Saturday, November 22, 2014

The Closing Bell

The Closing Bell

11/22/14

I am taking Thanksgiving Week off.  Back on 12/1.  I hope everyone has a great Holiday.

Statistical Summary

   Current Economic Forecast

           
            2013

Real Growth in Gross Domestic Product:                    +1.0-+2.0
                        Inflation (revised):                                                           1.5-2.5
Growth in Corporate Profits:                                            0-7%

            2014 estimates

                        Real Growth in Gross Domestic Product                   +1.5-+2.5
                        Inflation (revised)                                                          1.5-2.5
                        Corporate Profits                                                            5-10%

            2015 estimates

Real Growth in Gross Domestic Product                   +2.0-+3.0
                        Inflation (revised)                                                          1.5-2.5
                        Corporate Profits                                                            5-10%

   Current Market Forecast
           
            Dow Jones Industrial Average

                                    Current Trend (revised):  
                                    Short Term Uptrend                                 16084-18830
Intermediate Term Uptrend                      16053-21053
Long Term Uptrend                                  5159-18521
                                               
                        2013    Year End Fair Value                                   11590-11610

                        2014    Year End Fair Value                             11800-12000                                          

            Standard & Poor’s 500

                                    Current Trend (revised):
                                    Short Term Uptrend                                     1861-2215
                                    Intermediate Term Uptrend                       1697-2413
                                    Long Term Uptrend                                    783-2062
                                                           
                        2013    Year End Fair Value                                    1430-1450

                        2014   Year End Fair Value                                     1470-1490         

Percentage Cash in Our Portfolios

Dividend Growth Portfolio                          47%
            High Yield Portfolio                                     53%
            Aggressive Growth Portfolio                        49%

Economics/Politics
           
The economy is a modest positive for Your Money.   This week’s economic data was weighed to the plus side: positives---weekly mortgage and purchase applications, October new home permits and existing home sales, November homebuilders confidence, the NY, Kansas City and Philly Fed manufacturing indices and the October leading economic indicators; negatives---October housing starts, October industrial production, the November Markit PMI and October PPI and CPI; neutral---weekly retail sales and weekly jobless claims.

Included in the above are a number primary indicators which are pretty evenly balanced.  On the plus side: housing permits, existing home sales and leading economic indicators; on the negative: housing starts, industrial production and the Markit PMI.  However, balanced is good news in our forecast.  So the more numerous positive stats coupled with an even split among the primary indicators fits well into our current outlook and importantly, demonstrates that the US continues impervious to foreign economic difficulties.

As you know, global recession is the biggest risk in our outlook and we got no relief this week on that front.  The numbers were awful---all of which I will cover below.  So in short, our outlook remains the same, and the primary risk (the spillover of a global economic slowdown) remains just so.

Our forecast:

 ‘a below average secular rate of recovery resulting from too much government spending, too much government debt to service, too much government regulation, a financial system with an impaired balance sheet, and a business community unwilling to hire and invest because the aforementioned, the weakening in the global economic outlook, along with...... the historic inability of the Fed to properly time the reversal of a vastly over expansive monetary policy.’
           
        The pluses:

(1)   our improving energy picture.  The US is awash in cheap, clean burning natural gas.... In addition to making home heating more affordable, low cost, abundant energy serves to draw those manufacturers back to the US who are facing rising foreign labor costs and relying on energy resources that carry negative political risks.

‘Unfortunately, this positive in our outlook may be getting to be ‘too much of a good thing’.  Whether because of new abundant supplies or falling demand, the price of oil has been getting hammered of late; and sooner or later this plus could become a minus.’

‘I have no idea where the crossover point is, but there is one in which the positive created by lower prices to consumer and industry is offset by losses in employment and weakening corporate financial structures resulting from decreased drilling activity (remember the energy industry has been a major contributor to job growth and cap ex spending).’

       The negatives:

(1)   a vulnerable global banking system.   The banksters almost made it through a whole week without any new revelations of misdeeds.  Unfortunately for them, the politicians have decided to take an interest in bank malfeasance---the senate will begin hearing on commodity price rigging by JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs.  I doubt anything will come of this other than grandstanding face time for the pols.  However, it helps keep the crimes and misdemeanors perpetrated on investors in public view and certainly won’t be a plus for the big banks reputations.

Later it was revealed that a NY Fed employee had shared confidential information with Goldman Sachs about one of its clients.  It just goes on and on.

Problems in the emerging market banking systems (medium):

‘My concern here.....that: [a] investors ultimately lose confidence in our financial institutions and refuse to invest in America and [b] the recent scandals are simply signs that our banks are not as sound and well managed as we have been led to believe and, hence, are highly vulnerable to future shocks, particularly a collapse of the EU financial system.’

(2)   fiscal policy. The elections turned out as expected; and Obama, true to form, ignored the results.  Three issues were front and center this week: (1) Obamacare.  The supposed architect of Obamacare just can’t keep his mouth shut as new videos keep appearing in which he disses the American people and makes a mockery of our Socialist in Chief’s transparency, (2) immigration.  Obama changed US immigration policy by executive order on Thursday.  Given the ‘hot button’ nature of this issue, this almost insures a rancorous next two years.  Great entertainment for the six o’clock news, and assuring gridlock, which is fine for keeping spending under control, but worthless when it comes to budget, tax and regulatory reform that this country needs to pull it out of six years of subpar growth, (3) Keystone pipeline.  The senate [Mary Landrieu] tried and failed passage.  Forget that it brings the US even closer to energy independence, creates jobs and builds infrastructure [a favorite Obama theme], consensus is that Obama will veto this measure once it passes a new senate vote in January/February adding some heft to the high value entertainment, gridlock, and lack of reform scenario.

(3)   the potential negative impact of central bank money printing:  The key point here is that [a] the Fed has inflated bank reserves far beyond any comparable level in history and [b] while this hasn’t been an economic problem to date, {i} it still has to withdraw all those reserves from the system without creating any disruptions---a task that I regularly point out it has proven inept at in the past and {ii} it has created or is creating asset bubbles in the stock market as well as in the auto, student and mortgage loan markets. 

While the Fed has ended QE [though in the FOMC minutes released this week, it left the door open ever so slightly that it may chicken out on raising rates]:

[a] Japan is just getting started [though this week, Abe called a snap election to confirm approval of this policy.  What happens if he loses that bet?  Just asking.]

Japanese poll:

Thoughts on the Japanese economy (short):


[b] Draghi, well let’s just say that while he is having a rough time getting consensus among the central bankers on QE, he is having no problem jawboning it.  Indeed, Friday he once again promised that the ECB is ‘ready to expand’ its asset purchase program.  While investors are getting jiggy with it, it remains to be seen just how much he can do.

[c] on Friday, the Chinese central bank cut its benchmark interest rates which really had the stock guys tip toeing though the tulips

This all leaves the financial markets with plenty of liquidity, keeping the hedge funds, carry traders and yield chasers supplied with fuel to continue pumping up asset prices. 

Ignored, of course, is the uncomfortable fact that QE hasn’t worked in the US [however, dearly the Fed may cling to it], hasn’t worked in Japan [which is a complete basket case; so much so that Abe has called for new elections to confirm support for his version of QE], and it won’t work in Europe because it won’t address Europe’s problems---too many bureaucrats, too much regulation, too much sovereign debt and an overleverage banking system. 

The danger, of course, is that (1) the central bankers can’t wean themselves from QE, so global liquidity continues to expand, (2) their respective sovereign governments are unwilling to provide the real solutions to that which is inhibiting economic growth and (3) at some point an exogenous event occurs which stops the music. 

Of course, since all that liquidity has done nothing to spur economic growth, its absence will likely do nothing to inhibit it.  On the other hand, asset prices have done a moon shot on the back of QE; so I am assuming that a decline in liquidity will have some counterproductive impact on those prices. 

(3)   geopolitical risks.  Ukraine/Russia stayed out of the headlines this week though Putin continues saber rattling [he said that he won’t allow the defeat of Ukrainian rebels] and moving forward with attempts to ameliorate sanctions.   The Middle East was also comparatively quiet, save for the ongoing low level violence---which is of little consolation to those who died.  Despite this relative calm, this is the source of a potential exogenous factor that could produce the loudest bang.

(4)    economic difficulties, overly indebted sovereigns and overleveraged banks in Europe and around the globe.  The debacle continues this week as PMI’s around the world [including Germany and China] were reported to have declined.  But perhaps the biggest headline was that Abe formally announced a delay in the second tax cut [good news both economically and politically], called for new elections in December in the search [hope?] for a mandate/approval of his policies and to hedge his bets, he threw some new spending proposals to try to buy at least a few votes.  If he wins, the Japanese citizenry loses because nothing [i.e. recession] will change.  If he loses, the question is what policy changes are going to take place and how will they impact global markets?  Talk about a potential exogenous event.

Bottom line:  the US economy continues to struggle along and, at least for the moment, appears strong enough to withstand any negative fallout from a slowing world economy.  The rest of the globe once again produced economic results that pointed to recession, leaving that as number one on our risk hit parade.

Abe is putting his economic policies on trial.  The bad news is that whether he wins or loses, the outcome is likely to be negative long term.  The good news is if he wins Japanese QEInfinity marches on in the short run and with it the asset price chasing of hedge funds, carry traders, yield chasers and prop trading desks.

China moved to ease monetary policy and Draghi is once again promising QE, though I think that this is just more of his ‘whatever necessary’ rhetoric which to date has never been backed up by action.  So for the time being, financial markets are awash with cheap, easy money.

On the geopolitical front, there was little news this week.  While the odds of a disastrous exogenous event occurring may be small, the magnitude of the consequences of such an event are enormous.

This week’s data:

(1)                                  housing: weekly mortgage and purchase applications were up; October housing starts fell but permits were up; October existing home sales were better than anticipated; November homebuilder confidence was up,

(2)                                  consumer:  weekly retail sales were mixed; weekly jobless claims were down less than consensus,

(3)                                  industry: October industrial production and capacity utilization fell; the November Markit PMI was disappointing; the November NY and Kansas City Feds’ manufacturing indices were slightly better than expectations, while the Philly Fed index blew that doors off estimates [however, as I noted Friday, it seems likely to me that this number will be revised],

(4)                                  macroeconomic: the October leading economic indicators rose more than anticipated; PPI for final demand rose much more than consensus; the headline and ex food and energy CPI came in slightly hotter than expected.

The Market-Disciplined Investing
           
  Technical

            The indices (DJIA 17810, S&P 2063) continued their sideways consolidation early in the week, then spiked on Friday after QE good news from China and Draghi.  The Dow closed in uptrends across all timeframes: short term (16084-18830, intermediate term (16053-21083) and long term (5159-18512). 

The S&P finished one point above the upper boundary of its long term uptrend (983-2062).  That starts our time and distance discipline.  If the S&P remains above that upper boundary though the close next Friday, the break will be confirmed.  Of course, the question becomes, then what?   How do you measure how far up is, when the S&P is already over its upper boundary?  My initial thought is that if it exceeds the upper boundary by the same magnitude that it did at the 2007 high, the potential upside target could be around 2450.

Of course, a lot has to happen technically before we get serious about that kind of upside, i.e. the break has be confirmed plus the Dow has to confirm its own break and it’s still 700 points away from that. Furthermore, I think it important to note that the S&P intraday traded well above 2062 on Friday but couldn’t hold that magnitude of an advance.  To fall back and finish so near 2062 suggests to me that the quality of this break is not that great.  Nonetheless, the S&P has challenged its upper boundary and I am just quantifying what the potential upside if a break is confirmed.

Volume rose on Friday but much of it was due to options expiration; breadth was strong. The VIX fell, ending right on the lower boundary of its short term uptrend, closely reflecting (inversely) the action in the S&P.  It continued within its intermediate term downtrend and below its 50 day moving average.   

The long Treasury was up and is close to breaking out of its very short term trading range.  It remained within its short term uptrend, its intermediate term trading range and above its 50 day moving average.  

GLD had another strong day on Friday, ending (1) above the lower boundary of its former long term trading range for the second day, leaving open the question as to whether this boundary will prove to be effective resistance or mark the bottom in price for GLD? and (2) very close to its 50 day moving average.  Nonetheless, it continues to trade within short, intermediate and long term downtrends.

Bottom line: the markets are again in a period where numerous boundaries are either being or are very close to being challenged.  While a break to the upside in the S&P and a break down in the VIX would be consistent, a rally in the long Treasury and a bottom in GLD are not.  Nor are they necessarily consistent with a strong stock market.  The point here is that there is a lot cross currents in multiple markets and not all the potential outcomes are positive.  I await some clarity.

Fundamental-A Dividend Growth Investment Strategy

The DJIA (17810) finished this week about 49.9% above Fair Value (11876) while the S&P (2063) closed 39.7% overvalued (1476).  Incorporated in that ‘Fair Value’ judgment is some sort of half assed attempt at getting fiscal policy under control, a botched Fed transition from easy to tight money, a historically low long term secular growth rate of the economy and a ‘muddle through’ scenario in Europe, Japan and China.

US economic progress appears to be back on track.  On the other hand, the global economy seems to be going from bad to worse.  Japan is in recession and the latest PMI numbers from around the world did not make great reading.

QE got a boost this week from an interest rate cut by China and more ‘whatever necessary’ rhetoric from Draghi.  So QEInfinity is alive and well and investors are loving it.

Politically, the conditions have deteriorated.  Aside from a more belligerent Putin, violence in the Middle East, the prospect of a nuclear Iran, (1) in the US, Obama has started a fight in which gridlock may be the good news outcome, (2) the EC is thumping France on the wrist over its 2015 budget---not a good sign for concerted policy action to avoid a recession and (3) Abe has called for elections to validate his economic policies.  Given their disastrous results, I can’t imagine that the electorate would give him a thumbs up.  But he is the politician, so he seems to think that he will win.  If he is right, I am going to stop feeling sorry for the Japanese electorate.  On the other hand, if he loses [which incidentally, no one is talking about], there is the potential for the Mother of All Policy Reversals.

Yet all of the above remain only potential risks; and in the meantime, in addition to better US economic numbers and an enhanced QE, corporate profits are still rising, the dollar is strong, Japan is pumping out liquidity at a historically unprecedented rate and Santa Claus in coming to town.

Overriding all of these considerations is the cold hard fact that stocks are considerably overvalued not just in our Model but with numerous other historical measures which I have documented at length.  This overvaluation is of such a magnitude that it almost doesn’t matter what occurs fundamentally, because there is virtually no improvement in the current scenario (improved economic growth, responsible fiscal policy, successful monetary policy transition) that gets valuations to Friday’s closing price levels. 

Bottom line: the assumptions in our Economic Model haven’t changed (though our global ‘muddle through’ scenario is at risk).  The assumptions in our Valuation Model have not changed either.  I remain confident in the Fair Values calculated---meaning that stocks are overvalued.  So our Portfolios maintain their above average cash position.  Any move to higher levels would encourage more trimming of their equity positions.

I can’t emphasize strongly enough that I believe that the key investment strategy today is to take advantage of the current high prices to sell any stock that has been a disappointment or no longer fits your investment criteria and to trim the holding of any stock that has doubled or more in price.

Bear in mind, this is not a recommendation to run for the hills.  Our Portfolios are still 55-60% invested and their cash position is a function of individual stocks either hitting their Sell Half Prices or their underlying company failing to meet the requisite minimum financial criteria needed for inclusion in our Universe.
       
DJIA                                                   S&P

Current 2014 Year End Fair Value*              11900                                                  1480
Fair Value as of 11/30/14                                11876                                                  1476
Close this week                                               17810                                                  2063

Over Valuation vs. 11/30 Close
              5% overvalued                                12469                                                    1549
            10% overvalued                                13063                                                   1623 
            15% overvalued                                13657                                                    1697
            20% overvalued                                14251                                                    1771   
            25% overvalued                                  14845                                                  1845   
            30% overvalued                                  15438                                                  1918
            35% overvalued                                  16032                                                  1992
            40% overvalued                                  16626                                                  2066
            45%overvalued                                   17220                                                  2140
            50%overvalued                                   17814                                                  2217

Under Valuation vs. 11/30 Close
            5% undervalued                             11282                                                      1402
10%undervalued                            10688                                                       1328   
15%undervalued                            10094                                                  1254

* Just a reminder that the Year End Fair Value number is based on the long term secular growth of the earning power of productive capacity of the US economy not the near term   cyclical influences.  The model is now accounting for somewhat below average secular growth for the next 3 to 5 years with somewhat higher inflation. 

The Portfolios and Buy Lists are up to date.


Steve Cook received his education in investments from Harvard, where he earned an MBA, New York University, where he did post graduate work in economics and financial analysis and the CFA Institute, where he earned the Chartered Financial Analysts designation in 1973.  His 40 years of investment experience includes institutional portfolio management at Scudder. Stevens and Clark and Bear Stearns, managing a risk arbitrage hedge fund and an investment banking boutique specializing in funding second stage private companies.  Through his involvement with Strategic Stock Investments, Steve hopes that his experience can help other investors build their wealth while avoiding tough lessons that he learned the hard way.









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