The latest BoA Global Fund Manager Survey shows that respondents believe the biggest tail-risks to be inflation and its effects on the bond market. Are these worries overblown? How will these concerns affect asset prices? How transitory are inflation pressures? Recently, there has been a spate of reports about rising supply...
As the markets remain in risk-on mode, readers should be aware of several lurking risks that may appear from the FOMC meeting. Undoubtedly, Powell will repeat his dovish mantra that the Fed is a long way from neutral and policymakers are focused on the labor market. Nevertheless, here is what I am watching: ...
Jerome Powell's Congressional testimony last week made the Fed's position clear. Monetary policy will remain easy for the foreseeable future. Inflation dynamics change, but not on a dime. While Fed policy will leave short-term interest rates anchored near zero, the market's inflation expectations have been rising. Last week, the 10-year Treasury yield briefly breached 1.6%...
There has been some recent hand wringing over Warren Buffett's so-called favorite indicator, the market cap to GDP ratio. This ratio has rocketed to new all-time highs, indicating nosebleed valuation conditions for the stock market. Worries about this ratio are overblown. Here's why. Dissecting market cap to GDP Let's begin by...
Jens Nordvig recently conducted an unscientific Twitter poll on the FOMC's action at the December meeting/ While there was a small plurality leaning towards a "steady as she goes" course, there was a significant minority calling for another Operation Twist, in which the Fed shifts buying from the short end to the medium and long...
What's on the calendar this week? Did you forget? Oh yeah, there's an FOMC meeting this week, and there's the November Jobs Report on Friday. While not much policy change is expected from the Fed this week, Barron's has already anointed Jerome Powell as "the winner". (Has anyone started to call him the Maestro...
The global economy seems to be setting up for a strong recovery. We are seeing a combination of easy monetary policy, slimmed-down supply chains, and a rebound in consumer confidence. The cyclical and reflation trade is becoming the consensus view. However, there may still be time to board that train. Futures positioning in...
The world is changing, but it changed even before Trump's COVID-19 news. In the past few weeks, a couple of key macro trends have reversed themselves. The US Dollar, which large speculators had accumulated a crowded short position, stopped falling and began to turn up. In addition, inflation expectations, as measured by the...
As the FOMC conducts its two-day meeting after its big reveal of its shift in monetary policy, Fed watcher Tim Duy thinks that we won't get much more in the way of details from the Fed after this meeting: The odds favor the Fed maintains the status quo at this week’s meeting. It does not...
It has been over a week since Jerome Powell's virtual Jackson Hole speech in which he laid out the Fed's revised its updates to its Statement on Longer-Run Goals and Monetary Policy Strategy after a long and extensive internal review. There were two changes. one was a shift towards an "average inflation targeting" regime, where the...
This is war! A global war against the pandemic. Analysis from the IMF showed that government debt levels have spiked to levels not seen since World War II. How will the world win the peace in a post pandemic era, and what does that mean for investors? A hopeful view Morgan Housel...
The coronavirus has imposed both a supply shock and a demand shock to the global economy. The supply shock was in the form of disruption to supply chains as factories were shuttered. The supply shock has largely been corrected. The demand shock was in the form of a loss of demand as lockdown and stay-at-home...
Mid-week market update: It can be difficult to discern the market's short-term outlook on an FOMC meeting day, but the Fed has spoken, and the market reaction has important signals for equity investors from an inter-market, or cross-asset, analytical basis. The first important signal comes from gold prices. Gold staged an upside breakout to a...
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...
There has been a recent continuing controversy about the usefulness of forward P/E as a valuation tool in the current recessionary environment. On one hand, past bear markets have typically bottomed out at a forward P/E ratio of 10, with a low of 7 (1982) and a high of 14 (2002). FactSet's reported market rating...
We are continuing our coverage of earnings season during these turbulent times. With 90% of the index having reported, this will be the final earnings monitor of the Q1 earnings season. This week, we are seeing greater additional signs of stabilization, but companies are digging for the long haul. Let's begin with the big picture....
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...
This crisis has so far gone through two phases of market psychology. The first phase was panic, as it became apparent that COVID-19 had become a global pandemic, and economies around the world were shutting down. Stock prices rebounded during the hope phase, supported by a flood of fiscal and monetary stimulus, and the hope...
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...
In the past few weeks, a number of investors and strategists have turned bullish. I would like to address the reasoning for the bull case for equities, and the risks to the reasoning. History shows that recessions are bull market killers, and bear markets do not resolve themselves this quickly without a prolonged period of...
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