Emerging Markets: An Opportunity?

For a period of time this year, the U.S. equity market avoided the weakness that was occurring in many other equity markets around the world. October has certainly changed this though. As can be seen below, the S&P 500 Index is in correction territory now, i.e., down greater than 10% from its high at the end of September.

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Much To Like About The Economy

Recent equity market volatility has raised the question about the health of the current economic expansion. I must confess it is difficult to find too much in the way of negative news. What is important about this is the fact that a recession does not seem to be around the corner in our view. William Delwiche, CMT, CFA of R.W. Baird noted in a recent commentary, "Bear markets are almost always associated with a recession. Given the latest economic data and the leading indicators that point to further growth, the odds of recession are low." We would agree.

Following are just some of the favorable data points and charts.

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VIX Curve Moving Back Towards Contango A Positive For Stocks

The level of the VIX is one measure to gauge fear in the equity markets. When the near term VIX index is trading at a higher level than the VIX further in the future, for example, the 3 month VIX (or ticker VXV), then the VIX curve is said to be in backwardation. This is not the normal structure for the VIX curve as the VIX curve is usually in contango, meaning prices in the distant future are higher than those nearer term. For equity market volatility, i.e. the VIX, this makes sense as volatility inducing events are less predictable in the distant future versus today thus, the future VIX should be at a higher level than the near term VIX. As the below chart shows, in instances where the near term VIX is higher or significantly greater than one, this tends to occur near equity market bottoms.

As the near term VIX begins to decline or fall below the future VIX or VXV, the equity market tends to move higher. This process can take place over a several week period, but nonetheless, the equity market does tend to bottom 'near' spikes in backwardation. The recent spread between the VIX and VXV of 3.4 may have marked a near term peak in backwardation. If this is the case, the equity market may be setting the stage for a rally into year end.

Many Individual Stock Returns Are In Correction Territory

On a price only basis the S&P 500 Index remains up 3.08% year to date and up 4.66% on a total return basis. As the following chart does show, the S&P is off its late September high by 6.54%.

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Fall 2018 Investor Letter: A Midterm Election Year

There are many indicators pointing to continued strength in the U.S. economy including increased manufacturing activity, robust readings from the service sector and low unemployment levels last seen 49 years ago. Employee wages are rising, and the labor market is benefiting from the current growth in the economy. We view the low levels of unemployment and continued wage growth as a positive signal for the economy.

As we discuss in the Fall 2018 Investor Letter, history shows the fourth quarter of a midterm election year combined with the first quarter of the following year are the two strongest returning quarters for the market over the four-year presidential cycle. The start of the fourth quarter may lead investors to believe something other than the historical data though. Days into the quarter, markets have turned lower and volatility has increased to a more normal level. Although this is unsettling, the underlying economic and market fundamentals are still supportive of favorable equity returns looking ahead. As the above chart shows, the performance of the S&P 500 occurs late in a mid term year.

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

• Fall 2018 Investor Letter

Hiring Pace Continues To Lag Job Openings Growth

If job openings are an indication of the economy's strength, yesterday's Job Openings and Labor Turnover (JOLTs) report is confirmation of economic strength. Job openings reached another record high of 7.136 million. Compared to last August's openings of 6.044 million, openings are up 18.1% on a year over year basis.

The timing of the unemployment data is one month ahead of the JOLTs data, however, the number of unemployed looking for work is 1.172 million lower than job openings. This is hard evidence that labor is a scare resource at the moment. This is not the type of data output that occurs in a recessionary environment. 

Pullbacks, Fear And Opportunity

From early 2016 to early 2018 the S&P 500 Index moved higher with very little downside volatility. As the below chart shows, that stretch of time was an abnormally long one in terms of very little downside market move. One consequence of this low volatility period is many investors' began to believe the equity market does not go down. In reality, a low volatility market is not normal though. Having the market pullback between 5-10% once or twice a year should be expected by equity investors. The current decline from peak to current level is only 6.9%.

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Large Decline In Bullish Sentiment

Today's Sentiment Survey release by the American Association of Individual Investors reported a  15.1 percentage point decline in bullish sentiment. Of course this report comes one day after the 800+ drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index. Two-thirds of the decline moved to the bearish camp with the other one-third moving to the neutral category. When all is said and done, the three categories of sentiment, bullish, neutral and bearish, fall in the 30-35% range.

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A Favorable Small Business Environment

The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index for the month of September was reported at 107.9 and just slightly missed consensus expectations of 108.0 for the month. Also, the Index declined .9 points from the recording setting 108.8 reported in August. However, the September reading represents the third highest reading recorded in the 45-year history of the Small Business Optimism Index. In short small businesses remain optimistic about their operating environment.

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Equity Put/Call Ratio Approaching Overly Bearish Level

Not too long ago the concern around interest rates was the fact the yield curve was flattening and the Fed's rate hikes might end up inverting the interest rate curve by pushing short rates above long term rates. This past week though the focus seems to have shifted to a quickly rising long term 10-Year U.S. Treasury rate and a resulting steepening of the yield curve.

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Increasing Bullish Equity Sentiment And Declining Bond Prices

As of Wednesday's market close, the S&P 500 Index is up 11% on a year to date basis, while most bond strategies have struggled to breakeven at best. Longer term bonds have been the most challenged as evidenced in the below chart. The iShares 20+ year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) is down 7.7% year to date. Through Wednesday's close, the 30-year U.S. Treasury is down 11.1% year to date. Of course, as interest rates rise, longer term bonds tend to be the least favorable bond investment as prices move inversely to the move in bond yields.

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Inverted Yield Curve: Could This Time Be Different?

In our recent article, “Respect The Predictive Power Of An Inverted Yield Curve”, a colleague noted that investors ignore this highly reliable indicator at their own peril. Today, I will argue for why investors should perhaps ignore this highly reliable indicator because “it may be different this time”.

To be clear, it may not be different this time, but it is always worth considering both sides of an argument.

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Small Caps And Cyclical Stock Sectors Underperforming

During the early part of this year quite a bit was written about the outperformance of small cap stocks versus large cap stocks. One commonly referenced reason for the outperformance was based on the trade and tariff issues and the potentially greater negative impact this would have on large cap stocks. It does seem though the trade issues are slowly being resolved and this headwind subsiding for markets broadly and for the large cap stocks in particular. As a potential consequence, the small cap outperformance has completely unwound and large cap stocks, as measured by the S&P 500 Index, are outperforming small caps as seen in the chart below.

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Strong Equity Inflows

Investors directed sizable investment fund flows towards equities for the week ending 9/19/2018 as reported by the Investment Company Institute (ICI) on 9/26/2018. Total equity inflows for that week equaled $10.2 billion dollars. This completely reversed the $10.4 billion net outflows reported over the prior seven weeks that ended 9/12/2018. Bonds continue to receive inflows as well and equaled $4.3 billion in the week ending 9/19/2018. Bonds have had positive inflows in the prior seven weeks and on a monthly basis, the last net out flow for bonds was in the month of December 2016. One week does not make a trend; however, this reported flow into equities is worth watching to see if similar or at least positive flows are sustained into subsequent weeks and months.

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Equity Market Performance Before And After The U.S. Midterm Election

September this year certainly seemed like an odd month. For example, the fifth business day of the month was Tuesday, September 10 as Labor Day in the U.S. was on Monday September 3. The first business day was September 4. The end of the month is this Friday, September 28. I mention this as the Presidential cycle is getting more attention since the mid term elections are a little more than a month away. So how does the equity market perform in the second year of the presidential cycle?

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Instilling Fear In Investors Via Charts

In the mid 1990's famed investor Peter Lynch stated, "Far more money has been lost by investors in preparing for corrections, or anticipating corrections, than has been lost in the corrections themselves." With this quote in mind it seems a number of investment pundits are once again trying to sell fear regarding the current equity market. This morning I ran across the following chart on Twitter.

Source: Roosevelt Capital

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Job Openings And Quits Rising At Faster Pace Than Job Hires

The Labor Department's release of the Job Openings and Labor Turnover (JOLTs) report this morning is further confirmation of a strong labor market. The NFIB Small Business Optimism report I highlighted earlier today also noted the difficulty small business are having in filling open job positions. The JOLTs report continues to show the number of job openings exceeding the number of unemployed individuals. This unusual occurrence has been the case since March of this year. 

Also compounding hiring issues for companies is the fact the rate of job openings and job quits is increasing at a faster pace than company hires as seen in the below chart.

The next chart shows the absolute number of openings versus quits and hires and clearly openings appear to have accelerated.

The NFIB report and the JOLT report are reflective of a tight labor market with the likely result of continued upward pressure on wage inflation. The Fed will certainly take into account these tight labor market reports into future rate hike decisions.

New Record High For The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index

The National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) reported that August's Small Business Optimism Index set a new record high at 108.8. The prior high mark for the index was set 45-years ago (July 1983) when the index reached 108. NFIB's President & CEO, Juanita Duggan, stated in the report,

"Today’s groundbreaking numbers are demonstrative of what I’m hearing everyday from small business owners – that business is booming. As the tax and regulatory landscape changed, so did small business expectations and plans. We’re now seeing the tangible results of those plans as small businesses report historically high, some record breaking, levels of increased sales, investment, earnings, and hiring."

Duggan's also noted in the report that earlier in the positive trend higher in the index was the fact many of the component gains were dominated by what she calls expectations, i.e., good time to expand, expected real sales, expected business conditions, etc. Today, the highlights in the report are related to real business activity, i.e., job openings, inventory investment plans, capital spending plans, etc. This real activity data is supportive of higher GDP growth as one looks ahead. Some of this real activity data can be seen below with the noted survey components at high levels.

Small businesses are a critical part of driving economic growth and today's survey indicates the current economic expansion has further room to run to the upside.

Watch For A Peak In Consumer Sentiment

Utilizing sentiment measures in one's analysis is not an exact science. On the other hand, at their extremes, these sentiment measures do provide signals of a potential near term change in market and economic direction.  A number of 'investor sentiment' measures are available to evaluate, but I am highlighting only two below, the NAAIM Exposure Index and the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) Sentiment Survey.

As the below chart shows, the NAAIM Exposure Index reading of 98.3% is approaching overly bullish sentiment on the part of institutional active managers. Reflecting the individual investor sentiment is the green line on the chart showing AAII's percent bullish reading and it is trending higher at 43.5%, but not at an extreme. High readings for this measure are generally at levels near 50% bullish or higher.

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Respect The Predictive Power Of An Inverted Yield Curve

There are a few events in investing that have a high likelihood of being good predictors of the equity market's future direction, like, stock prices follow earnings, market breadth leads price, or an inverted yield curve leads economic weakness. One factor I believe the bears have missed in the recent market advance seems to be their discounting of the increasing strength of corporate earnings growth. The improved earnings growth picture has not only improved the market's valuation, but as the below chart shows, the faster earnings growth seems to be pulling stocks higher as well.

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