Earnings Monitor: Reality bites

Now that we are slightly over halfway through Q1 earnings season, it would be useful to see what we have learned, and how market expectations have developed through this pandemic period. Let's begin with the big picture. FactSet reported that the bottom-up consensus forward 12-month estimate fell -1.9% last week, and -18.3% since downgrades began...

Buy the dip, or sell the rip?

Preface: Explaining our market timing models We maintain several market timing models, each with differing time horizons. The "Ultimate Market Timing Model" is a long-term market timing model based on the research outlined in our post, Building the ultimate market timing model. This model tends to generate only a handful of signals each decade. The...

The recovery scenario

The San Francisco Fed recently created a Daily News Sentiment Index, which is derived from 16 major newspapers. In the space of a few weeks, market psychology has turned from "the market is going to retest the March lows" to "the Fed is supporting prices, valuation doesn't matter, the economy is recovering, - Buy". Regular...

Looking through the FOMC meeting noise

Mid-week market update: It is always to discern short-term market direction on the day of an FOMC meeting, but a number of trends have developed that can support a short-term risk-on tone. The most notable is the possible change in leadership. For quite some time, the trends of US over global stocks, growth over value,...

Do earnings matter anymore?

FactSet reported last week that bottom-up aggregated earnings estimates have been skidding rapidly for both 2020 and 2021.     Forward 12-month EPS estimates are falling even as stock prices rose.     Do earnings matter anymore?   Flying blind What is the market discounting? At this point, any estimates that analysts make are only...