There are many remarkable similarities between the 1980–1981 stock market pattern and today. Ronald Reagan was elected in November 1980 amidst a wave of partisan enthusiasm and ushered in a revolution, much like Trump. Reagan entered office with a foreign policy win, which was the release of the American hostages held by Iran. Trump enters...
The year started with a bang. Investor hopes were high on the expectation of the implementation of Trump’s pro-business and pro-growth policies, but stock prices struggled and ended last week in the red. According to FactSet, the bottom-up aggregated S&P 500 target price for year-end 2025 is 6,678.18. But in the last 20 years,...
I have warned about excessive valuation before (see 2025 Outlook: Cautious But Not Bearish). The S&P 500 is trading at a forward P/E of 22, which is elevated by historical standards. On one hand, valuation isn’t highly predictive of returns over a one-year horizon. On the other hand, elevated P/E ratios lead to lower returns...
The latest University of Michigan sentiment survey is out, consumer sentiment surged in the wake of Trump’s victory. A similar improvement in sentiment can be seen in the New York Fed’s consumer survey. In the wake of Trump’s win, it was no surprise that the partisan lean in sentiment flipped. Republicans...
As 2024 draws to a close, it is becoming clear that the U.S. equities have led the way for most of the year. The accompanying chart shows the relative returns of equities by major region against the MSCI All-C ountry World Index (ACWI). The U.S. has been the only safe-haven of growth as the economies...
This is the season when investment strategists publish their outlooks and forecasts for the coming year. This year, the message from investment banks is mostly the same: “We are bullish for stocks in 2025, but there are these policy risks of the new Trump Administration.” This time last year, I expected returns of about...
The year is nearly over and the U.S. will see Donald Trump in the White House in 2025. Ryan Detrick’s analysis of historical equity returns found that stocks historically do better in the first two years of a president who was re-elected versus a new president in office. The key question is whether Trump 2.0...
U.S. equity prices rose strongly in the wake of Trump’s victory. As the accompanying shows, both the S&P 500 and NASDAQ 100 surged on a relative basis, while other regions tanked. Donald Trump promised to Make America Great Again. While he may have accomplished that task in the short run for U.S. stocks,...
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 Trend...
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 Trend...
Goldman Sachs recently reported that the allocation to equities as a percentage of household assets had risen to levels last seen at the height of the NASDAQ Bubble. Is this an ominous sign of a crowded trade? Are investors in a crowded long that stocks are about to enter a painful 2000–2002-style bear market? ...
Mid-week market update: Further to my last post (see A buy signal setup), the 14-day RSI of the S&P 500 Intermediate Term Breadth Momentum Oscillator (ITBM) flashed a buy signal when it recycled from oversold to neutral. By the book, this is a legitimate buy signal. Under the current circumstances, I have some...
Is the U.S. progress on inflation a case of two steps forward, one step back? Even before the stronger-than-expected September CPI report, bond prices were declining in the wake of the Fed’s jumbo half-point rate cut decision. The Treasury market is exhibiting signs of anxiety from a technical analyst’s perspective. The 7–10-year Treasury ETF...
There is an adage on Wall Street that investors shouldn’t fight the Fed (or central banks in general), but the devil is in the details. Callum Thomas of Topdown Charts that global central banks are engaged in a broad-based easing campaign. The limited sample of the history of such episodes (annotations are mine) show...
Mid-week market update: Stock market price momentum has been strong, but I did warn about possible October surprises in an election year (see S&P 500 breakout or fake-out?). In particular, I highlighted the risks of a port strike and an Israeli incursion into Lebanon, both of which have become reality. Despite plenty of warnings,...
We’ve all seen the warning signs about narrow market concentration and deteriorating breadth. The S&P 500 is an accident waiting to happen. On the other hand, strategist Ed Yardeni stated in a CNBC interview that he believed we are in a “slow motion melt-up”. I agree. While the excesses in the stock market are...
The first half of 2024 was very good to U.S. equity investors. The S&P 500 was up 14.5% excluding dividends for that period. As stock market investors look forward to the second half, the first order of business will be the Q2 earnings reports, and there are a number of unanswered questions. The bulls...
Is good economic news good news for equities or bad news? We know how to interpret macro news for the bond market. The Citi Economic Surprise Index (ESI), which measures whether top-down economic releases are beating or missing expectations, has been a bit weak. Historically, a weak ESI has meant lower bond yields. ...
Perhaps you remember the late-night television commercials selling tapes and courses on how to buy real estate with no money down. One memorable character from the early 1990s ran infomercials featuring him on a yacht surrounded by bikini-clad women to emphasize how he, a Vietnamese refugee, had made a fortune from nothing. You could do...
The Dow, S&P 500 and NASDAQ Composite all achieved new all-time highs last week. It is said that there is nothing more bullish than a stock making a new high. This is not a time for caution. Higher stock prices are ahead. Here are the reasons why I am bullish. Bullish...
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