Stocks rallied heading into the weekend, with the S&P 500 finishing up 1.6% for the day. Friday’s 1%+ move ended four consecutive days of relative quiet, the longest stretch without a 1% swing (on a closing basis) since a seven day streak in mid-November. We still have had just one week over the past year that did not experience a single 1% swing in the S&P 500.
Annual data shows that the Federal government’s cost to service its debt (as a % of GDP) reached its highest level in two decades last year.
Why It Matters: Debt servicing costs were at a generational low just a few years ago. Now persistent inflation is pushing bond yields higher and the latest CBO projections show federal debt levels continuing to soar (new highs that aren’t cause for celebration). Interest payments on the debt are moving from afterthought to fiscal burden. Without a rediscovery of fiscal discipline getting a handle on inflation is going to be a challenge and that is likely to keep yields higher for longer. A quick return to the market and fiscal conditions of the past decade does not appear to be in the cards.
Prior to this week, we had seen just one day in the past three months with less than 70% of world markets above their 50-day averages. We’ve now had two days in a row with this indicator of global market strength in the yellow zone.
Why It Matters: The strongest markets have the broadest participation and historically the S&P 500 hasn’t run into much trouble as long as at least 70% of world markets are above their 50-day averages. Risks intensify when this drops below 40%. We discussed this (and other indicators of market stress) in our weekly Townhall as well as the Takeaways summary.
Nearly three-quarters of the way through Q4 earnings season, two things stand out: stocks that have reported earnings misses have been less severely punished than in the past and an increasing number of companies are having their earnings estimates for the coming year revised higher.
After Tuesday’s 9-to-1 upside volume day, our Bull Market Re-Birth Checklist is now five out of five.
Why It Matters: The conditions for a new bull market have been met. It’s hard to argue otherwise from a market perspective. Large-cap and mid-cap value indexes reached new all-time highs this week, and small-cap value is not too far behind. The trend for the market for the market is higher, even if not all the indexes (including the popular benchmarks) are trending higher. But when the trend is higher, leadership is evidence of opportunity.
The last decade-plus has featured extended periods of US leadership and only brief bouts of with the rest of the world on top. While it may be outside of the experience or active memory for many investors, the first decade of this millennium saw the exact opposite: persistent strength from the rest of the world and little leadership from the US.
Money supply is unchanged over the past year and has fallen at a never-before-seen 5% annualized rat over the past 3 months.
Why It Matters: Money supply growth peaked (on a year over year basis) at 27% in February 2021 as policymakers responded to the COVID crisis by flooding the financial system with liquidity. That growth has now dissipated and over shorter time periods money supply is actually contracting (it was down for the fourth month in a row in November). Collapsing money supply growth helps take the edge off of inflationary pressures in the economy (there is less money chasing all the goods & services). But liquidity is also the lifeblood of the financial markets. As with seedlings in the garden, when the spigot is turned off, green shoots turn brown and asset prices could struggle to flourish.
After unexpectedly good headline and core CPI prints for November, the stocks were caught off guard by unexpectedly hawkish forecasts on both rates and inflation when the Fed released its Summary of Economic Projections following Wednesday’s FOMC meeting.
As the dollar was peaking in late-September, 4% of world markets were above their 50-day average and 4% were above their 200-day average. The dollar now is 8% of that peak (and below its 200-day average for the first time since June 2021). More than two-thirds of ACWI markets are now above their 200-day averages (the most in over a year) and nearly 95% are above their 50-day average (the most in nearly 2 years).
With stocks experiencing week-to-week swings at a nearly unprecedented level, zooming out and keeping a bigger picture in mind is an essential. The Value Line Geometric Index’s affinity for round numbers makes this an easier exercise.
