Eq: Total Market
(New York)
Well they might not have exactly said what is in this headline, but they might as well have. The bank is urging investors to rotate into European equities and out of US stocks, shifting the former to “overweight” and the latter to “neutral”. The bank argues that European stocks represent a much better value after their underperformance over the last year. They believe European stocks have a great deal of upside and look close to “outright cheap”.
FINSUM: European stocks do seem to have a lot more room to move higher, but they also have a giant morass staring them in the eye called Brexit.
(New York)
Wall Street research teams have been pretty split in their market outlooks recently. While the general mood is always bullish in equity research, an inordinate number of banks have been pessimistic lately. Do not count Morgan Stanley in that group, as they have just come out with what cannot be considered anything other than a bullish note given the current environment. The bank says there is only an 11.4% chance of a recession in the next year. Morgan Stanley also pointed out that each asset class has its own positioning right now, saying “Rates are generally pricing in a higher risk of recession than equities, giving equities greater relative downside should a recession emerge and bonds greater relative downside should economic growth begin to trough/reaccelerate”.
FINSUM: As Morgan Stanley also added in this piece, the real time to worry is if companies start cutting jobs to maintain margins. Once that happens, consumer spending and sentiment will fall rapidly.
(Washington)
House Speaker Nany Pelosi made big waves yesterday when she announced a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump, all stemming from the alleged Ukrainian incident. The political implications are one aspect, but what does this mean for the stock market? The answer is that nobody knows. Nixon’s impeachment process saw a big loss in stocks, but it was also the Oil Crisis; while Clinton’s impeachment was quite positive for equities. Each situation was completely unique, as was the market environment at the time.
FINSUM: Our best guess is that this won’t do much to stocks, mostly because there has been so much political theater over the last few years that, for better or worse, this likely just seems to be more of the same for investors.
More...
(New York)
It has been a rough several month stretch for stocks and no one seems to have a clear view on where things are headed. All the same fears dog the market now just as they have all year, but at the same time, there seems to be some bullish indicators. Economic signals have been much better recently, which could support a longer bull market. Additionally, so much bearish sentiment has built up that it seems like the market is poised for a big move higher. Finally, the sideways action of the market seems to point to another move higher. Some think the sideways move over the last several months means that this cycle has seen its peak. On the contrary, though, usually late stage bull markets move higher right before an economic downturn.
FINSUM: The market was flat for over a year right in the middle of the bull market and then took a huge move higher. Same situation?
(New York)
Retail investors are fleeing the stock market, yet it keeps rising. What gives? Bernstein Research just studied this situation and had some interesting findings. Firstly, retail investors’ rotation of out stock funds and into bond funds has been the largest in history, with $1.1 tn flowing out of stocks and into bonds in the last 12 months. Secondly, they found that none of that really matters given the current state of markets, which are being driven by buybacks and M&A. Finally, they found that such outflows are usually a very bullish sign and they generally signal over-pessimism and have often been followed by great returns.
FINSUM: This seems like a very solid counter indicator that things might start turning more positive.
(New York)
While a lot of sentiment is starting to look more positive, Deutsche Bank has just come out with the exact opposite opinion. The bank has gone on the record warning that a recession will arrive very shortly, and that stock prices should be at least 13% lower than they are. The bank’s chief global strategist said, “We are cautious on stocks. We would argue you want to be defensively positioned [and] we would argue that the U.S. equity market has run way, way ahead of growth”. He continued “Every time payrolls growth has gone below 1%, the U.S. has ended up in recession. We would argue the U.S. economy is dangerously close to...tipping into recession”. US jobs growth is currently at 1.3% and slowing.
FINSUM: This is a really bearish outlook from an investment bank, which tend to trend towards over-bullishness. We question the valuation argument, but this is certainly a view worth noting.