(New York)

This might be a unique kind of bear market we have on our hands, at least according to Morgan Stanley. The bank’s chief US equity strategist says that this is a “kind of rolling bear market”. Continuing “We are not seeing an ’08 scenario where everything gets hit at once … it’s selectively hitting markets one by one and it’s a rolling sort of correction”. Since that seems to be the case, one good defensive sector to avoid turmoil might be US small caps, which are shielded from trade war and are benefiting from last year’s tax cuts.

FINSUM: We like this description of the kind of correction we are currently in. It might not be a single cataclysmic event that sends the market tumbling, but a series of blows that drives things down continuously.

(New York)

Losses on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are reaching legendary proportions. Total losses on Bitcoin are now around 70% since its peak last December. The loss brings it close to the 78% decline in the Nasdaq seen during the Dotcom bubble. Many other coins have gone to essentially zero.

FINSUM: The Dotcom bubble is an interesting comparison. The reason why is that though prices were far too high, the market did call correctly that the internet would be hugely disruptive to industry and create very valuable businesses. Will the same happen with crypto, but ten years down the line?

(New York)

The flattening yield curve is an indicator of a recession and bear market to come. The last six US recessions have all been preceded by an inverted yield curve. Now it is happening again. The gap between two- and ten-year Treasuries was just 34 basis points last week, the lowest since 2007, or the eve of the worst American recession in almost 80 years. A few factors seem to be guiding the flattening. The first is the Fed’s bullish outlook on the economy and hawkishness on rates. The others are very weak inflation expectations over the long term as well as large demand for even modest long end yields, both of which have combined to keep ten-years pinned for some time now.

FINSUM: Yes a flattening yield curve is a bad sign, but remember that it takes, on average, several months (i.e. ~18 months) from when the yield curve inverts to when the economy actually goes into recession, with stocks historically continuing to rise along the way.

(New York)

Whether investors like it or not, it appears a real trade war has begun. While the US-China spat is getting the most headlines, including President Trump enacting blockages to Chinese investment into the US, we are also putting tariffs on other major trading partners like Canada and the EU. With this new reality taking hold, here are four ETFs that will thrive in the trade war. The first two are the Financial Sector SPDR and the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF because Financials are a “screaming buy” according to BNY Mellon Investment Management. Bank revenues are very healthy and the sector is insulated from trade war. The final choice is the Invesco S&P SmallCap Industrials, which will prosper as the economy expands and whose constituents have much lower international exposure versus their larger cap peers.

FINSUM: These seem like well-thought and diversified choices. We are slightly nervous about financial stocks at the moment because of the yield curve, but small caps definitely seem like an excellent choice.

(San Francisco)

Many investors are currently worried about the potential for a tech bubble. Between high valuations, data breaches, and a growing call for more regulation of the sector, it is easy to feel bearish. However, Barron’s is telling investors to not be too worried. The opinion is based on analysis of tech price movements and outperformance against a new Harvard study. Historically speaking, a bubble can be referred to as at least a 100 percentage point outperformance of a sector versus the market as a whole over a two-year period, followed by at least a 40% drop over the following two years. By that metric, the tech sector isn’t even close, as it has only outperformed the market by 36% over the last two years.

FINSUM: So this was a valuation-based study, but it could theoretically also be applied to individual stocks. When you do that, both Amazon and Netflix look vulnerable, as both have satisfied criteria for a bubble.