US Dollar Influencing Oil Prices

Nearly two years ago four factors were influencing the energy market and specifically the price of oil. 

• Oil inventory in the U.S. hit a record high
• The price of crude (West Texas Intermediate or WTI) reached a post financial crisis low
• Rotary oil rig count hit a record low of 404
• The trade weighted value US Dollar hit a post financial crisis high

The fact oil inventory spiked is partially attributable to technological advancement in drilling and specifically, increased supply from fracking activity. The subsequent low level of drilling activity that began a few years ago contributed to the supply decline. Today, the rig count has once again moved higher and the oil market may be seeing a potential bottoming of the supply decline, yet oil prices continue to move higher as seen in second chart below.

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Spring 2018 Investor Letter: Noise Versus Fundamentals

In one brief quarter, the equity market goes from experiencing virtually no volatility to seemingly +/- 2% swings on a daily basis. Last year was a bit abnormal and more a year of consistent returns and minimal drawdowns. In fact, the largest drawdown was just 3%. The market has already experienced a 10% drawdown in 2018. In our Spring 2018 Investor Letter we note the fact the first quarter broke a string of nine consecutive positive quarters for the S&P 500 Index. Investors have been fortunate by the length of this positive cycle, however, recent experience can often lead one to expect “more of the same.” This expectation or behavior is referred to 'recency bias' and we discuss its implication for investors in our Spring Investor Letter along with our firm's thoughts for the coming year.

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

• Spring 2018 Investor Letter

Tariffs, Stocks And Recessions

One truism investors know well is the fact the stock market does not perform well in a recession. The recent focus on implementation of tariffs on the U.S.'s largest trading country, China, have some concerned about escalation into an all out trade war and leading to an economic slowdown or recession. Google web search on the term 'Tariffs' has moved higher with the March 1 peak coinciding with the  rebound peak for the S&P 500 Index around the same time.

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Not A Unique Equity Market: Higher Prices Ahead?

About a year and a half ago I wrote a post on the current equity market that broke out of a thirteen year trading range in 2013 and compared it to the bull markets of the 1950s and 1980s. A number of policy issues being pursued today have similarities to ones in those two decades and below is a brief summary of what I wrote then:

"...potential commonality to the current market compared to those prior decades related to policy decisions coming out of Washington, D.C. In the 1950's the Gross National Product in the U.S. more than double from 1945 to 1960. Government spending in the 1950's was targeted at construction of the interstate highway system, building of schools and an increase in military spending. In the 1980's President Reagan's policies focused on reducing the tax burden on Americans, lowering government regulation and shrinking government itself. President Elect Donald Trump also projects to implement similar policies, i.e., reduce regulation, shrink the government, increase spending on infrastructure and lower taxes. For investors the question to answer is what market segments worked then and might these same sectors outperform early in a Trump administration."

An update to a chart in that earlier post is shown below and in spite of the size of the 'point' swings in the market today, the path of this current bull market is not unique. If history is any guide, and given similar policies out of Washington as in the 1950's and 1980's, the S&P 500 Index certainly appears to have more room to the upside. In fact, the market maybe nearing a point of a sustained upside move.

One thing investors experienced in the first quarter was a return of volatility to the equity markets, and the bond market for that matter. Wednesday's market action was a perfect case in point as the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded down over 500 points near the open yet closed up 230 points, a trading range of more than 700 points. The catalyst for the market swing seems to be connected to the discussion around tariffs and the potential negative implications resulting from the tariff negotiations. I stress 'negative' as most of the tariffs have not been instituted, yet it is the unknown that can cause difficulty for the equity markets.

I can list a number of additional potential negative issues with any single one being a headwind for the equity market: rising interest rates and consequent flattening yield curve, growth in deficit spending out of Washington and more. All but the interest rate factor are mainly political events and I would say business fundamentals and economic fundamentals remain more important variables for the market right now. Given some of the negative factors cited, just maybe the market will climb the proverbial wall of worry.

I am not recommending burying one's head in the sand regarding some of these potential headwinds. What is important though is not to place out sized weight on the 'noise' at the expense of underlying fundamentals. Importantly, policies being pursued today have similarities to policies implemented in earlier decades and those policies were bullish for stocks then.

A More Challenging But Normal Equity Market

Before I left for a week of vacation at the end of March, the equity markets had begun to exhibit a higher level of volatility. This seems to occur more often than not around this time period each year. This heightened volatility was to the downside and I wrote a post before leaving town noting this was more typical market action. What has been so abnormal about the equity market over the past five years is the fact nearly every calendar quarter since 2013 has generated a positive return. As the below chart shows, prior to 2013, this was certainly not the case.

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Recent Equity Market Weakness A Symptom Of A More Normal Market

This past week was certainly a difficult one for the market and by default, a difficult one for investors. Most of the weakness occurred on the last two days of the week, which resulted in the week's return for the S&P 500 Index ending at a negative 5.98%.

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Improved Earnings Growth Expectations Broadly Reduce PEG Ratios

Before passage of The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in December, earnings growth for the S&P 500 was expected to be low double digits in calendar year 2018. Since passage of tax reform, a significant improvement in earnings growth expectations has occurred. The below table shows I/B/E/S earnings growth expectations in October by sector and for the S&P 500 Index compared to expectations as of the end of last week.

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Near Record Small Business Optimism

Today the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) reported small businesses are showing unprecedented optimism. The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index was reported at 107.6, the second highest reading in the 45-year history of the Index. The highest reading recorded was 108.0 in 1983.

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Bond Yield To Stock Yield Spread Sufficiently Wide To Challenge Stock Returns

A little over a year ago I noted the yield on the 10-year Treasury surpassed the dividend yield of the S&P 500 Index. With rising bond yields, there becomes a point when the bond yield is sufficiently high relative to the yield on stocks that bonds can challenge stock returns. In that earlier article I referenced a research article written by CFRA Research's Sam Stovall and titled, Rising Prices, Shrinking Yields. In the research article it was noted prospective stock returns became most challenged when the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury exceeded the dividend yield of the S&P 500 Index by at least one full percentage point, i.e. 100 basis points. The forward return at varying spreads is detailed below.

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Individual Investors Favoring Technology Stocks

Periodically I review the most active stocks individual members of Better Investing indicate they are purchasing. A notable feature on the current list is the fact technology related stocks are dominating member purchases.

Full File (xls)

Additionally, after the market's close on Friday, I posted a tweet noting Fidelity customers' top purchases. Again, technology stocks are gaining the interest of Fidelity's individual investors.

With both the technology sector SPDR (XLK) and the Nasdaq Index both achieving record highs on Friday, one might believe the technology sector is getting over heated. The interest in technology has led to acronyms for various groups of stocks, with the most familiar being the FAANGs, representing Facebook (FB), Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Netflix (NFLX) and Google (GOOGL), now known as Alphabet. As the below chart shows, the technology sector in the S&P 500 Index accounts for 25.2% of the index weighting and is approaching the technology bubble peak of 32.9%. One major difference today though is the fact the valuation of the technology sector holdings is not even close to the bubble peak valuation. At the height of the technology bubble in 2000, the technology sector P/E equaled 82 times trailing earnings. Today, the trailing technology sector P/E is 23 times earnings.

In spite of the fact a few technology or technology related stocks trade at higher P/E multiples, the valuations are far from bubble levels seen in 2000.

Sentiment And Economic Data Laying The Foundation For Higher Stock Prices

The headline number of an increase of 313,000 in February's non-farm payrolls this morning was big. This is the largest monthly increase since July 2016. The high end of consensus estimates was for a 230,000 increase in payrolls. December and January reports were also revised higher.

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Trade Deficit And Tariffs: It Is Complicated

President Donald Trump's announcement that he is instituting tariffs on imported steel and aluminum came as a surprise to some although reducing the trade deficit was one of his campaign promises. Dealing with the trade deficit issue is a complicated one since no one factor impacts trade. What is complicating a necessary discussion at the moment is the vitriol in which President Trump's tariff proposal is being discussed. For example, the media repeated commentary that the market would collapse once President Trump signed the tariff executive order; yet the S&P 500 Index closed almost .50% higher today.

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Rising Interest Rates A Headwind For Dividend Paying Stocks

Since July 2016 the yield on the 10-year US Treasury Note has increased from 1.32% to nearly 3% today. This doubling of longer term interest rates is creating a headwind for dividend paying stocks resulting in their underperformance versus their non-dividend paying counterparts as well as the broader S&P 500 Index.

The maroon line in the below chart represents the total return for the S&P 500 Index divided by the total return for the iShares Select Dividend ETF (DVY), When the maroon line is moving higher, the S&P 500 Index is outperforming the iShares Dividend ETF. Clearly the broader S&P 500 Index has been outperforming the dividend payers since July 2016. The blue line on the chart represents the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury Note and it is not a coincidence that the dividend payers are underperforming just as the 10-year Treasury yield began to rise in July of 2016.

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Sentiment And Economic Data Mostly Positive

A colleague and I just returned from a week long trip in south Florida visiting some of our clients on both the east and west coast of the state. One notable factor was the very high level of activity everywhere we visited. Restaurants were all packed, road traffic was unbelievably jam packed and the number of semis on the road seemed higher than usual, and usually those trucks do not drive around empty. We visited a new golf course development and the activity was anything but recessionary like. The bottom line is sentiment is highly positive and supports recent economic data releases focused on sentiment and economic indicators.

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Continuing To Favor U.S. Large Cap Stocks Over U.S. Small Cap Stocks

With the passage of tax reform, one market segment one might believe experiences an outsized benefit to earnings is U.S small cap stocks. This certainly seems plausible due to the fact smaller companies tend to have less direct exposure to foreign revenue; therefore, likely generating most of their profits in the U.S.

Our firm exited completely the U.S. small cap space in late 2013 based on a number of factors, with one being the relative valuation of small cap stocks versus large cap stocks. Reviewing the relative valuation of small caps versus large caps based on price earnings ratios has certainly turned to favor small over large as can be seen in the chart below.

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Small Businesses Remain Highly Optimistic

Tuesday's report by NFIB on small business optimism for the month of January places the reading in the top five highest coming in at 106.9. According to NFIB the response to "Now Is A Good Time To Expand" was 32% and is the highest level for this category in the Indexes 45-year history. Today's strong NFIB report comes on the heals of a record level of optimism in 2017. NFIB President and CEO, Juanita Duggan noted,

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Enhancing Investment Results By Utilizing An Investment Mentor

In a recent article, Strong Hands - Bridging the Behavior Gap, by Pim van Vliet, PhD, a Managing Director at Robeco Institutional Asset Management, it was noted that,

"the average mutual fund investor lags a buy-and-hold strategy by -1.9%. This finding is persistent across different styles, varying from -1.3% for value investors to -3.2% for growth investors. Also 'passive' investors in market funds underperform a buy-and-hold strategy by a whopping -2.7%."

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Dow Dogs Struggle Early In 2018

The Dogs of the Dow of 2018 include two newcomers, General Electric (GE) and Procter & Gamble (PG). These two stocks made the list of top 10 dividend yielding stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index for 2018 and replaced Boeing (BA) and Caterpillar (CAT). Unfortunately the new additions are weighing down the performance of the Dow Dogs so far this year as they are the worst performing stocks out of the ten Dow Dogs year to date through Friday's market close.

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Last Week Was The Beginning Of An Equity Market Returning To Normality

Some are saying last week's market movement is one for the record books. I have seen descriptions noting the market decline was unprecedented or the market is in turmoil. S&P Dow Jones Indices Indexology Blog titled a post, I'm Exhausted, but outlines data that places the market decline in perspective. One data point in S&P's post,

"Keeping perspective, as repeatedly noted, while 1000 point declines make for frightening headlines, the percentage changes represented by those moves are not uncommon. To wit, there have been nearly 300 daily 4% or greater moves since the DJIA’s inception. Put another way, 3 of the top 10 worst point drops on record occurred during this recent spell; none of them, however, come anywhere near the worst percentage."

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A Reversal In Bullish Investment Sentiment

I have often written that sentiment measures are most valuable at their extremes. Also, they tend to be most representative of potential market turning points when the extreme is at the bearish end of the spectrum. However, in hindsight, it appears recent excessive bullishness for individual investors and institutional investors indicated a cautionary equity market outlook would have been profitable.

The first chart below represents individual investors' bullish sentiment responses as reported weekly by The American Association of Individual Investors. On January 4 of this year bullish sentiment spiked to near 60% and represents a high level for this reading. About a month later, the 8-period moving average reached near 51%, also a high level for the 8-period average, although the average has exceed 60% in the past. 

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