Putting the Fed’s balance sheet in perspective

Along with fiscal stimulus, the aggressive support of financial markets by the Federal Reserve (and other central banks) has been a key to the gains in risk assets since April. In our view, stock and bond prices would not be as high as they are if not for the perception that the Fed will step in with additional support if markets get too volatile. This perceived “Fed put” is on top of the ongoing bond buying programs (excluding the immediate post-COVID surge) that are currently running at a rate of about $80 billion per month for Treasuries and $40 billion per month for mortgage backed securities, though some of this replaces expiring bonds.

Tech Sector In The Driver’s Seat For US Relative Performance

In this post, we highlight the interaction of US outperformance versus the rest of the world this year and US Technology relative to Ex-US Technology.

First, the relative performance of the US equity market versus the rest of the world has been highly correlated with the relative performance of US Technology stocks relative to Ex-US Technology stocks.
Second, the outperformance of US Technology, and by extension the major US indices versus their non-US counterparts, looks likely to continue based on relative earnings estimate revisions patterns.

Does The NASDAQ-100 Correction Have Further To Go?

The NASDAQ-100 Index (often known by its ticker symbol, NDX), home to many of the mega-cap Tech-related Growth stocks that have dominated the US stock market this year, has seen some corrective action this month. A common question we hear is: is the correction enough to say the NDX is no longer “stretched” after its historic surge through the end of August?

The chart below provides some context. For four different indices, it plots the percentage difference between the current index level and its 200-day moving average, a common measure of the longer-term trend. Excessive deviations from the 200-day average are often viewed as signals of extreme investor behavior that are likely to revert back toward the average.

Growth leadership easing as rotation increases

One of the most notable market trends in recent weeks has been the corrective action in the formerly high-flying US large-cap Growth stocks. The dominant Tech-oriented companies that have been responsible for much of the gains in US large-cap indices for several months finally saw some significant selling pressure in the first two weeks of September.

The first chart below shows absolute and relative returns for the S&P 500 Pure Growth and Pure Value indices (i.e., the style indices restricted to stocks that fall entirely into their indicated style, leaving out those with weight in both indices).

Is the rebound in earnings estimate revisions peaking?

Our measures of aggregated earnings estimate revisions trends have shown some of their most dramatic movements on record this year, and now may be looking extended.

After reaching historically extreme negative readings in April/May amid the initial COVID-19 lockdowns, earnings estimate revisions activity has now lurched back up to extremely positive readings. Better-than-expected Q2 earnings reports and the effects of massive monetary and fiscal stimulus are now finally reflected in analyst earnings forecasts. However, with fiscal stimulus weakening (and little imminent sign of movement toward new stimulus) and no meaningful further scope for interest rate cuts, the “snap-back” in earnings estimate activity could soon drop off.

Unemployment is still a huge issue

The latest weekly report on unemployment claims was released yesterday and provoked mixed responses depending on how the data was (or was not) analyzed. While unemployment claims data is not a perfect measure of the national job market, it is one of the most timely measures and gives a good picture of what is going on (though long-term comparisons can be difficult). Recent methodology and seasonal adjustment changes along with reporting of state-only (not federal) claims data have caused some confusion among investors.

The S&P 500 is top-heavy, but so are fundamentals

There has been much discussion about the increasing concentration of the market cap weighted indices in the US, with the S&P 500 now showing some of the highest levels of concentration among the largest constituents in history. The top 20 S&P 500 stocks (4% of the constituents) currently comprise 38.6% of the index weight, while the top five companies alone make up 23.8% of the weight.

Negative sentiment on the dollar becoming extreme

One of the most notable trends in markets recently has been the weakness in the US dollar. After a choppy strengthening trend since early 2018 (as the Fed was tightening policy), the US Dollar Index surged in the immediate aftermath of COVID-19’s arrival in March. Since then, however, as monetary and fiscal stimulus engulfed markets and investor risk appetite returned, the dollar has been weakening versus a number of other currencies. Indeed, the dollar’s weakness has accelerated recently, and the Dollar Index has reached its lowest levels since May 2018.

Going over the fiscal cliff

As we discussed in an earlier blog post (and in our client research), much depends on the path of monetary and fiscal policy, particularly the fiscal stimulus programs put in place in response to the COVID-19 crisis in March and April.

Back in March, hopes were high that by the end of July, the trends in COVID-19 would look better and there would be less need for such aggressive fiscal support. Sadly, that has not been the case, and the markets have clearly come to expect a new fiscal package to maintain support for the still shaky US economy. The concern is that a “fiscal cliff”, i.e., a sudden drop-off in government support before the economy has regained self-sustaining momentum, will lead to a renewed bout of heavy economic weakness.

Risk on? Not really since early June

In financial markets, it seems like “everything” is going up recently. Stocks, bonds, precious metals, even Bitcoin. Perhaps that should not be surprising given the huge amount of liquidity being produced by global central banks in addition to the fiscal stimulus earlier this year. That tends to have the effect of pushing asset prices up generally.

But when we look at relative returns of some key assets, it looks more like the “risk on” trend has not really gone anywhere since early June. That is, owning the riskier option within various asset classes has not generated excess returns to compensate for that extra risk since the recent peak in risk about June 8th.