Boom
A month after the announcement of the first highly effective COVID-19 vaccine, positive momentum is building. Potentially game-changing vaccines, a new round of government spending, and continued, pedal-to-the-metal monetary policy are nurturing a boom environment as we end a most challenging year.
While COVID-19 cases grow globally, and in the wake of the election, it is easy to lose track of market trends. In no particular order, here are a set of observations about recent trends worth noting.
Observations:
- The value of all U.S. stocks is nearing $42 trillion, or 2 times the whole economy’s size ($21 trillion GDP).
- High risk is running rings around safety. The highest risk stocks in the S&P 500 are up 26% in the past month, while the safest stocks were up 2% (based on the S&P 500 High and Low Beta Indices). Meanwhile, long-term Treasury bonds and gold are down 1% and 6%, respectively.
- Equity analysts are racing to increase their earnings forecasts. Analysts expect $165 of S&P 500 profits over the next 12-months, up from $140 last spring. The $165 figure is still short of the pre-COVID level of $180. Nevertheless, if the current pace continues, full recovery by winter’s end seems likely.
- The yield curve is steepening, pointing to a growth pickup ahead. The yield spread between the 10-year U.S. Treasury and a 3-month T-Bill rose to +90 basis points (+0.9%) last week. Last February, the spread was negative -25 basis points (-0.25%).
- Corporate credit spreads, an indicator of market worry over defaults, tightened to 240 basis points (2.4%) for Baa-rated corporate bonds over U.S. Treasury bonds recently. Sectors such as travel, which suffered most in 2020, are seeing large jumps in bond prices.
- Inflation expectations are heating up. The long-run inflation rate priced into Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) is near 2%, above 1.7% levels pre-COVID.
- Industrial metals prices are surging, rising 13% in November alone and up over 50% from March. The increase likely reflects pent-up demand and shortages in early-stage production processes.
- The U.S. dollar continues to weaken. The dollar index is down about 10% against most major currencies as global investors assess prospects for new fiscal spending, deficits, and ongoing monetary easing.
While these facts, in normal times, would call for the winding down of stimulative policies, there is no such move afoot today.
Final Thoughts
These observations paint a picture vastly different from a few months ago. While COVID-19 cases are rising, markets remain forward-looking, and are seeing better things ahead. In some ways, a boom mentality may be emerging as COVID-19 vaccines are rolled out, new fiscal measures are likely to be enacted, and central banks keep their foot on the gas.
We do worry that, at some point, high stock and bond valuations could assert themselves, putting downward pressure on asset prices. Historically low interest rates, coupled with high stock valuations — particularly among high growth / high momentum market segments — could come back to haunt investors. Unwinding ultra-accommodative policies and reconciling high valuations are likely to be challenging issues in 2021-2022.
For now, the path of least resistance is up, and markets are booming. And with good cause. Promising vaccines for COVID-19 are expected to be deployed very soon. Highly effective and rapidly developed vaccines have the potential to thwart a significant threat to the global economy. There is more work ahead, but markets say that we appear to be on the right track.
S&P 500 — The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index is a capitalization-weighted index that is generally considered representative of the U.S. large capitalization market.
The S&P 500 High Beta Index measures the performance of 100 constituents in the S&P 500 that are most sensitive to changes in the market. Constituents are weighted relative to their level of market sensitivity, with each stock assigned a weight proportional to its beta.
The S&P 500 Low Volatility Index measures performance of the 100 least volatile stocks in the S&P 500. The index benchmarks low volatility or low variance strategies for the U.S. stock market. Constituents are weighted relative to the inverse of their corresponding volatility, with the least volatile stocks receiving the highest weights.
Disclosures:
WCA Barometer – We regularly assess changes in fundamental conditions to help guide near-term asset allocation decisions. Analysis incorporates approximately 30 forward-looking indicators in categories ranging from Credit and Capital Markets to U.S. Economic Conditions and Foreign Conditions. From each category of data, we create three diffusion-style sub-indices that measure the trends in the underlying data. Sustained improvement that is spread across a wide variety of observations will produce index readings above 50 (potentially favoring stocks), while readings below 50 would indicate potential deterioration (potentially favoring bonds). The WCA Fundamental Conditions Index combines the three underlying categories into a single summary measure. This measure can be thought of as a “barometer” for changes in fundamental conditions.
Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (S&P 500) is a capitalization-weighted index that is generally considered representative of the U.S. large capitalization market.
The S&P 500 Equal Weight Index is the equal-weight version of the widely regarded Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, which is generally considered representative of the U.S. large capitalization market. The index has the same constituents as the capitalization-weighted S&P 500, but each company in the index is allocated a fixed weight of 0.20% at each quarterly rebalancing.
The Washington Crossing Advisors’ High Quality Index and Low Quality Index are objective, quantitative measures designed to identify quality in the top 1,000 U.S. companies. Ranked by fundamental factors, WCA grades companies from “A” (top quintile) to “F” (bottom quintile). Factors include debt relative to equity, asset profitability, and consistency in performance. Companies with lower debt, higher profitability, and greater consistency earn higher grades. These indices are reconstituted annually and rebalanced daily. For informational purposes only, and WCA Quality Grade indices do not reflect the performance of any WCA investment strategy.
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