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.
Global Technology: still outperforming, but is it expensive?
Much of the attention in equity markets has been focused on the Technology sector, many of whose constituents are reporting Q2 earnings now. The Technology sector has outperformed dramatically both in the US and globally in recent years as well as for the year-to-date. This has raised questions about whether the sector is “overowned” and overvalued, particularly given its unusually high weighting in the S&P 500 index now.
Relative volatility risk in US small-caps remains high
Among the various asset allocation decisions for which we provide guidance to clients is whether to favor small-caps or large-caps (i.e., the “size” factor) within the US equity market. In our view, small-caps do not reliably outperform large-caps consistently over time (as some models and studies might suggest), and instead view the “size premium” (outperformance of small-caps) more as a cyclical phenomenon that tends to show up under certain macroeconomic and market conditions.
In case you need a refresher course, it’s all stimulus these days
Much has been made about the divergence between the path of the US (and global) economy and that of the stock and corporate bond markets. Even while economic and earnings growth is historically weak and remains under severe pressure from a rapidly spreading virus, major stock market indices have rallied and are at or near all-time highs. Market valuations based on forecasted earnings over the next 12 months have clearly risen sharply.
Global risk appetite measures slipping recently
Stock prices globally have remained unusually buoyant in the face of well-known health and financial risks. Thanks largely to aggressive global monetary and fiscal stimulus starting in March and still going on (though arguably fading), risk appetite jumped dramatically following the severe but relatively brief sell-off from late February to late March.
Most recently, however, several metrics of global risk appetite that we track have either plateaued or weakened. This coincides with a reduction in the pace of central bank activity and growing uncertainty about further fiscal stimulus programs, especially in the US. It also coincides with the recent turn higher in the growth of COVID-19 cases in the US and globally.
Earnings uncertainty still extremely high going into Q2 reporting season
As Q2 earnings season gets underway, the level of uncertainty about future earnings among analysts remains extremely high. Despite somewhat calmer equity market activity recently, our data shows that the level of disagreement among analysts regarding earnings over the next 12 months (NTM) is still well above the highest levels reached in the Great Financial Crisis (2008-09) period (chart below).