George Hosfield, CFA, discusses Ferguson Wellman's quarterly strategy titled, "Inflation's Flame Flickers," which addresses the narrow market leadership, the impact of higher interest rates on inflation and how assets are priced at this stage of the economic cycle.
George Hosfield, CFA, discusses the firm's quarterly strategy titled "Stalemate," which highlights the Fed's ongoing battle to tame inflation along with our views on the health of the banking industry and capital market expectations for the balance of the year.
Director and Chief Investment Officer George Hosfield, CFA, discusses the Fed raising interest rates, peaking inflation and our view on equities and volatility across all asset classes in our Investment Strategy titled, “Balancing Act.”
Some while ago as I was preparing for my first solo overseas flight, I told a friend in the aviation industry that I disliked turbulence; the stomach-churning drops and swings were too sudden and unpredictable for my appetite.
This week, volatility returned to capital markets due to the recent emergence of the Omicron variant. Initial reports indicate Omicron shows increased transmissibility and mild symptoms, a “mixed bag” of changes over Delta. And while it will be several weeks before we see a more accurate picture of its impact on human health, capital markets immediately responded with increased stock market volatility and lower interest rates.
The Dog Days of Summer are here! In addition to the record heat waves expected to bombard the West Coast this weekend, we also await what typically occurs around this same time: equity market volatility and below average returns.
Assumed to be postulated by Aristotle, “horror vacui” roughly translates to “nature abhors a vacuum.” The financial market equivalent would be “horror incertae,” or “markets abhor uncertainty.”
While retail investors continue to be focused on negative media headlines, stocks continue to climb the “wall of worry.”
This week we experienced something we haven’t in some time: a down week. Stocks struggled to a close, down 3.8 percent with no help from blue-chip names. Alphabet (GOOGL) and Apple reports weren’t favored by Wall Street, driving the stocks down 5.2 and 4.3 percent, respectively.
Volatility returned to the markets this week with the S&P 500 declining by about one percent as investors followed political events in Washington, D.C. Interest rates were lower with the 10-year U.S. Treasury declining in yield from 2.36 percent to 2.22 percent.
As the Western states struggle with wildfires and the Southeastern states get pounded by hurricanes, the stock market quietly made new highs. The S&P rallied this week 1.4 percent, closing in on the psychologically important 2,500. Conversely, bonds felt the swing into equities with rates on the 10-year U.S. Treasury rising 13 basis points to 2.20 percent.
In a week full of geopolitical news, the market showed a bit of malaise. The S&P 500 posted a small loss of 0.4 percent. Bonds were similarly docile with the 10-year U.S. Treasury ending the week off two basis points at 2.3 percent.
Friday’s jobs numbers propelled stocks to roughly break even on the week. While the gain of 227,000 jobs in January was meaningfully above the estimate of 175,000, the unemployment rate ticked up and wage growth ticked down. The increase from 4.7 percent to 4.8 percent in the unemployment rate was due to more people entering the labor force, thus not much of a negative.
by Ralph Cole, CFAExecutive Vice President of Research
Monster Mash
No holiday better describes earnings season than Halloween. When companies announce earnings, investors are hoping for treats but often times end up getting tricks. In our view, improving corporate earnings are the catalyst to improving stock market returns in the coming year. As we close out the best month for the stock market since 2011, we should review some of the tricks and treats of earnings season.
Treat
Apple reported earnings earlier this week and beat expectations on almost every level. IPhone sales continue to grow at a robust pace around the world. The company sold 48 million iPhones in the third quarter, up 22 percent from last year. Analysts expect the company to sell 79 million iPhones in the final quarter of the year. Average selling prices of the phones continue to rise, which enhances profitability and will lead to $60 billion in free cash flow this year alone.
Tricks
As expected, the energy sector has had a rough time of it this earnings season. Earnings for the S&P 500 energy sector were expected to be down 73 percent this quarter and that indeed has been the case. During these distressing times all companies begin to dramatically scale back investment and reduce headcount. We feel that higher quality companies with good assets, low debt levels and quality management teams will benefit from the eventual rise in oil prices.
Trick and Treat
In no place is the bifurcations of earnings season more evident than in footwear. Nike reported earnings that beat analyst estimates by 12 percent and the stock responded with a nine percent pop the next day. Nike also reported a solid outlook for the coming quarters as well. Sketchers, on the other hand, tricked investors and missed earnings by a whopping 21 percent last week and the stock dropped 31.5 percent with the news.
Why have stocks responded so positively to a mixed earnings environment? Expectations for third quarter earnings had been lowered so much that companies have been able to meet and often beat those reduced forecasts. Also, the much advertised slowdown in China has not had as big of an impact on earnings as investors feared. While the investment slowdown in China has hurt some industrial companies, the Chinese consumer has actually helped the likes of both Apple and Nike.
Takeaways for the week
by Brad Houle, CFA
Executive Vice President
I had a terrible first car - a 1978 Honda Wagon. It came equipped with vinyl seats, a manual choke, AM Radio and was a shade of brown that resembled a very well-worn Buster Brown shoe from that time. Growing up in Montana, the 1978 Honda wagon also did not like to start in below zero weather. It required stomping on the gas several times and pulling out the manual choke as far as it would go. The Wagon had all of 60 horsepower which made driving up a hill or passing another car a tenuous endeavor and frequently required putting the gas pedal all the way to the floor. There was no difference in the Honda's power if the pedal was depressed completely to the floor versus let off a little. The same could be said for the Federal funds rate being effectively zero or .25 percent. There is not much difference in the impact on economic growth.
On Thursday, the Federal Reserve left the Fed funds rate unchanged, citing global growth concerns. Ultimately, this move seems to be more about the messaging to the markets rather than actually being impactful to economic growth. The Fed does not want to further upset the applecart given recent volatility in world markets by appearing too hawkish and therefore causing financial market participants to fear the Fed will tighten too aggressively.
The Fed funds rate is important as it is one of the tools the Federal Reserve has to stimulate or slow down the economy. Should there be an external shock that requires intervention, with short term interest rates at or near zero, the Federal Reserve has no "dry powder" to stimulate the economy. As such, the Federal Reserve is highly motivated to normalize interest rate policy to allow more flexibility should a crisis arise that requires them coming to the rescue.
With all the hand wringing around when the first rate hike since 2006 will occur, it is also important to remember that a rate increase is good news. It means that the economy is strong enough that the Federal Reserve wants to make certain that it does not get overheated. The labor market has finally healed from the financial crisis and our economy continues to grow.
Our Takeaways for the Week:
by Jason Norris, CFA
Executive Vice President of Research
Volatility increased this past week in most asset classes with oil being in focus. In the last two weeks, crude oil is up roughly 20 percent, its best two-week move in 17 years. While the demand picture has not changed, we have seen U.S. oil and gas companies announce major employment cuts and capital expenditure reductions for 2015. We believe that there has been some “short covering” in the market which has led to recent strength. Our belief is that by year-end, oil prices will be between to $60-$70/barrel, due to reduced supply in the U.S. In the face of this, we do believe we see some opportunity in energy stocks. While earnings continue to come down, we think we can find value in select names with strong balance sheets.
All Over the Road
As mentioned earlier, the energy complex was not the only asset class exhibiting volatility. In the first five weeks of 2015, the S&P 500 has been either up or down more than 1 percent 11 times, which is 44 percent of the trading days. To put it in perspective, last year the S&P 500 moved this much only 15 percent of the time. The chart below highlights the last five years.
Days the S&P 500 Was Up or Down More Than 1 Percent
| 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | |
| Number of Days | 96 | 50 | 38 | 38 | 11 |
| Percent of total trading days | 38% | 20% | 15% | 15% | 44% |
Source: FactSet
This year is setting up to be similar to 2011, a year that saw a lot of uncertainty due to surprisingly poor U.S. GDP growth, a U.S. debt downgrade and the European crisis coming to the forefront. All this uncertainty resulted in a flat market for 2011, but it was a rollercoaster ride. We believe the fundamentals of the U.S. economy and the recent actions of the European Central Bank leave the foundation of the global economy a little firmer. We don’t think the volatility mitigates itself; however, we do believe that equity returns will be better than 2011.
Working for the Weekend
Heading into a wet weekend on the west coast, the monthly jobs report this morning was very strong with the U.S. economy adding 257,000 jobs in January. The unemployment rate ticked up to 5.7 percent due to an increase in people looking for jobs, which is a positive for the economy. This is only a small part of the story. Job gains for December and November were revised higher by 147,000. The third leg of the stool of the January jobs report was an uptick in wages. Wages bounced back after a disappointing December, rising 0.5 percent month-over-month. With a strong labor market and unemployment close to the Fed’s target, we believe this wage growth will persist throughout 2015. This further reinforces our view that 2015 will be a good year for “Main Street.”
Our Takeaways for the Week:
by Shawn Narancich, CFA
Executive Vice President of Research
Up, Down & All Around
Hello, Volatility. After having very little of it for nearly two years, stocks and bonds rode a roller coaster this week on trading volumes that exploded to the upside. Investors were forced to come to grips with how much could have really changed in such a short period of time. In our view, not nearly as much as the markets would imply. But whatever your persuasion on the topic, what we witnessed this week is exceptional. Blue chip stock gains for the year evaporated Wednesday on nearly 12 billion shares traded and benchmark 10-year Treasuries surged on decade high volumes, all in a remarkable flight to quality bid driven by concerns about a weaker Europe teetering on the edge of recession, plummeting oil prices, and concerns about Ebola. That markets promptly reversed themselves mid-week and stocks moved back into positive territory for the year is a testament to what we believe are still solid fundamentals for the U.S. economy. Healthy levels of job growth, slowing inflation aided by lower energy prices, and newly diminished interest rates that should help extend gains in housing activity all argue for domestic economic growth of 3 percent or better in the second half of this year.
Black Gold?
Unusual markets sometimes elicit misleading interpretations, and no shortages of would-be pundits have attempted to explain a 25 percent free-fall in oil prices since the summer solstice. The Wall Street Journal, as much as we read and respect this quality newspaper, did readers a disservice by proclaiming on Wednesday’s front page banner: Global Oil Glut Sends Prices Plunging. What we observe is that developed market inventories of the black stuff now stand below five-year average levels and, despite the International Energy Agency’s recent minor 200,000 barrel/day reduction in expected global demand for this year, the world is still using more oil than it ever has.
Yes, Chinese demand growth has slowed, the U.S. energy boom has added new production to a global oil market, and OPEC member Libya’s exports have risen by about 500,000 barrels/day recently, but all the hub-bub about swing producers Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Iraq (combined export volumes = 15.5 million barrels/day) cutting official selling prices is nothing more than these countries acceding to recently lower prices on stable sales volume. Although oil demand is unquestionably tied to economic growth, which recent developments have called into question, we still see growing demand for oil tied to what we believe will be record levels of economic output globally. The lack of any smoking gun supply surge and evidence that hedge funds have been exceptionally active in trading oil contracts leads us to conclude that the downside in oil has been more about speculation than physical supply and demand. As seasonal refinery maintenance concludes and crude demand rises into winter, we expect oil prices to climb out of their hole in the low $80’s.
And They’re Off. . .!
Third quarter earnings season has begun and results from the 50 or so companies that have reported to date have been relatively encouraging. Banks like JP Morgan and Citigroup are beginning to benefit from rising loan volumes and higher trading volumes in fixed income, currencies, and commodities, while benchmark industrials like GE and Honeywell are demonstrating the ability to navigate a stronger dollar environment without reporting excessive hits to the bottom line. In part because of the industrials’ foreign currency exposure, investor expectations for earnings in this group were muted into earnings season, so decent results are being met with enthusiasm. Next week the floodgates will open wide, as hundreds of additional companies across industries come to the earnings confessional.
Our Takeaways from the Week
