Sentiment At Some Prior Equity Market Peaks

Not long ago I was ask to compare current sentiment data provided by the American Association of Individual Investors with the market sentiment levels reached near the peak of the technology bubble. Going a little further, below is a chart showing the individual investor Bull/Bear Spread near or going into the peak of the technology bubble and the peak reached just prior to the financial crisis.

As the above chart shows, the bull/bear spread pre-technology bubble was a wide 45 percentage points. In the lead up to the financial crisis the bull/bear spread equaled 26.5 percentage points. In this week's report from AAII,  the bull/bear spread is only 12.5 percentage points.

The sentiment data is a contrarian measure and is most actionable at its extremes. Clearly, as the next chart below shows the current bullishness level of 38.7% is far from an extreme level, in fact the current bullishness level equals the long run average reading for this measure.

During the technology bubble, when the bull/bear spread was at 45%, the bullishness level was a high 75%. Going back to 1987, this is the highest bullishness reading reported by AAII. Pre-financial crisis, the bullishness level in October of 2007 reached 55%. So currently, from a sentiment perspective, individual investors are at least indicating they are not overly bullish. Looking at sentiment in a vacuum then would indicate the market is not at a top. Of course time will provide the answer, but investors do not seem overly exuberant.

Manufacturers' Optimism At Record High Too

Last week I noted the NFIB Small Business Optimism Index reached the second highest level in its 45 year history. As a follow on, the National Association of Manufacturers released their Second Quarter Outlook Survey today and reported manufacturers' optimism registered 95.1%, the highest level ever recorded in the 20-year old survey.

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A Little Perspective And Balance Would Be Useful

Much of what has been discussed on financial news networks over the course of the past several days has centered on tariffs and the escalation into a potentially larger trade war. This is the type of negative news that the media enjoys pounding into its readers and listeners. Of course one should not put their head in the sand about potential consequences of an all out trade war, which we believe will not unfold though. To date the amount of product being impacted is just .25% of our economy. Adding some balance to the tariff discussion and the broader impact to the markets would be helpful. The one outcome I heard repeated today is the Dow Jones Index return is now slightly negative for the year. What about some of the broader indices though?

Below is a year to date chart showing the return of several indices and ETF's that represent the S&P 500 Index, the S&P Midcap Index (IJH), the S&P Small Cap Index (IWM) and the MSCI Emerging Markets Index (EEM). Clearly, all is not bleak. The small cap index is up 10.85% this year through the close on 6/19/2018. The nearly half year return for midcap stocks is a respectable 5.52% and the S&P 500 Index remains up 3.33%. Emerging markets have been the weak link and partially due to the tightening monetary policy in the U.S which I discuss a little later.

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Small Business Optimism: 2nd Highest Level In 45-Year History

Today, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) reported the May Small Business Optimism Index increased to the second highest level in the survey's 45-year history. The May reading increased 2.6 points versus the April reading and exceeded the high end of the consensus range.

Econoday reports:

"the rise in optimism among small business owners was broad-based, with 8 of the 10 components of the index showing improvement. Contributing to the overall gain were plans to increase inventories, which rose 3 points to a net 4 percent, earnings trends, rising 4 points to net 3 percent and a survey record, plans to make capital outlays, up 1 point to a net 30 percent, and expected credit conditions, which rose 1 point but remained negative at a net minus 5 percent."

Four out of last seven highest NFIB readings have occurred in the last eighteen months. As the below chart shows, historically, 1-year subsequent returns for the S&P 500 Index have generally been strong following high levels of small business optimism. Going forward I will include tracking of the equity market's performance based on this new high reading as well.

Another Look At Growth Versus Value

Writing blog commentary serves as a permanent record of one's thoughts at a specific point in time. When reflecting back on earlier posts, expectations and conclusions do not always unfold in the market or economy as anticipated and written about at that time. The benefit is one can adjust future thinking and conclusions if necessary. Sometimes events occur that one simply could not anticipate and the events result in a change of direction in the market. All investors would benefit in tracking how they arrived at their investment decisions..

It seems over the last few weeks there has been much written about the outperformance of growth stocks versus value stocks. The extended outperformance of growth over value has pushed the relative valuation to a high for the growth style and a low for the value style and was referenced with a chart in the June monthly presentation by State Street Global Advisors. The below chart is a slightly different version but shows the higher relative valuation of large cap growth versus large cap value at this point in time.

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One Chart Will Not Predict The Next Recession

I had the fortune to read an article yesterday, Uh-oh: Unemployment Falls Below 4%, that noted,

"On each occasion that the unemployment rate sank beneath 4%… recession was soon on tap. To remind, it now rests at 3.8%. But why should recession rapidly follow peak employment?"

The article included the below chart and provided several reasons that would seem to justify the fact a recession is near when the unemployment rate is below 4%. Often times these scary or miracle charts are highlighted in an attempt to scare investors out of the market.

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Record Levels Of Strength In Economic Sentiment Reports

As regular readers of this blog know, from time to time I opine on investor sentiment whether it is the AAII Sentiment Survey, the Investor Intelligence Advisors' Sentiment report or the NAAIM Exposure Index. At the moment, suffice to say that these 'investor' sentiment reports are neither overly bullish or overly bearish and conclusions drawn from them are most useful when the data are at extremes. Below is a chart of last week's bullish reading from the AAII Sentiment Survey and its current reading falls between + and - the one standard deviation levels.

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Only The Good News

As seems often the case, it is the bad news that leads headlines and garners the attention of those interested in digesting news reports. In the current economic environment though it seems somewhat difficult to promote the bad news when there seems little of it. I am not saying there is no bad news, but much of the news today that is related to the market and the economy is decidedly positive, however, from my perspective this good news does not seem to get much press. So, below are highlights of some of the positive news that may be of interest to investors.

The Consumer:

The consumer segment accounts for 70% of economic growth and post the financial crisis in 2009, the consumer seems in very good shape.

• debt payments as a percentage of disposable personal income is lower than the pre-financial crisis level and below the level at the beginning of 1980.

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Potential For A Stronger Second Half In Stocks

Seems as though much has taken place in the first five months of this year that is newsworthy and impactful to the markets, i.e. Iran, North Korea, tariffs, an increasing 10-year yield, and I could go on. With the volume of news flow though, the equity market has essentially traded sideways this year with the S&P 500 Index price return equaling just 1.78%.

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Dollar Strength Leads To Large Cap Stock Outperformance

A recent strengthening of the US Dollar has some investment commentary now favoring small cap stocks over large cap stocks. This is partly due to the earnings headwind that can negatively impact multinational companies as they convert foreign earnings back into the Dollar. One recent report titled, Rising Treasury Yields And Dollar Completely Change Investment Themes, noted:

"The resumption of the bull market has taken shape in the form of small caps. I fully expect that the rest of the market will follow suit eventually, but rising treasury yields and the surging dollar have money rotating feverishly into smaller companies and that relative strength is likely to continue."

In the below chart, a downward trending red line indicates small cap stocks are outperforming large cap ones. In 2018 small cap stocks have outperformed large cap stocks while the US Dollar Index (DXY) has risen from below 90 to almost 94.

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