There Are Some Positive Data Points

It seems much of the news being reported on the market and the economy lately is falling in the negative category. With both the S&P 500 Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index down a little over 5% in the month of May and with only one trading day remaining, highlighting the negative news might be somewhat attributable to confirmation bias. Nonetheless all the news is not negative.

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Investors Increasingly Bullish On Stocks, But Outflows Continue From Equity Funds

This past week saw the AAII individual investor bullish sentiment move higher to 43.1%. This pushed the bullish reading above its average reading of 38.5% but still below the overly bullish +1 standard deviation level of 48.3%. The bullishness reading has been somewhat volatile of late resulting in the 8-period moving average remaining below 40% at 36.9%.

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Hiring Continues To Lag Growth In Job Openings

In the recent Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, the level of openings increased by 346,000, while job hires feel 35,000. Openings remain at a high level but began to decline starting in December last year. The fact hiring level is lagging the growth in openings is a sign companies are having a difficult time finding qualified individuals to fill open positions. This hiring difficulty is showing up in the NFIB Small Business Optimism Index survey. The most recent NFIB report noted, "22% of owners cited the difficulty of finding qualified workers as their Single Most Important Business Problem, only 4 percentage points below the record high." This strength in the employment area is one sign of a healthy business environment.

Equity Fund And ETF Flows Remain Negative

Year to date combined mutual fund and ETF fund flows show investor continue to be net redeemers of equity funds, both international and U.S. domestic equities in the amount of $30.5 billion. Conversely, investors have been net purchasers of bond or fixed income investments. The flow data shown below is reported by the Investment Company Institute with a one week lag with last week's report representing data for the week ending April 24, 2019. Lipper reports fund data as well and they show continued equity fund redemption for the week ending May 1, 2019 in the amount of -$1.8 billion.

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Economic Expansion To Continue

Consuelo Mack interviews Nancy Lazar on a recent episode of Wealthtrack. Nancy Lazar is Co Founder, Partner & Head of Economic Research at Cornerstone Macro. Nancy Lazar is consistently ranked as one of the top economist by Institutional Investor.

As covered in the interview, Nancy remains bullish on the U.S. economy and sees improvement in productivity and improvement in the labor force participation rate supporting low inflationary growth. A similar environment was in place in the 1990's. The resurgence in manufacturing and capital spending in both the manufacturing and service sectors of the economy are contributing to faster wage growth of around 5% in lower income wage levels. She calls the U.S. the "tug boat of the world that is driving global growth." All else being equal she is not seeing a recession until at least the back half of 2021.

A worthwhile interview to watch.

Dogs Of The Dow Lag Broader Market

With nearly a third of the year behind investors, following is an update on the performance of the Dogs of the Dow strategy. 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 Average 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 that portfolio for the entire next year. The popularity of the strategy is its singular focus on dividend yield.

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A High Neutral Sentiment Level Indicative Of An Indecisive Investor

Earlier this week the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) reported the results from their weekly Sentiment Survey. The report noted the bullish sentiment level was 33.5% which certainly indicates individual investors are not overly bullish. Sentiment readings are contrarian in nature so a high bullishness reading would be one cautionary factor for investors to take into account regarding the market's future direction. Even the 8-period moving average (red line below) is at a subdued level.

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The Tax Cut And Jobs Act Is Distorting 2019 Estimated Earnings Growth

With first quarter earnings season shifting into high gear (50 companies reporting the week of April 15), investors will contend with a slower pace of earnings growth in 2019 versus 2018. The difficulty is the fact 2018 earnings saw a significantly higher pace of growth due to the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) that lowered the corporate tax rate; thus, providing an earnings tailwind for companies. Analyst accounted for this tax cut benefit by revising company earnings higher as 2018 unfolded.

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Negative Equity Flows Reflective Of A Cautious Investor

A little less than a month ago I wrote a post noting weekly flows into equity mutual funds and ETF's had turned decidedly positive, and in fact were the largest inflows looking back an entire year. I rhetorically pondered if the increase in equity flows was a sign equity markets were topping, especially after such a strong start to the year. From a contrarian perspective, had investors jumped into equities near a market top, even if just an intermediate one? On the contrary, as the below chart panel shows, domestic equity flows have once again turned negative over the course of the last two weeks. If world equity flows are included, equity flows are negative for the last three weeks according to ICI data. Fixed inflows have been positive for thirteen consecutive weeks.

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Spring 2019 Investor Letter: Markets Rebound To Begin The Year

Stocks bounced back in the first quarter with the best quarterly start for the S&P 500 Index since 2009, up 13.5%, after a weak showing at the end of last year. We have said in the past that strength tends to beget more strength. LPL Research noted in a recent report that there have been ten other times since 1950 where the S&P 500 Index was up greater than 10% in the first quarter. In 9 out of 10 of those periods, the final three quarters were positive and in all 10 periods returns were positive for the year. The average gain in those final three quarters was 16.1%; however, the path was not straight and the average pullback was 11.7%.

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JOLTS Weakness, But A Month Is Not A Trend

The February Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed a drop in openings of 538,000. Commentary on the February report used terms like plunged and disaster. Admittedly, the decline in openings should not be dismissed out of hand; however, it has not been an unusual occurrence for openings to fall as seen in the below chart.

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Tactical Asset Allocation Can Add Value To Portfolio Return

A potential downside for investors employing a strict longer term strategic investment allocation based on a specific benchmark or index is that the strategy fails to incorporate shorter term tactical changes. It certainly can go without saying but indexing strategies are popular ones for investors. In fact we utilize some index products in our investment approach with our clients. The downside for investors is many investment approaches may only utilize an index approach and construct an investment portfolio based on a longer term strategic asset allocation. In other words, a benchmark is selected and the client portfolio is allocated or invested in the same weightings that comprise that benchmark.

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Economic Expansions Don't Die Of Old Age

As the end of March neared, the 3-month Treasury interest rate surpassed the 10-year Treasury interest rate and this resulted in a 3-month/10-year inversion of the yield curve, the first since 2007. This inversion has unwound as the curve has started to steepen with a move higher in the 10-year yield. At HORAN we focus more on the 2-year rate versus 10-year rate and this portion of the curve has yet to invert. Investor focus on the yield curve is due to the fact when spreads between short- and long-term rates narrow it is an indication that economic growth will fall in the future.

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Stock Buyback Boom In 2018

Yesterday S&P Dow Jones Indices reported stock buyback activity for the S&P 500 Index as of the end of the fourth quarter 2018. Highlights from S&P DJI report:

• Q4 share repurchases increased 62.8% year-over-year to a record $223.0 billion

• Total 2018 buybacks set record $806.4 billion, up 55.3% year-over-year, and up 36.9% from the record $589.1 billion set in 2007

• Almost every S&P 500 constituent – 444 – repurchased shares in 2018, up from 424 in 2017

• Apple spent the most in 2018 buybacks at $74.2 billion

The level of buybacks provided a tailwind for earnings growth in the fourth quarter as well as the entire calendar year 2018. S&P DJI notes, "the percentage of companies that substantially reduced share counts of at least 4% year-over-year rose to 18.8% (90 total issues), up from the prior quarter’s 17.7% (88 total issues) and Q4 2017’s 15.1% (70 total issues.)" The four quarter buyback plus dividend yield equaled 6.0% in Q4 2018 and up from 4.75% in Q3 2018.

Lastly, S&P DJI listed the below five companies as having the largest total buybacks in the fourth quarter,

• Apple (AAPL) led in buybacks, spending $10.1 billion in Q4 2018, down from $19.4 billion spent for Q3 2018. Its Q4 2018 expenditure ranked 19th highest historically; for the year, Apple spent $74.2 billion on buybacks, up from 2017’s $34.4 billion; over the five-year period the company spent $229.0 billion, and $260.4 billion over the 10-year period.

• Oracle (ORCL): $10.0 billion for Q4 2018, down from $10.3 billion for Q3 2018; 2018 was $29.3 billion, up $4.0 billion in 2017.

• Wells Fargo (WFC): $7.3 billion for Q4 2018, slightly down from the $7.4 billion spent in Q3 2018; 2018 was $21.0 billion, up from $10.3 billion in 2017.

• Microsoft (MSFT): $6.4 billion for Q4 2018, up from $3.7 billion for Q3 2018; 2018 was $16.3 billion, up from $8.4 billion in 2017.

• Merck (MRK): $5.9 billion for Q4 2018, up from $1.0 billion for Q3 2018; 2018 was $9.1 billion, up from $4.0 billion in 2017.

Equity Inflows Now Turning More Positive As Equity Returns Near A Peak?

The Investment Company Institute releases fund flow and ETF net issuance data on Wednesday's with a one week lag. In Wednesday's report for the week ending March 13, 2019, ICI reports domestic equity inflows spiked to $12.8 billion. This represents the largest weekly inflow since March 20, 2018 when domestic equity inflows totaled $19.1 billion.

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The FAANG Trade In Focus Again

Since the equity market peak in the third quarter of 2018, the average return of the FAANG basket of stocks, i.e., Facebook (FB), Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Netflix (NFLX) and Alphabet f/k/a Google (GOOGL), has underperformed the broader S&P 500 Index as seen below. I have highlighted the significant contribution the FAANG's have had to overall market returns in prior posts like the Growth verses Value article in 2017.  With the FAANG's return to the upside since the start of this year, the basket has resumed its outperformance and broken out of an inverse head and shoulders chart pattern (h/t: The Kirk Report).

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Record Job Openings In A Tight Labor Market

With today's release of the January Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), there is further confirmation that the job market remains tilted in favor of job seekers. As Econoday noted in their report, "employers are increasingly scrambling to fill [openings]." Even with new hires increasing by 1.5%, openings exceed hires by a record 1.78 million individuals.

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Investors Have Missed Out On The Equity Rally

From 2014 to mid-2015, investors seemed to have a favorable view on stocks if one bases the observation on ETF and mutual fund flows. As the below chart shows, the increase in S&P 500 Index until mid-2015 coincided with positive flows into domestic equity focused mutual funds and ETF's. Beginning in mid 2015 though, investor flows turned negative (maroon line.) During late 2016 and early 2017 the cumulative maroon line became less negative indicating positive flows into domestic equities, but the sharp rally from 2017 to the market's peak at the end of the third quarter of 2018 was not supported by positive domestic equity flows. In fact, domestic equity flows have been negative to the tune of -$1.5 trillion over this five plus year period.

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Cyclical Stocks Outperforming Defensive Stocks An Indication Of A Strengthening Economy?

Since the beginning of 2018, investors have encountered a stock market that is more volatile, yet at a level of volatility that is more normal. The below chart shows the return pattern for the S&P 500 Index since 1/2/2018 and the steep decline that began at the end of last September has been followed by a sharp recovery in 2019.

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Investor Sentiment Has Improved But Not To An Extreme Level

Several recent releases of various investor sentiment reports show an improvement in overall investor sentiment. In late December I noted a number of the sentiment measures were indicating extreme fear on the part of investors. Since my December post both sentiment and the equity market have experienced a marked improvement. One example is this week's release of the AAII Sentiment Survey. Individual investor bullish sentiment improved 8.1 percentage points week over week to 39.9%. In mid December the bullish sentiment fell to 20.9%. Although the bullish sentiment level of 39.9% is an improved level, it is just above the long term average of 38.5%.

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Higher U.S. Stock Prices Not Driven By Higher Domestic Equity Inflows

The end of 2018 saw the S&P 500 Index return decline over 13% as seen in the first chart below. The second chart shows the snap back in the market that has rewarded investors at the start of 2019 with the price only return of the S&P 500 Index up nearly 9%.

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Winter 2018 Investor Letter: A Tough Year For Most Asset Classes

As noted in our Winter 2018 Investor Letter, following passage of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act, the reduction in corporate tax rates caused analysts to revise their earnings growth expectations higher to nearly 24% for 2018. Given a number of positives, further upside in equity markets was anticipated in 2018. As fate would have it, not only were equity returns weak, most asset class returns were negative. Data from Lipper showed the Money Market Fund average return was 1.52% in 2018. In other words, cash turned out to be king in 2018 as can be seen in the below table.

Despite solid fundamentals heading into the year, 2018 was extremely difficult. The uncertainties faced in 2018 will likely continue to overhang the markets in 2019. However, the events that drove markets lower last year proved to alleviate some of the concerns plaguing investors at the year’s start. For example, equity valuations have declined to a more attractive level. In January 2018, the S&P 500 had become the most expensive since 2004 on a forward P/E basis. The S&P 500 Index now trades at a price to earnings ratio of about 15 times which is in-line with its historical average. Growth and inflation have moderated while staying positive, alleviating concerns of an overheating economy and aggressive interest rate increases from a Hawkish Fed. Fed chair Jerome Powell recently remarked the Fed “will be patient” as they assess the prospects of further rate hikes in 2019.

For additional insight into our views for the market and economy as 2019 begins, see our Investor Letter accessible at the below link.

• Winter 2018 Investor Letter

Dogs Of The Dow A Winning Strategy In 2018

With the 2018 investing year now closed, one strategy that turned out to be a winning one was the Dogs of the Dow strategy. 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 Average 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. The popularity of the strategy is its singular focus on dividend yield.

I have written about this from time to time and early in 2018 the Dow Dogs were underperforming both the S&P 500 Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index. This was on top of the fact the Dow Dogs underperformed the market in 2017. Through the first half of 2018 the Dow Dogs continued their lagging ways; however, a more volatile market in the second half of last year benefited the strategy and the Dogs of the Dow ended up generating a slight positive total return of .02% for 2018. This compares to a loss of 3.74% for the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA) and a loss of 4.56% for the SPDR S&P 500 Index ETF (SPY) as displayed in the below table.

Data File (xls)

Both Merck (MRK) and Pfizer (PFE) were the top performing Dow Dogs and the top performing stocks in the broader Dow Jones Industrial Average Index for 2018 as well.

As the new year begins, one new member joins the Dogs of the Dow for 2019. Entering the Dow Dogs in the coming year is JP Morgan (JPM) with a dividend yield of 3.28%. Dropping out of the Dogs is General Electric (GE) not only because of its lower yield, but GE was removed from the Dow Jones Index last year.

Long MRK, VZ, JPM

Stock Buybacks Up 57.8% In Third Quarter

S&P Dow Jones Indices recently reported preliminary dividend and buyback information for the third quarter ending 9/30/2018. On a year over year basis stock buybacks for S&P 500 companies are collectively up 57.8% for Q3 2018. For the 12-months ending 9/30/2018 total buybacks increased 39.1%. Relative to buybacks, dividends increased a much smaller 9.7% resulting in combined dividends plus buybacks increasing by 36.2% for the third quarter. Year over year operating earnings were reported up 25.8%.

The three largest buybacks were initiated by companies in the information technology sector:

• Qualcomm (QCOM): $21.2 billion
• Apple (AAPL): $19.4 billion
• Oracle (ORCL): $10.3 billion

For the quarter the top 20 companies initiating buybacks in the quarter accounted for more than half, or 54.3%, of the total buybacks of all S&P 500 firms.

In conclusion, I would prefer to see larger dividend increases which would be more of an indication that companies expect to see improved cash flow/earnings over an extended time frame. The recent tax cut is not permanent though; thus firms are likely hesitant to commit to higher dividend payments on an ongoing basis. The most significant tax cut expiration impacting businesses might be the phase out of the full expensing of equipment purchases beginning at the end of 2022. At the moment though, companies seem committed to returning to shareholders some of the cash flow benefits resulting from the tax cut.

With Abysmal Investor Sentiment A Market Bottom Might Be Near

Simply noting that the S&P 500 Index is down 12.45% month to date through the close on 12/21/2018, this pretty much sums up the damage inflicted on investors by the market. After a strong start to the year, and following a rewarding 2017, the S&P 500 index had a return of 9.62% through late September. In nearly three short months thereafter, the S&P 500 Index has declined 19.23% from its high, leaving the index down 9.61% for the year through 12/21/2018. This type of market reversal has resulted in investor sentiment turning extremely bearish.

The equity only put call ratio reached 1.13 at Friday's close. Readings above 1.0 represent an extreme bearish reading. The equity market has a tendency to reverse itself when the P/C ratio is above 1.0.

Trading volume on Friday reached a high level last seen in the market pullback in 2011. This high volume level on a down day in the market could signal a capitulation trading day. These capitulation days do not necessarily wash out on a single day; however, it is a sign a market bottom might be near.

The Fear & Greed Index reported by CNN Business is about as low as it can get at '3'. All seven of the components that comprise the Fear/Greed Index calculation are at extreme fear levels.

The NAAIM Exposure Index was reported at 31.96% this week. 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. Institutional money managers have equity allocations at a level approaching those reached during the market pullback experienced in 2015.

Lastly, as this is written, it appears a government shutdown will take place. Charles Schwab notes prior government shutdowns have not had a long lasting negative impact on equity markets as seen below.

This year has been difficult for investors long the market. In a research report I received today it was noted that of 102 Morningstar fund categories, only short term bonds/loans, municipals and one economic sector – utilities – have positive returns this year. We believe recent market action is a correction in a longer-term bull market and continued strong fundamental data will result in a recovery and resumption of this long-term trend, all else being equal, but not without continued market volatility.

Trend In Index Earnings More Important Then A Slowing Rate Of Earnings Growth

One issue strategists are highlighting of late is the fact the earnings growth rate for the S&P 500 Index in 2019 is expected to decelerate from the mid to high 20+% level this year to the mid single digit percentage level in 2019. Some have indicated this slowing earnings growth rate may negatively impact U.S. equity returns next year. Of course the strong rate of earnings growth this year is due in part to the benefit companies have received from the tax cut. In addition to the tax cut benefit though, companies are seeing top line revenue growth in the high single digit percentage level. Although earnings will remain at a higher level due to the lower tax rate, the year over year growth rate in earnings will fall back to a more normalized level next year as the earlier year comparison is a higher number.

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Steep Decline In Bullish Investor Sentiment

The American Association of Individual Investors reported sentiment data for the week ending December 12, 2018. The sentiment survey reported the largest change in the difference between bullish and bearish sentiment since April 11, 2013. The swing in the current week equaled -35.4 percentage points.

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Tight Labor Market A Headwind For Business Sentiment

Although the November NFIB Small Business Optimism Index remains at a high level of 104.8, today's report is the third consecutive decline in the optimism index. The index high of 108.8 was reached in August of this year.

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Investment Fund Outflows Dominate

The most recent flow data for ETF's and mutual funds reported by ICI last week notes outflows occurred in nearly all of the broad asset categories. One exception was a small positive flow into commodity oriented investments.

 Source: ICI

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Trying To Make Sense Of China/US Trade Issues

What seems to be influencing the market the most at the moment is the trade issues with China and the U.S. Jeff Miller who writes at the Dash of Insight blog published a short article yesterday that seems to get to some of the main issues surrounding trade and the equity markets. A couple of highlights from the article follow, but the entire post is a worthwhile read. Jeff notes the market's reaction is,

"a typical example of the trading community’s failure to understand politics, negotiation, and compromise. I have highlighted this before on issues like Greece and the asserted collapse of Europe and concerning various US policy debates."

He notes further,

Here is what to expect:

• Decades of history will not be reversed in a few months. Be happy for some progress.

• The outcome will be a compromise. It will not be a complete success for either side, but each will trumpet what they have accomplished.

• Nothing big will happen until the last minute. This is the way that partisans demonstrate they have accomplished as much as possible.

• Eventual relief on the most important reciprocal tariffs.

• Some progress on the intellectual property issues.

• Some immediate relief on existing boycotts, e.g. soybeans.

The entire post can be read here: China/US Trade – Finding a Signal Amidst the Noise

GM Restructuring News Not A Sign Of A Slowing Economy

Today General Motors (GM) announced a restructuring that will cut 14,000 positions and the possibility of closing five auto manufacturing plants. Some headlines attributed the restructuring to an economy that may be slowing. However, when one reviews the data that comprise new sales of automobiles and light trucks, the exact opposite conclusion is drawn. A divergence has developed in the sale of cars versus light trucks that is clearly evident when one looks at unit sales volume in the below chart. Since 2014 a noticeable turn in interest has occurred toward the light truck category and away from the automobile category. In other words, it appears GM is responding to market forces and focusing the future of the company on the light truck market.

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Low Level Of Bullishness Means Equity Market Bottom Maybe Near

Investor sentiment continues a trend of turning less bullish. Today's Sentiment Survey report from the American Association of Individual Investors noted individual investor bullish sentiment decline 9.8 percentage points to 25.3%. Neutral sentiment declined 1.3 percentage points with the result that bearish sentiment rose 11.2 percentage points. The net result is the bull/bear spread of -21.8 pp is the widest since the spread reached -29 pp in February 2016.

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Institutional And Individual Investors More Bearish On Equities

At the end of October the American Association of Individual Investors reported individual investor bullish sentiment was 28.0%, one standard deviation below the bullishness average. Sentiment measures are contrarian ones and are most actionable at their extremes. October's reading was certainly not an extreme level; however, the reading was at a low level of bullishness for the individual investor sentiment measure. Since the January market high, the bullishness reading has vacillated between +26% to +45%, with a level in the mid teens being an extreme.  Today's reading of 35.1% bullishness falls within this range, as does the 36.2% 8-period moving average.

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Small Business Continues To Be Highly Optimistic

Today's NFIB Small Business Optimism Index was reported at a strong 107.4, down only 1.4 points from the Index's 45-year August high. According to the NFIB report for October,

"Small business optimism continued its two-year streak of record highs. Overall, small businesses continue to support the 3%+ growth of the economy and add significant numbers of new workers to the employment pool. Owners believe the current period is a good time to expand substantially, are planning to invest in more inventory, and are reporting high sales figures. Seasonally adjusted, 30 percent of owners think the current period is a good time to expand substantially, citing the economy (72%) and strong sales (14%)."

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Dollar Defies The 7-Year Cycle

Historically the U.S. Dollar has had a tendency to exhibit strength over a 7-year cycle. In July of this year the Dollar strength cycle crossed into its eighth year though, as seen in the below chart.

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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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Yet To Break The Bull Market Record

I have been a bit lax in writing blog posts as client and investment responsibilities have taken precedence. On a day like today though, I feel compelled to type out a blog post recognizing today's record breaking bull market, or is it?

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Near Record Small Business Optimism

As I review and highlight business and consumer optimism, I feel as though my thoughts are a bit like a broken record that plays the same song over and over again. With that, another business optimism survey is highly positive. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) reported that small business optimism rose to the second highest level in the indexes history. The optimism index level of 107.9 was only .1 points lower than the record high reading reached in July 1983.

Having difficulty filling open job positions seems to be a common theme in these optimism and confidence surveys and today's NFIB report is no different as it is noted,

"The July 2018 report also set new records in terms of owners reporting job creation plans and those with job openings. A seasonally-adjusted net 23 percent are planning to create new jobs, up three points from June. Thirty-seven percent of all owners reported job openings they could not fill in the current period, a one-point increase from June (emphasis added.)"

Another category contributing to business optimism is the fact top line revenue growth remains robust. The report shows that "July is the eighth consecutive strong month of reported sales gains after years of low or negative numbers. A net 35% of owners expect better business conditions, ticking up two points from June."

All in all this is another strong confidence report. Historically, recessionary periods do not occur until several years subsequent to peaks in the NFIB index and other economic data suggests further economic growth ahead. 

Is Korea Equity Market Weakness A Precursor To Weakness In U.S. Markets?

About a year ago I provided an update on the Korea Stock Exchange Index (KOSPI) and the fact it can serve as a leading indicator to U.S. equity market performance. As noted in that earlier post, I referenced noted economist, Ed Hyman of Evercore ISI, who believes the KOSPI index is a leading indicator of the global economy as South Korea's exports account for over 40% of the country's gross domestic product. In other words, the KOSPI Index performance is a reflection of the health of the global economy. Also worth noting is the largest sector weighting in the KOSPI index is the technology sector, accounting for over 40% of the index weight. The below chart compares the KOSPI index, in US Dollars, to the S&P 500 Index. Since early June the performance of the KOSPI Index has diverged to the downside versus the S&P 500 Index. Even with the KOSPI priced in Won a similar divergence is seen.

Some of the weakness may be attributable to investors reducing emerging market positions in ETFs like the iShare MSCI Emerging Market Index (EEM) as Korea remains classified as an emerging market country and makes up about 14% of the index. China is the largest weighting at 32%. The EEM ETF has experienced outflows of nearly $5 billion since June 1. Last week though, EEM had inflows of about $178 million.

Some of the weakness in the Korean market might be related to tariff issues. The Trump administrations comments about increasing tariffs on more Chinese exports is being felt in other Asian countries. However, economically, the Korean economy is continuing to expand, but higher tariffs could have a negative spillover impact on their economy.

Another Highly Optimistic Business Owners' Survey

Many of the consumer and business sentiment surveys continue to be reported at or near record levels. I highlighted a few of these high level optimism surveys last month in a post titled, Sentiment Is Widely Positive. Earlier this week Gallup released the results of the quarterly Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index and Gallup noted, "small business owners are more optimistic than at any point in the 15-year history of the Index." The index level high of 118 surpasses the prior high of 114 reached in 2006.

The interviews for the survey were conducted in mid July so it does account for any issues surrounding trade and tariffs. If record high optimism is any indication, business sentiment around the trade issues seems much less worrisome at the moment than the headlines from news commentary may be suggesting.

As I have recently noted in earlier articles, the job market is tight so it is not surprising business owners mention finding qualified workers as their biggest challenge. The survey notes,

"The Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index includes an open-ended question asking small-business owners to name the most important challenge facing their businesses. In the current update, owners remain more likely to say that hiring poses a greater challenge than any other single issue, with 18% citing this as their top concern. Hiring is the only issue cited by at least 10% of owners."

Sentiment Measures Not At Extremes

Keeping in mind sentiment data is contrarian in nature and most predictive at its extremes, today's American Association of Individual Investors Sentiment Survey report shows bullish sentiment increased over seven percentage points to 36.36%. The plus and minus one standard deviation levels for the bullishness reading are 48% and 28%, respectively. Although the bullishness reading jumped higher in this week's report, the reading remains below the average reading of 38%. In order to minimize the weekly volatility often the 8-period moving average is evaluated as well. This week the 8-period moving average continued moving lower to 33.3% and is represented by the red line on the below chart.

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A Tight Labor Market Evidenced By Declining Jobless Claims

Further evidence of a tight labor market is seen in today's decline in weekly jobless claims to 213,000. This was the first decline in the last three weeks and the 4-week moving average of initial claims continues its trend lower. This report coincides with Tuesday's JOLT report that shows job openings continue to exceed job hires as well. Jobs are plentiful at the moment.

Job Openings Continue To Exceed Job Hires

Today's June Job Openings and Labor Turnover report once again shows job openings exceed the number of hires for the month by 1.0 million. This continued trend higher in openings versus hires is a sign employers continue to have difficulty filling open positions.

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A Strategy Based On Stock Buybacks Continues To Underperform

It seems one key focus of recent commentary has been the buyback activity by companies due to the cash flow benefit resulting from the tax cuts passed late last year.

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François Trahan: Cycle Peak Leading To Change In Leadership

François Trahan, Co-Head of Portfolio Strategy at Cornerstone Macro, and named #1 in portfolio strategy in 8 out of the last 10 years by Institutional Investors Magazine, recently sat down for an interview with Consuelo Mack on WealthTrack. Whether one agrees or disagrees with his perspective, it is important insight to include in one's evaluation of the market. Much of François' investment thesis centers around his belief that the economic cycle has peaked.

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Is The Value Style Really In Favor Now?

It seems as though I have written a dozen or more articles on the value versus growth style during the current economic cycle. The extent to which growth has dominated has certainly been a little surprising. For most of the the equity market's upward move since the bottom of the financial crisis, the growth style of investment has dominated as seen in the below chart.

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Small Caps Beginning To Exhibit Weakness

Just returned from a week vacation on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and attempting to catch up on market events from last week as I stayed relatively disconnected from technology. The family drove from Ohio to the Outer Banks and if the traffic on the way there, as well as activity on OBX has any economic significance, the economy is strong.

Confirming this strength were a few economic reports last week, durable goods and GDP. Although the headline durable goods orders of 1.0% missed expectations of 3.2%, strength was seen in core capital goods and unfilled orders. Core capital goods rose .6% and exceeded the .5% consensus expectation. Overall this is a strong report. Then on Friday the advance estimate of second quarter GDP was reported at an annual rate of 4.1%. The last 4%+ GDP print was Q3 2014 when the rate was 4.9%. According to the Commerce Department on the Q2 2018 GDP report, "The acceleration in real GDP growth in the second quarter reflected accelerations in PCE and in exports, a smaller decrease in residential fixed investment, and accelerations in federal government spending and in state and local spending. These movements were partly offset by a downturn in private inventory investment and a deceleration in nonresidential fixed investment. Imports decelerated." The weak economic report for the week was a miss in the existing home sales report which have now been soft for three consecutive months. This is something to keep an eye on.

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Hard To Find Much Bad News

One could certainly say the current economic expansion is long in the tooth, i.e., second longest on record. As we also wrote in our summer Investor Letter, the headlines on news reports seem a lot worse than reality. Personally, I stopped tuning into the daily television business shows not too long ago as news headlines seem disconnected from actual economic and business results. Simply looking at some of the economic and business reports today:

• Initial jobless claims are at their lowest level in nearly half a century, being reported at 207,000.

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Consumers Are Buying

If there is one takeaway from today's advanced retail sales report it is the consumer continues to buy. On a year over year basis total retail sales increased 6.6% as of the end of June. For the month, the actual increase was .5% and met consensus expectations. A large positive in the report was the .5% revision higher in May's .8% increase to a 1.3% increase. In Econoday's release covering the report they note,

"What's striking is that autos were very strong in both June and May, up 0.9% and 0.8% respectively, with restaurants really showing unusual acceleration, up 1.5% and 2.6% in the two months. Gains here point to new confidence among consumers and are consistent with the strength underway in the labor market."

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Individual Investors Like The FANG's ex Alphabet

From time to time I review the top 10 stocks that are attracting the interest of members of Better Investing (BI). BI reports the information based on a review of transactions from the company's club accounting website as well as separate member transaction reports. The list has become a little less technology dominated since my last report in March this year. The FANG's ex Alphabet (GOOGL) continue to draw investor interest though. The only top 10 stock seeing net selling activity is Gilead Sciences (GILD)

Full File (xls)