(New York)
Where to put one’s money in 2019? That is the difficult question every investor must face at the moment. For a long time “TINA”, or “there is no alternative”, was the mantra which kept guiding capital into stocks alongside miniscule yields. Now with rates and yields rising and stocks having seen big losses, where should investors turn? The reality is that bonds seem likely to outperform stocks next year, at least according to JP Morgan. The bank thinks EM debt is likely to have a good year as once the Fed stops tightening the Dollar will likely weaken, giving a boost to EM assets.
FINSUM: In our view, a lot of damage has already been done to stocks and there are now some very interesting buys. Furthermore, short-term debt has seen yields rise high enough that you can get decent returns without a lot of interest rate risk.
(Washington)
For the last few weeks, the Fed looked like an out of touch ivory tower central bank committed to driving the US economy into a recession through relentless rate hikes (or at least that was the anxious view). However, the Fed has finally made an announcement which gave investors some calm. The head of the NY Fed commented that being “data dependent” meant listening to markets too, not just the economy. He also contextualized the language from the last Fed meeting, softening its impact. The market jumped immediately on the news.
FINSUM: Too bad it isn’t Jerome Powell making the comments. That said, the Fed must be starting to get nervous that we are close to a bear market.
(New York)
There has been a large segment of money managers and investors that have taken a bullish stance against Treasuries. With rates rising and the economy performing well, it stood to reason that yields would keep on rising. However, after a couple of months of brutal stock volatility and worries over a trade war and growth, investors are finally shedding those bearish short positions. The stance was one of the most popular of the year, but the volume of bearish positions has shrunk by two-thirds since from the record it reached in late September.
FINSUM: The ten-year yield now looks more likely to fall than rise given the longer-term economic outlook and trouble in stocks.
(Washington)
Earlier this week it seemed that the market might finally have a reason to believe the Fed might pause its inexorable march higher in rates. That reason was that inflation had dipped below the Fed’s target. Being just a single occurrence, it was a weak-footed hope. Now, new data shows the American consumer is doing well, as retail sales jumped 0.9% in November. The explanation for the jump is that a drop in gasoline prices helped fuel more retail spending.
FINSUM: Consumers are obviously still feeling comfortable, which will give the Fed a bit of comfort about the stage of the cycle.
(Washington)
The moment many investors have been waiting for (or not, depending on how you look at it) has arrived. Rate hikes finally have a chance to slow after their steady rise over the last couple of years. New inflation data has come in showing weakness. Inflation has now fallen below the Fed’s 2% rate, which means the central bank has cause to pause its rate hikes as the economy looks to be on more fragile footing.
FINSUM: There are two ways to look at this. The first is that it takes some momentum away from the current yield inversion. But on the other hand, it could be an indicator that the economy is headed towards recession.
(New York)
Stock markets are taking a pounding right now. Where should investors turn? One’s first instinct is probably to look for ten-year Treasuries. However, that safe haven may have finally worn itself out given the current rising rate paradigm. So where should investors turn? Look at short-term (two years and under) securities, both sovereign and corporate. The two-year Treasury yield is now 2.82%, and funds at the very short end of the curve have positive returns for the year even though the rest of fixed income has had a tough time.
FINSUM: Short-term bonds look very favorable right now. Yields are strong and they have little rate sensitivity. So long as one avoids too much credit risk, they look like a good safe haven.
(New York)
Pay attention, the yield curve just inverted. And we are not talking about some esoteric swap rate most have never heard of. Yesterday the spread between two-and five-year Treasuries fell below zero, the first major inversion of this bull market. The 2- and 10-year spread is the most typical benchmark for gauging an inversion, but the 2- and 5-year is significant. Yield curve inversions are one of the most accurate predictors of recession, with one preceding the previous several recessions.
FINSUM: One very important thing to remember is that it often takes many months (or years) for a recession to begin once a yield curve starts, so there is still plenty of room for the economy (and markets) to run.
(New York)
This is a day where investors need to take a deep breath. Markets are plunging, the yield curve just inverted, and there are major fears about the durability of the US-China “truce”. One thing to take heart in is that even though they are good predictors, a yield curve inversion doesn’t mean everything. It is important to note that it is the two and five-year Treasuries that have inverted, not the two and ten, which could mean this is just a temporary kink. For instance, in 1998, this pair turned negative without the rest of the curve following suit.
FINSUM: On top of the last point there, remember that inversions don’t cause recessions, they are just the market predicting slower long-term growth. That said, they seem to create self-fulfilling prophecies.
(New York)
The credit market taught investors a very good lesson in the Crisis (not that many of them were paid attention to). One of those lessons was that the first signs of weakness in the market should be taken seriously, as they can be indicative of a pending meltdown. This occurred in 2007 before the cataclysm in 2008. It appears to be happening again now, as both US and European credit marks are showing some fault lines. For instance, the downgrade of GE is seen as a sign of weakness very similar to what occurred with Ford and GM in 2005.
FINSUM: There has been an extraordinary credit boom since the Crisis and there are bound to be consequences. The question is what the extent of those consequences will be. The market is starting to feel a bit like musical chairs.
(New York)
Here is an interesting fact for investors—municipal bonds tend to hold up well during periods of rising rates. The underlying tax benefits of the bonds mean their demand is well insulated even in such periods. The question is where to commit capital. Well, year-end tax loss selling is creating some interesting opportunities in closed end muni funds, says BlackRock. Some funds are selling at significant discounts to the NAVs, sometimes 10% or more. These funds tend to bounce back in the new year, which is called the “January effect”. The discount to NAV allows one to gain even if the prices of the underlying assets don’t budge.
FINSUM: Closed end muni funds look like a great place for some bargaining hunting until the end of the year.
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(New York)
This is a tricky environment for income investing. On the one hand, rising rates generally mean better yields, but at the same time, the chance of rate-driven losses is high. What if investors wanted to get safe 5% yields? Doing so is a little bit tricky and requires a blend of riskier credit and a mix of durations. However, investors can get pretty close with some individual ETFs. For instance, BlackRock’s iBoxx $ Investment Grade Bond ETF yields 4.39% and has shorter dated maturities with comparable credit quality to other funds.
FINSUM: This seems like a good choice, but there are also a number of rate hedged ETFs that have similar yields and almost no interest rate risk.
(New York)
Those worried about rate hikes will be happy to hear this news. Ever-hawkish Jerome Powell is finally starting to sound just a bit more dovish. Powell says the economy is strong, but could face “headwinds”. He says the Fed is discussing how much and how fast to raise rates and acknowledged that the Fed’s actions could inhibit the economy. He said the Fed’s goal is to “extend the recovery, expansion, and to keep unemployment low, to keep inflation low”.
FINSUM: It is good to hear some public consideration that rates might get in the way of the economy. While we would not exactly say this is dovish, it is certainly less aggressive than previously.
(New York)
With all the volatility of the last month, and midterms, less focus has been on one of the most ominous of economic signs—the yield curve. Well, Goldman Sachs has just weighed in, warning investors that a yield curve inversion is looming. Goldman went further than to say that 2-years might be flat or overtake 10-years, the bank said that spreads between 2- and 30-year bonds would fall to zero. To put that call into perspective, it would be a narrowing of 50 basis points versus now. Goldman highlighted the move in its top themes to watch for 2019.
FINSUM: We have to give Goldman Sachs a little credit here as they have been consistently hawkish about rates for at least a year and are sticking to it. We tend to agree with this view.
(New York)
One of the safe bets during bouts of volatility since the Financial Crisis has been to pile into Treasury bonds anytime things got tough. Every time stocks dipped, the bonds tended to rally strongly and became a safe haven. However, since the recent downturn in equities, this correlation has ceased. Even amidst stock and oil’s plunges recently, Treasuries have basically remained flat, giving no comfort to investors.
FINSUM: The big difference this time around is that the volatility is coming during a period of rising rates, which means Treasury bonds are not as safe a bet as in the past several years.