The Risk Of Dismissing The Data: The TED Spread And Baltic Dry Index

No single variable or statistic provides clear insight into the future direction of the economy or stock market. When a data point does not fit ones narrative though, justification to eliminate it seems to be gaining among some strategists. Recently, the market has seen a fairly significant spike in LIBOR and a resultant increase in the TED Spread, i.e., 3-month LIBOR minus 3-month Treasury.

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Sentiment: Investors Not Believing The Rally

This morning the American Association of Individual Investors released their Sentiment Survey showing a 3.1 percentage point decline in bullish sentiment to 24.8%. The bullish sentiment reading reported by individual investors remains below the -1 standard deviation level of the sentiment measure which is 28.3%.The 8-period moving average of the bullish reading declined as well to 29.6%. 

A vast majority of the decline in bullish sentiment showed up in bearish sentiment (+2.4 percentage point increase) with a net impact of widening the bull/bear spread to -13.5. This is the widest the bull/bear spread has been since late May when the spread was -14.8. Since that point in May the S&P 500 Index is up 5.6% on a price only basis. As individual investors continue to doubt the markets this year, they continue to move higher nonetheless.

Heightened Market Volatility Would Favor Low Volatility Strategy, But It Looks Expensive

A little more than a year ago we wrote about the outperformance of the low volatility strategy versus a more risk on/high beta strategy. At that time it was noted low volatility could persist; however, if the broader market reached new highs, the high beta strategy would likely outperform low volatility. This has essentially played out and as the calendar turned to 2016 the early year market pullback saw the high beta strategy succumb to significant selling pressure and was down 20% into the February low, almost twice the broader market's beginning of year decline. Once the market began recovering from the February low though, high beta has outperformed the low volatility strategy, 25% versus 9%, respectively.

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The Dogs Of The Dow And The Risk With Exchange Traded Notes

Three quarters through the year, the Dogs of the Dow strategy continues to be a winning one, outpacing the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Index by nearly three times. The average return of the 2016 Dogs of the Dow equals 16% versus the Dow Index return of 5.7% as of Friday's close. As noted in earlier posts, the Dogs of the Dow strategy is one where investors select the ten stocks that have the highest dividend yield from the stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Index (DJIA) after the close of business on the last trading day of the year. Once the ten stocks are determined, an investor invests an equal dollar amount in each of the ten stocks and holds them for the entire next year.

File (xls)

With the popularity of indexing, some investors have pursued the Dow Dogs strategy via an exchange traded note, the ELEMENTS "Dogs of the Dow" Linked Note (DOD). The return of this note has varied greatly from the performance of the Dogs of the Dow themselves. There are peculiarities with these types of exchange traded products investors should be aware of. More detail on the risk of exchange traded notes can be read here. Two important ones are the fact these investments are essentially bonds of the sponsor of the exchange traded note. In the case of DOD, the issuer is Deutsche Bank AG and an investor in DOD has unsecured credit exposure to Deutsche Bank AG. Secondly, the return on these notes are 'based' on some underlying index or basket of investments. In the case of DOD the ETN's return is based on the Dow Jones Select 10 Total Return Index. Because the issuer is not required to issue more shares of the ETN, the price of the ETN can diverge from the value of the underlying Index and in some cases the divergence is significant. This has occurred with DOD as can be seen in the below chart.

Year to date through early June DOD was up nearly 60% while the underlying Dow Jones Select 10 Index was up only 11.3%. As is typically the case, the large premium at which DOD traded quickly narrowed to the actual return of the underlying index.

Lastly, in this low interest rate environment, investors have a heightened focus on income generating equities. From a total return perspective though, the Dogs of the Dow strategy has had mixed results from year to year.

Transports Leading Industrials A Bullish Market Signal

As early as about six weeks ago, some technical strategists were projecting a near trigger of the Dow Theory sell signal. In short, when the Dow Industrials and the Dow Transport Indexes are in an uptrend together, i.e. higher highs and higher lows, the market is in a bull market uptrend. Conversely, when both indexes are making lower highs and lower lows, a bear market trend is in place or developing. If one sees divergence in the indices, this can be a signal of a change in direction of the market and this was occurring in July of this year when the transports were weakening.

As of the close yesterday though, the year to date return of the transport index return now surpasses that of the Dow index return as can be seen on the below chart. The transport index weakness in late July has been quickly reversed in August and early part of September.

Additionally, positive chart setups have triggered which portend potentially higher prices ahead for both indexes. For the transports an inverted head and shoulders pattern has triggered with an upside target price of about $162 and cup and handle trigger with a lower target than the inverted H&S trigger of $150. Additionally, in spite of the near sideways trading action in the Dow Industrials Index, bull flag formations are in play and are suggestive of potentially higher prices as well.

The industrial and transport segments of the market seem to be indicating an improvement in the operating environment over the next 6-12 months. If earnings prospects continue to improve, as we have discussed in earlier posts, the odds of higher equity prices over the course of the next year seem likely.

Another Month Of Equity Outflows

Individual investor sentiment continues to show a low level of bullishness and this has translated to continued outflows in equity mutual funds and exchange traded funds. Almost a month ago I noted the strong outflow from equity funds and ETFs that occurred in July and this selling trend continued in the month of August.

The outflows have caused assets in equity mutual funds to decline while equity ETF assets have increased on a year over year basis as of the end of July. The increase in ETF assets is largely due to the strong equity market returns from a year ago, for example, the S&P 500 Index is up over 12%.

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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?.