I pointed out two weeks ago the strong disagreement between technical analysts, who were bullish because of strong price momentum, and macro investors, who were bearish because of concerns over hawkish central bank policy and a slowing growth outlook (see "Price leads fundamentals", or "Don't fight the Fed"?). In the wake of the market reaction...
There is a growing acceptance among investors that the global economy is sliding into recession. S&P Global, which was formerly known as IHS Markit, reported: The global manufacturing PMI survey's Output Index, which acts as a reliable advance indicator of actual worldwide output trends several months ahead of comparable official data (see chart 2),...
The June CPI and PPI reports both came in higher than expectations. The good news is core CPI is decelerating. The bad news is both core sticky price CPI and Owners' Equivalent Rent, which is about one-third of core CPI, are rising rapidly. These readings confirm the market's expectations that the Fed will continue...
It's stunning how market psychology has changed. In the space of a few months, we've swung from "everyone is bullish" to "everyone is bearish". These results from the BoA Global Fund Manager Survey were done in early June and sentiment has likely deteriorated since then. The good news is the market is becoming...
One of the key risks to the stock market is earnings expectations. As recession risk rises, it has been unusual to see forward 12-month EPS estimates continue to rise. The latest update finally shows that earnings expectations are beginning to stall. S&P 500 estimates are flat for the week, up a miniscule 0.01, while small-cap...
Recession fears are rising everywhere, both on Wall Street and in Washington. Fed eonomist Michael T. Kiley formulated a recession model based on unemployment rates. The probability of a recession over the next four quarters is now over 50%, but the economy has never avoided a recession when readings were this high. The...
I have pointed out before that the last time the 10-year Treasury yield was at these levels, the S&P 500 was trading at a forward P/E of 14-16. The current forward P/E is 16.8, which is slightly above that range. In order for stock prices to rise, at least one of two things has to...
Now that the S&P 500 has started to turn up after bouncing off a head & shoulders downside target. Green shoots are starting to appear for the bulls, is it time for investors to buy stocks and bottom fish? Rising recession fears Let's begin with why the market weakened. Recession fears were...
Legendary investor John Templeton once said: Bull markets are born on pessimism, grown on skepticism, mature on optimism and die on euphoria. The time of maximum pessimism is the best time to buy, and the time of maximum optimism is the best time to sell. Where are we in the market cycle? From a long-term...
Mid-week market update: For several weeks, sentiment surveys such as AAII and Investors Intelligence have signaled extreme levels of bearishness seen at past market bottoms. However, some observers have played down the sentiment surveys because indications of positioning are inconsistent with extreme fear. As an example, funds are still pouring into the Cathie Wood's Ark...
Welcome to the coming global recession. We can debate all day about the global growth outlook, but consider this: Global Manufacturing PMI has fallen to 48.5, indicating contraction. It's the first negative reading since the COVID Crash of 2020. The signs of deceleration have been confirmed by the G10 Economic Surprise Index, which...
The Economist is becoming known as a source of the contrarian magazine cover indicator. As the world holds its collective breath for the FOMC decision next week, the recent cover of the magazine begs a number of important questions for investors. How far beyond the inflation-fighting curve is the Fed? What are the likely policy...
Recession fears have arrived on Main Street. From a statistical perspective, Google searches for "recession" have spiked. From an anecdotal perspective, recession talk has emerged as the talk of the party. These conditions beg three crucial questions for investors: Will there be a recession? If so, how much of the slowdown...
In bull markets, valuation generally doesn`t matter very much unless it reaches a nosebleed extreme, such as the NASDAQ Bubble. In bear markets, valuation defines the downside risk in equity prices. As the Powell Fed has signaled it is dead set on a hawkish policy that does not preclude inducing a recession, valuation will...
Take a look at this mystery chart. Is that a bullish or bearish pattern? This chart is just the start of my nine reasons to be bearish on risk assets. My analysis is mainly based on real-time pricing signals from the market and relies less on fundamental or macro analysis. This is a...
The Russia-Ukraine war has dealt an unexpected shock to the global economy and markets. Even as the world began an uneven recovery from the COVID Crash of 2020 and inflation pressures began to rise, the war has spiked geopolitical risk premiums and exacerbated supply chain difficulties and added more inflationary pressures. From an economic perspective,...
Did the stock market make a meaningful bottom last week? Financial markets had been taking a risk-off tone coming into the week, but when the Powell Fed was slightly more hawkish than expected, the market rallied. The S&P 500 was -14.6% peak-to-trough on an intraday basis in 2022. Ed Clissold of Ned Davis Research pointed...
Some chartists have recently become excited over the commodity outlook. Setting aside the headline-driven rise in oil prices, the long-term chart of industrial metals like copper looks bullish. Copper is tracing out a cup-and-handle pattern breakout that targets strong gains in the years ahead. Moreover, the one-and the two-year rate of change, which is designed...
Much has happened in the space of a week. In the wake of Russia's Ukrainian invasion, the West has responded with a series of tough sanctions designed to tank the Russian economy. Energy and other commodity prices have soared and this is shaping up to be another energy and geopolitical crisis. The last three episodes...
Stock market pullbacks happen. The normal equity risk of pullbacks is the price investors pay for better long-term performance. But a recent analysis by Oxford Economics found that the average S&P 500 pullback during non-recessionary periods is -15.4% and -36% during recessions. Here is why this matters for equity investors. The recent peak-to-trough...
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