Higher Oil Prices Must Contend With Too Much Inventory

Crude oil prices spiked above $50/bbl in early June and have fallen back to $47/bbl as of Friday's close. The high $47 level remains above the early August low of $39.52. Further weakness in oil prices is likely as a result of stubbornly high crude oil inventories (excl. the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.) On Wednesday last week, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported weekly inventories increased 2.5 million barrels and is a reversal of the 2.5 million barrel decline in the prior weekly report. Not that one or two weekly reports tell the entire story, but, as the below chart shows, inventories remain at very elevated levels and prices are not likely to move higher until this elevated inventory is reduced.

Source: Art Berman

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Income Focused Investments Continue To Show Weakness

Janet Yellen's Jackson Hole comments on Friday did not do any favors for the performance of income focused investments. The Fed chairman's comments($) led market participants to believe a rate hike for September is back on the table and at least more likely in December. The rate hike fear continues to put downward pressure on income focused investments which some investors view as bond substitutes. So far in the month of August the SPDR Dividend ETF (SDY), the iShares US Real Estate ETF (IYR) and the SPDR Utilities Sector ETF (XLU) are all underperforming the broader S&P 500 Index. Also, for the month of August these three ETFs are showing negative total returns with XLU down 2% on Friday alone.

The site, ETF.com, reported the utility sector ETF was among the top 10 ETFs experiencing outflows for the week, withdrawals totaling $263 million.

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What A Difference A Day Makes: The Calendar Roll

The S&P 500 Index was essentially flat today, down .06%; however, an investor's one year price only return will increase over three full percentage points from last Friday's close to today's close. For an investor invested in the S&P 500 Index, Friday's (8/19/2016) one year price only return equaled 7.28% and one day forward to Monday's close, the investor's one year return increases to 10.74%. The reason for this is the calendar rolling forward one day, weekends result in some nuances, and August of last year was a volatile month to the down side for the market and this is contributing to the magnitude of the change in return.

This same impact is resulting in large spikes in the one year rolling return for energy as energy prices were in the upper $30 range versus today's $47.41. As time moves forward to year end, energy was falling into the mid $20/bbl area and if oil prices stay near current levels, the year over year price increase will be significant, nearly a doubling of the price of oil.

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Some Favorable Market Technicals But Awaiting A Resumption Of Earnings Growth

For the better part of a month the S&P 500 Index has traded in a very narrow range. Some strategists believe the market has come too far too fast since the June low and a correction is necessary before the market moves higher. We have noted from time to time that corrections can occur in price, i.e., a decline or in time, i.e., trade sideways for an extended period. At this point in time it appears the S&P 500 Index is attempting to go through a corrective phase by trading sideways over time. Of course, the length of time required to qualify for a correction over time is unknown. I believe one key determinant for this market is earnings over the course of the next four quarters which I will discuss later in this post.

One positive indicator on the above chart is the On Balance Volume indicator. The OBV measures volume on up days and volume on down days and accumulates the data over time. It is the trend of the OBV line that is important. If the line is trending up, trading volume is higher on up days versus down days and is an indication of buying demand. Up until this week equity fund and ETF flows were strongly negative. In Lipper's fund flow report earlier this week it is noted investors turned more favorable towards equities as equity flows turned positive with money market flows a negative $20.8 billion. The Money Flow Index (MFI) in the above chart is a volume weighted version of the Relative Strength Index (RSI). The MFI is not at a level indicative of an over bought market and similarly, the RSI is not at an over bought level either as can be seen in the below chart.

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Highlights From S&P Dow Jones Indices Dividend Aristocrats Update

S&P Dow Jones Indices recently provided an update on the performance of the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index compared to the S&P 500 Index. It should be noted the Aristocrats index is an equally weighted index that is rebalanced quarterly. Index members are determined annually based on December year-end information with changes effective at the end of the subsequent January. I have written about the importance of dividends a number of times on this blog and this recent S&P update verifies the important role dividends play in an equity's total return. This post will provide some highlights from the S&P report and readers are encouraged to read the entire research paper.

Although dividends have accounted for a smaller percentage of the the total return for the S&P 500 Index over the past several decades, dividends remain an important component due to the favorable impact dividends have on compounding. As the below chart shows, since 1929 dividends have accounted for over one-third of the return of the S&P 500 Index.

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Individual Investors Still Love Apple

From time to time I review the most active stocks by individual investors as compiled by Better Investing Magazine. I last updated the list in March and the two stocks that dropped off of the most active list from that time are Under Armor (UA) and Netflix (NFLX). The new additions are Wells Fargo (WFC) and Southwest Airlines (LUV). Apple (AAPL) has remained at the top of the list as far back as January 2015. Below is the most recent active list.

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Should Investors Worry More About A Bond Or Stock Market Correction?

A great deal of commentary over the past few days has focused on the recent equity market trifecta, i.e., the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 Index and the Nasdaq Composite Index all hit new all time highs on the same day and the heightened potential for an equity market correction. Over the past week or so, LPL Financial Research has published some good analysis around the broad index participation in new highs and potential future market outcomes. Since 1980 12-month rolling returns have been positive 76.5% of the time. As the below table shows, when the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit all time highs on the same day, the 12-month forward return is positive 75% of the time and averages 11.9%. I would recommend readers read the LPL article.

Source: LPL Financial Research

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History Suggests Record Equity Market Highs Do Not Mean Investors Should Sell Stocks

In late January and then in mid February I wrote posts noting our firm's positive view on the equity markets (here and here). It was a difficult position to take at the beginning of the year with the market in decline. As of the close today. and the first time since 1999, the S&P 500 Index, the Dow and the Nasdaq hit highs on the same day. Both the Dow and S&P 500 Index are up nearly 7% year to date. A number of high profile (often bearish though) investors/strategists are calling for a severe market correction. Knowing foresight is never perfect, should individual investors get out of equities now? History does not guarantee the future; however, the future tends to rhyme with the past.

LPL Financial Research published an interesting report today that addressed the question of, should an investor sell everything? Included in the report is a brief discussion on sentiment as well. A couple of worthwhile bullet points from the report:

• There have been 40 other times the S&P 500 was up more than 6% for the year with 100 days to go (like 2016), and incredibly, the rest of the year is up 5.3% on average and higher 90% of the time.

• Thus, a strong start to the year has led to even stronger returns for the rest of the year.

• What about the full-year returns? Only once in history has the S&P 500 been up more than 6% with 100 days to go and finished red, and that was in 1929 (emphasis added).

The equity market will certainly experience some pullbacks; however, the positive economic data noted in earlier posts along with some not so bullish investor sentiment today, suggests this market seems to want to trend higher into year end.

Buyback Index Trails Broader S&P 500 Index

In an article earlier today I noted how corporate buybacks over the last two plus years have far outpaced U.S and foreign investors' outflow from equity investments. This strength in buybacks has not translated into outperformance for these buyback firms relative to the S&P 500 Index though. As the below chart shows, the cumulative total return performance of the Powershares Buyback Achievers ETF (PKW) has lagged the cumulative total return of the S&P 500 Index during the last two years. As background, the US BuyBack Achievers Index is comprised of US securities issued by corporations that have effected a net reduction in shares outstanding of 5% or more in the trailing 12 months.

The underperformance became more pronounced beginning in the fourth quarter of 2015. Comparing the two year results above with the one year returns shows the S&P 500 Index has returned 6.29% versus -.43% for PKW over the last 12-months. One headwind that has faced buyback focused investors is the yield differential on the buyback index versus say the iShares Select Dividend ETF (DVY). The yield on PKW is 1.4% and DVY has a yield of 3.0%. In this environment where investors prefer income, PKW's yield is even lower than the S&P 500 Index's yield of 2.1%. Historical stock buyback activity can be found at my post, Stock Buybacks Up Double Digits In First Quarter.

Most Everyone Is Bearish On Equities Except Companies

Last Friday the S&P 500 Index closed at its daily high of 2,182.87 and this equated to a 20.6% advance since the February 11th intra-day low. In spite of this strong advance from the February low and a price only return of 6.8% this year, most investors remain bearish on stocks.

• This bearishness has translated into equity outflows of mutual funds and ETFs with bond investments capturing much of the inflows.

Source: ICI

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Jobs Were The Missing Link?

The equity market's reaction to the above consensus job report today would make one believe the only missing link in the economic recovery was today's job's report. The 255,000 increase in nonfarm payrolls exceeded the consensus of 185,000 and the top range of 215,000. The end result is the S&P 500 Index was able to breakout of its sixteen day trading range.

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Oil And Equity Price Trend Conundrum

A part of the anticipated improvement in forward earnings for the S&P 500 Index is an improvement in the energy sector. The health in the energy sector has spillover into other sectors of the market like the industrial sector that sells into the energy space. Of late, however, oil prices have pulled back significantly from over $50/bbl in June and dropping below $40/bbl yesterday. This decline in price can be directly attributable to the elevated supply of crude.

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Income Oriented Equities Lag In July

In a few recent posts I have discussed the elevated valuation of dividend growth equities. It would appear bond investors have gravitated to the anticipated safety of equities that generate dividend income greater than can be found in the low rate bond market. The extended valuation of these income equities/sectors may result in investors being surprised in the event the market does encounter a pullback. In fact, August and September tend to be the the poorer performing months for stocks.

Just as the "sell in May' mantra has yet to play out this year, maybe the much anticipated August/September weakness becomes more discussion than reality. And given all the concern about this late summer weakness, in July, investors seemed to rotate out of the so-called safe income stocks and into the higher beta, more cyclical equities. As the below chart shows, the income oriented equity market segments underperformed the broader S&P 500 Index and the PowerShares S&P 500 High Beta ETF (SPHB).

From a sector perspective, the more defensive sectors in the S&P 500 Index lagged the more cyclically oriented ones as well. Energy has its own issues and the other bottom three performing sectors in July were Consume Staples, Utilities and Telecommunications. On a year to date basis the performance of these three sectors remains strong; however, Technology, Materials, Health Care and Industrials generated strong returns in the month of July. An important factor for continued strong performance in the cyclically oriented sectors is improved earnings.

 

In Thomson Reuters This Week in Earnings report, they note,

"312 companies in the S&P 500 Index have reported earnings for Q2 2016. Of these companies, 72% reported earnings above analyst expectations, 12% reported earnings in line with analyst expectations and 16% reported earnings below analyst expectations. In a typical quarter (since 1994), 63% of companies beat estimates, 16% match and 21% miss estimates. Over the past four quarters, 70% of companies beat the estimates, 9% matched and 21% missed estimates. In aggregate, companies are reporting earnings that are 4% above estimates, which is above the 3% long term (since 1994) average surprise factor, and in line with the 4% surprise factor recorded over the past four quarters."

Absent the energy sector, overall earnings appear to be on an improving trend. With respect to the energy sector, year over year comparisons will become easier starting with the third quarter.

Given the tight range the S&P 500 Index has traded in over the last two weeks, a break to the upside or downside will certainly occur. Historically, these tight trading ranges tend to resolve themselves to the upside. Having noted this, a little consolidation of the market gains since February would be healthy and not a surprise given the upcoming weak seasonal market months. And finally, investors chasing yield in stocks need to be cognizant of the rich valuations of these stocks and recent rotation may indicate some investors are figuring this out.

Sentiment: Bullish Institutions Versus Bearish Individuals

This week's NAAIM Exposure Index was reported at 101, only the fifth time the exposure index has been reported above 100 since the index's inception on July 5, 2006. The NAAIM Exposure Index consists of a weekly survey of NAAIM member firms who are active money managers and provide a number which represents their overall equity exposure at the market close on a specific day of the week, currently Wednesday. Responses are tallied and averaged to provide the average long (or short) position or all NAAIM managers as a group.

Conversely, today individual investor bullish sentiment, reported by the American Association of Individual Investors, fell four percentage points to 31.3%. This is below the long term average of the bullish sentiment reading of 38.5%.

The individual investor sentiment measure is considered a contrarian one as individual investors tend to be the most bullish near market tops and the least bullish near market bottoms. So, if this is the case, and institutions tend to be on the bullish or right side of the allocation debate, are these two readings indicating the market has more room to move to the upside?

Below is a table comparing the prior NAAIM readings above 100, the AAII individual bullish sentiment reading and the subsequent one year return for the S&P 500 Index. Although the number of NAAIM readings is small, the subsequent 12-month return for the S&P 500 Index has averaged a low double digit positive return when NAAIM readings were above 100.

Lastly, the S&P 500 Index has traded within a very tight 1% trading range for the last eleven trading days. From a positive standpoint, markets can correct in price (a steep decline), or over time. This sideways trading range may be one where a correction is occurring over time. The obvious questions is whether the market breaks to the upside or to the downside.

Additional commentary, and an interesting one, highlighted by Ryan Detrick, CMT of LPL Financial, on the market level and whether or not it is in a bubble can be read in an research report, Is the S&P 500 in a Bubble?.

Weak Investor Sentiment Yet New Equity Market Highs

Today the S&P 500 Index closed at another all time record high. This higher advance in the market is becoming a regular occurrence as this is the fourth consecutive week for the market to close higher on a weekly basis. From the market's intraday low on February 11th, the S&P has advanced over 20% on a price only basis.

The magnitude and trajectory of the move higher is seen more clearly on the daily chart below.

Somewhat interesting is the fact individual investor bullish sentiment as reported by the American Association of Individual Investors is far from indicating excess optimism. This week's bullishness reading of 35.43% was a decline from the prior week's reading of 36.87%.  The long term average bullishness level is 38.5% and bullish sentiment has not exceeded this level since early November of last year.

So given the strength of this move in the market since February, and reviewing some of the technical market indicators, a pullback would not be surprising. However, in a June 2nd article I posted, Is It Right To Be Bullish Near A Record Market High?, I noted:

"Being bullish after a double digit market decline seems a lot easier than being bullish near market tops. Knowing the market does not move up or down in a straight line, are there factors we see that would support higher equity prices? In the intermediate and long run, we believe fundamental company and economic factors are key drivers of stock price returns."

Our view that company and economic data will continue to remain favorable is unchanged from early June.

Lastly, Ryan Detrick, a strategist at LPL Financial, provided a link to one of his firm's recent research reports, Is an Overbought Condition Necessarily Bad for the Stock Market?. This research article is a worthwhile read for investors. The conclusion might surprise some readers. In the end, the market will not move higher in a straight line; however, this longer term trend seems to be a friendly one for investors at the moment.

Summer 2016 Investor Letter: Searching For Yield

In our just published Summer 2016 Investor Letter, we explore the investor's pursuit of income generating investments. In our view this has led to extended valuations in some of the income yield segments of the equity market, for example, utility stocks. If interest rates do remain lower for longer then the extended valuations in the income yielding sectors could remain elevated. The Investor Letter contains broader commentary on this topic.

Our last newsletter mentioned the potential issues surrounding the U.K.'s potential withdraw from the European Union (Brexit). Just a few weeks ago the voters in the U.K. spoke at the ballot box and voted to leave the EU. We wrote separate commentary on Brexit in the days following the vote; however, we include additional highlights in the Summer 2016 Investor Letter on the Brexit topic and more.

For additional insight into our views for the market and economy, see our Investor Letter accessible at the below link.

• Summer 2016 Investor Letter

A Look At Projected Sales And Earnings Growth

In spite of the S&P 500 Index trading sideways for most of the last 18 months until very recently, the advance from the financial crisis low has been strong. A part of the return generated from equities has been the fact the forward P/E multiple has expanded from low double digits to just over 17 times earnings.

In a low interest rate environment stocks tend to trade at higher P/E multiples. The current forward multiple on the S&P 500 Index is certainly not low; however, the current forward P/E level is not giving off a signal of overvaluation either. Importantly, going forward, we believe growth in stocks will need to be driven by growth in earnings since a large part of the return from multiple expansion is behind us.

Not only is earnings growth obviously important, company revenues need to see growth as well. As the below chart shows, expectations are pointing to stronger earnings growth as one looks one year into the future and top line sales are expected to grow as well. We believe the equity market's strong recovery from the February low earlier this year is partly due to the improved outlook for corporate earnings and revenue growth. The equity markets seem to be anticipating this better environment.

In a post written a few days ago, Value Stock Outperformance May Indicate Stronger Economy Ahead, I highlighted the fact analysts are projecting Q2 2017 (one year forward) earnings growth of 15.3% for the S&P 500. Equally important, the top line is anticipated to return to growth as well.

Lastly, the market recently broke out of its 18-month trading range on a near parabolic move to the upside. It would be nice, and expected, to see the market consolidate some of these gains, but positively, selling volume does not seem to be taking hold.

Value Stock Outperformance May Indicate Stronger Economy Ahead

Over the course of the past few years several times I have touched on the significance of the value versus growth stock performance cycle. A couple of the earlier articles contain useful information for investors that provides insight into the economic cycle being telegraphed by the value/growth cycle. In short, in a slowing economic environment, growth tends to outperform value and the opposite tends to occur when the economy is strengthening. Value has been outperforming growth this year.

In the March 2014 article, Why It Matters That Value Stocks Are Outperforming Growth Stocks, value's outperformance peaked around April of that year and growth went on a nearly two year run of beating value. The backdrop for this reversal from value to growth is provided in the just noted article, but economic data began to rollover. In an article early this year, Is The Value Style Outperformance Sustainable?, detail is provided on the trend reversal in 2014 from value back to growth as well as value's strength now.

Fast forward to today and the iShare equivalent of the S&P 500 Value Index is outperforming the S&P 500 Growth Index, 9.21% versus 4.79%, respectively. A significant factor contributing to value's strength is the investor focus on income producing equities in a world where bond rates are low, near zero and in some cases below zero. The below graphic compares the sector weights of the S&P 500 Value and Growth indices. The two top performing sectors this year are telecoms, up 24% and utilities, up 22%. Combining these two sectors, telecoms plus utilities, they have a weighting of 11.2% in the value index and only 1.3% in the growth index. Additionally, in each of the six top performing sectors, value's sector weighting is greater than in growth's.

Positively, the next three best performing sectors, energy, materials and industrials, tend to be economically sensitive ones. And, if one believes the equity market serves a bit like a weighing machine, the better performance in these three sectors may just be anticipating a better economic environment ahead.

Friday's industrial production report for June of .6% was better than the high end consensus expectation. The report contained many positives signalling an improving manufacturing sector, retail sales exceeded expectations (.6% vs .1% consensus) and jobless claims of 254,000 were lower than the 265,000 consensus.

With earnings projected to improve as one looks one year forward and economic activity just maybe swinging more positive, there remains the possibility that value's outperformance might last more than just a few quarters this time around. The one concern is the overvaluation of some of the income yielding sectors like utilities; however, investors may still find attractive values in the the more economically sensitive sectors.

Market Breaks From Trading Range While Sentiment Measures Remain Mixed

The S&P 500 Index has recovered all that was lost in the two day selloff following the Brexit vote. Since the Brexit low, the S&P 500 Index is up over 8.5% and this has taken the index out of its 18+ month trading range. As the below chart shows, the trading range goes back to the end of 2014 and up until this week, the only breakout from the range had been to the downside.

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Dividend Payers And Dividend Focused ETFs Post Strong Returns YTD

A few prior posts have provided detail and potential consequences facing dividend focused equities given their extended valuations. Of course, in a low (and going lower?) interest rate world it seems the simple approach an investor can pursue is just buying a stock that has a higher yield than the 10-year U.S. Treasury. S&P Dow Jones Indices recently reported on the average performance of the dividend and non dividend paying stocks in the S&P 500 Index. Maybe no surprise, but the payers are swamping the non payers this year and over the last twelve months as of June 30, 2016. As the below table details, the payers have outperformed the non payers by 728 basis points year to date and by 1,142 basis points over the prior twelve months.

Also, the strong performance of the dividend payers is evident in several of the dividend focused ETFs. Below is a chart of the SPDR S&P Dividend ETF (SDY) and the iShares Select Dividend ETF (DVY) plotted with the S&P 500 Index.

• SDY seeks to replicate the performance of the S&P High Yield Dividend Aristocrats. SDY's projected income yield is 2.3%. Notable sector weights in SDY are Utilities (31%) and Financials 14%.

• DVY's performance is focused on replicating the Dow Jones Select Dividend Index and has a projected yield of 3.0%. Notable sector weights for DVY are Financials at 24% and Utilities at 15%.

Both of these ETFs are up by mid teen percentages this year through Friday's close as can be seen in the below chart.