last week’s reading was subsequently revised up to 261K meaning that claims actually fell this week.
Futures have actually rallied a bit since the 8:30 print of GDP and Jobless Claims, but they are still indicating a modestly lower market at the open. The Q2 GDP report was an important report, but who wasn’t expecting a weak print? More important than that report will be earnings reports from Amazon.com (AMZN) and Apple (AAPL) after the bell today.
Today’s Morning Lineup discusses earnings news out of Europe and the Americas, the potential budget deal between Manchin and Senate Democrats, economic data from around the world, and much more.
Even in the current volatile environment, a 4% rally in the Nasdaq is a big move. In the index’s entire history dating back to 1971, there have only been 86 prior occurrences, and yesterday’s rally was the largest one-day gain since early April 2020 just after the COVID crash lows. The chart below shows every 4% rally in the Nasdaq over its history since 1971, and outside of the period from 2000 to 2002, and to a lesser degree the Financial Crisis, moves of this magnitude were sporadic. The most notable aspect of the chart below, however, has to be the fact that in the 50+ year history of the Nasdaq, nearly half of all the index’s rallies of 4%+ occurred in the three-year window from 2000 to 2002.
Given the near majority of all 4%+ rallies in the Nasdaq occurred during the most severe bear market in its history, maybe big moves like yesterday aren’t such a good thing in terms of the Nasdaq’s future direction. In the chart below, we show the index’s forward returns following prior 4%+ rallies as well as 4%+ rallies, like yesterday, that were the first occurrences in at least three months. As shown in the chart, median returns following all 4%+ rallies (light blue bars) are mixed relative to overall average returns since 1971, but when the 4%+ rally is the first in at least three months, forward returns have actually tended to be above the historical average for all periods since 1971. It’s hard to say the coast is now clear following yesterday’s big rally, but historically speaking, big one-day rallies for the Nasdaq after a long absence have historically been followed by above-average returns.
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Daily Sector Snapshot — 7/27/22
Most Countries Remain Below Pre-COVID Highs
As we do the last Wednesday of each month, today we published our latest update of the Global Macro Dashboard which provides an overview of the major economic data and financial markets of 22 major global economies. Taking a look at the US ETFs tracking these same countries shows a broad move higher in equities around the globe during the month of July. The US has led the way higher as the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) has rallied just over 5%. India (INDA), Sweden (EWD), and Singapore (EWS) have seen the next strongest moves with each one rallying 4% or more. That has brought US equities, India, and Singapore back above their 50-DMAs as well.
Given those moves are in the context of much larger pullbacks year to date, most country ETFs also currently remain below their pre-COVID highs (the 52-week high as of the S&P 500 peak on 2/19/20). In fact, SPY, INDA, Taiwan (EWT), and Canada (EWC) are the only countries meaningfully above prior highs. Switzerland (EWL) is also technically a part of that list, but the one basis point difference is not much of a margin. At the moment, Brazil is down the most significantly from its pre-COVID high as it is still down 43%. However, unlike many other countries, the year-to-date decline has been very modest at only 1.76%.
Taking a look at the charts of the four countries that are handily above their pre-COVID highs, the trends of the past year are not exactly positive. Each one currently sits in a multi-month downtrend, and only India and the US have managed to break above their 50-DMAs. Even if those moving averages have been taken out, further progress by bulls would be required to eliminate those downtrends. Click here to learn more about Bespoke’s premium stock market research service.
Chart of the Day – Fed Day Follow Through
Bespoke’s Global Macro Dashboard — 7/27/22
Bespoke’s Global Macro Dashboard is a high-level summary of 22 major economies from around the world. For each country, we provide charts of local equity market prices, relative performance versus global equities, price to earnings ratios, dividend yields, economic growth, unemployment, retail sales and industrial production growth, inflation, money supply, spot FX performance versus the dollar, policy rate, and ten year local government bond yield interest rates. The report is intended as a tool for both reference and idea generation. It’s clients’ first stop for basic background info on how a given economy is performing, and what issues are driving the narrative for that economy. The dashboard helps you get up to speed on and keep track of the basics for the most important economies around the world, informing starting points for further research and risk management. It’s published the last Wednesday of every month at the Bespoke Institutional membership level.
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Bespoke’s Morning Lineup – 7/27/22 – If Only Every Day Was a Rate Hike Day
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“Learning to fly is not pretty but flying is.” – Satya Nadella
Below is a snippet of content from today’s Morning Lineup for Bespoke Premium members. Start a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium now to access the full report.
We’re nearly halfway through what has been billed as the most critical week of earnings season, and based on where futures currently reside, equities are down just marginally on the week. Don’t rest yet, though. Between today’s FOMC meeting, tomorrow’s GDP report, and some critical earnings reports on Friday, we still have a number of potential bumps on the horizon. Economic data released so far today has been better than expectations, and the only report left on the calendar is Pending Home Sales at 10 AM.
Today’s Morning Lineup discusses earnings news out of Europe and the Americas, a preview of the FOMC announcement today, economic data from around the world, and much more.
One of the primary reasons stocks have put up miserable performance numbers this year stems from the tighter monetary policy of the Federal Reserve. For that reason, we found it ironic that on all three days the FOMC has hiked rates this year, stocks rallied. On 3/16, the Fed kicked off the current rate hike cycle with a 25 bps increase in the Fed Funds rate, and in response, the S&P 500 rallied 2.2%. Seven weeks later, the size of the rate hike doubled, but stocks still rallied with the S&P 500 surging just under 3% in what turned out to be the second-best day of the year. Six weeks later on 6/15, in response to the mirage of surging inflation expectations in the Michigan sentiment report, the Fed dropped a 75 bps hike on the market and yet stocks still managed to rally with the S&P 500 rising 1.5%.
In other words, the S&P 500 is down 17.7% this year, but if you had only invested in the market on days when the FOMC hiked rates, you would be looking at a YTD gain of 6.8% in just three days. Conversely, if you had avoided the market on those three days and been long the rest of the year, you’d be down 23% YTD. Nobody ever said the market had to make sense.
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