Eq: Total Market
(New York)
For the better part of a decade now, major socio-political disruptions never seem to rattle markets. Think back to Occupy Wall Street, the events in Hong Kong over the last year, or the protests in the US over the last week. The question is why? The main reason is that historically speaking—think the entire 1960s and up through the 1992 riots—markets and the economy were never particularly affected by social unrest in the months following big social disruptions/protest.
FINSUM: Essentially the argument here is that there is no precedent for needing to worry about social unrest. That approach only makes sense until protests do cause a big problem.
(New York)
Goldman Sachs put out a pretty serious statement today. The bank said the surprising and “unloved” rally since stocks bottomed in March will not continue. The bank thinks that the market has set very high expectations for the recovery, and that waters are currently troubled with China. Furthermore, the huge gains have largely been driven by 5 stocks, and their needs to be much broader-based price increases for the market to rise. This will be tricky because the other 495 stocks in the index are more economically-sensitive. “Broader participation in the rally will be needed for the aggregate S&P 500 index to climb meaningfully higher. The modest upside for the largest stocks means the remaining 495 constituents will need to rally to lift the aggregate index”, said the bank.
FINSUM: This makes complete and total sense and helps explain why the rally has slowed in recent weeks.
(New York)
Morgan Stanley put out a very direct research report this week. In it, it tells investors which stocks they definitely should not buy. The bank selected 22 “Secularly Challenged Stocks” which it says no one should own right now. Here is a selection: Alcoa, AMC Networks, Abercrombie & Fitch, CenturyLink, Macerich, Cheesecake Factory, H&R Block, Michael’s, and Molson Coors Beverage.
FINSUM: A lot of names one would expect here, but some that are a bit of a surprise. We certainly would not want to own Macerich given the state of commercial retail real estate, but CenturyLink would not seem nearly so dangerous.
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(Atlanta)
Some stocks seem to be rallying for no apparent reason. The only underlying logic being that they got badly beaten up during the COVID meltdown and now look cheap relative to the market’s rebound. Call it the loser’s rally. Delta, for instance, has seen some significant gains in its price despite the fact that the airline business continues to look very bleak. Delta could be considered best-of-breed though, having a much healthier balance sheet than American Airlines.
FINSUM: This is a dangerous game—when stocks that look weak rise for no apparent reason. They will fall sharply when sentiment swings back.
(Seattle)
Investors might be growing a little uneasy if they have been paying attention to market leaders. A number of stocks that have led the big market rally are starting to falter, and that could be a sign of a major pullback to come. Amazon, Zoom, Netflix and other leaders of this rally have recently plateaued or dipped, which could be a sign that the rally has lost strength. If those stocks start to lose ground, a lot of the gains the market has seen are at risk because of the chance that investors could capitulate once the indexes loses leadership. One equity strategist at BTIG put it this way, “We’d suggest that the ability for the broad market to build on its recent gains is contingent on names like Zoom, Moderna, Netflix and Amazon and other highflying ‘shelter-in-place’ names whose momentum has waned in recent days, to at least sustain their meteoric advances as leadership passes off to the more cyclical areas and themes”.
FINSUM: We think there is a degree of truth in this. If the big gainers start to fade, it is hard to imagine the laggards will suddenly start holding the market up.
(New York)
You may be wondering what is guiding the market right now, but in reality it is pretty simple. It is the combination of the prospect for reopening the economy, blended with the early results of vaccines that would help accelerate that process. This morning’s pre-market trading was another sign—new promising vaccine news sent S&P 500 futures up 1.5%.
FINSUM: If you want to predict the market, just pay very close attention to pharma news. Stocks in the sector have seen huge bumps because of vaccine hopes, and it is driving the whole market.