Financial Review

Suicide is Painless

Sinclair Noe — March 6, 2017

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 13:15 — 7.6MB)

Subscribe: iTunes | Android | RSS

DOW – 51 = 20,954
SPX – 7 = 2375
NAS – 21 = 5849
RUT – 9 = 1384
10 Y flat = 2.49%
OIL – .12 = 53.21
GOLD – 8.80 = 1226.50

On this date in 2009, the S&P 500 hit an intraday low of 666; the closing low was 3 days later but the intraday low was 8 years ago.

On Friday, Fed chair Janet Yellen signaled that an interest rate hike would likely come when Fed leaders meet next week. A March rate hike is now being priced into the markets. About the only thing that could change the Fed’s plan is weak economic data, giving extra significance to Friday’s jobs report.

In January, according to DOL’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the economy added 227,000 jobs; unemployment was at 4.8 percent; and hourly earnings rose 0.1%. The US probably created a healthy 200,000 new jobs last month, keeping the unemployment rate below 5%.

North Korea fired four ballistic missiles early today. Three landed within a couple hundred miles of Japan, in what Japan considers an exclusive economic zone. The United States has about 28,500 troops and equipment stationed in the South, and plans to roll out the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile defense system by the end of the year. And the ongoing provocative actions by North Korea insinuate that somehow that country is skirting sanctions.

The United Nations Security council recently issued a report claiming Malaysian companies are acting as a front in an arms sales operation, and requesting suspect companies’ assets be frozen. Malaysia has denied the claims but otherwise not responded to the UN claims.

China recently announced it would stop all imports of coal from North Korea but the UN report raises concerns about front companies operating in China continuing to do business with North Korea. As early as December 2016, China had blown past a UN-imposed ceiling of 1 million metric tons on coal imports, purchasing twice that amount.

China then shrugged off a requirement to report its North Korean coal imports to the UN Security Council sanctions committee. North Korean banks and firms, meanwhile, have maintained access to international financial markets through a vast network of Chinese-based front companies, enabling Pyongyang to evade sanctions.

President Trump signed a revised executive order today banning citizens from six Muslim-majority nations from traveling to the United States but removing Iraq from the list, after his first attempt was blocked in the courts.

The new order keeps a 90-day ban on travel to the United States by citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Iraq was taken off the banned list because the Iraqi government has imposed new vetting procedures, such as heightened visa screening and data sharing, and because of its work with the United States in countering ISIS militants.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters after Trump signed the new order that, “It is the president’s solemn duty to protect the American people.” The new order spells out detailed categories of people eligible to enter the United States, such as for business or medical travel, or people with family connections or who support the United States. Trump’s original ban resulted in more than two dozen lawsuits in US courts.

Today’s revised order is likely to face legal challenges as well.

Demand for travel to the United States over the coming months has flattened out following a positive start to the year, with uncertainty over a possible new travel order likely deterring visitors, per ForwardKeys, a travel analysis company which analyses 16 million flight reservations a day from major global reservation systems.

Overall, bookings for travel to the United States over the next three months are 0.4 percent down on last year, whereas they had been 3.4 percent ahead the day before the travel restrictions were imposed. Per travel search site Kayak, searches from Europe for flights to the U.S. are down by 12 percent since the elections.

However, Germans, some of the world’s biggest spenders on travel, have not been deterred, with searches up 10 percent in that period.

General Motors has agreed to sell its European division to Peugeot. The deal will total $2.3 billion and consist of GM’s sales of its unit containing Opel and Vauxhall for $1.3 billion and its European GM Financial arm for $1 billion. GM will take a $4 billion charge on the sale. The Opel deal continues a business theme for GM. Earlier, the company had pulled out of Russia and discontinued its Chevrolet brand in Europe. It had also ended auto manufacturing in Australia.

Deutsche Bank is raising cash. Shares of the German investment bank are down by more than 6% after the company announced it would tap the markets for $8.5 billion to help improve its financial health after two years of heavy losses. Germany’s biggest bank announced plans for the huge share sale on Sunday along with another overhaul of its strategy.

CEO John Cryan said in a release: “The new three-pillar structure of our operating business should position us for significant growth, both in revenues and earnings.” This marks the fourth time Deutsche has raised capital since 2010. The four add up to a total of about $32 billion, more than the bank’s current market value.

Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management are merging. The deal to combine the two investment firms values the combined entity at about $13.4 billion. The merger will create the largest asset manager in Britain.

Wells Fargo execs may face criminal charges, (don’t hold your breath); but Reuters reports the US Department of Justice is investigating whether Wells Fargo executives hid details of the company’s recent scandal from the company’s board and regulators.

Wells Fargo disclosed in a $190 million settlement with regulators in September that staff opened as many as 2.1 million checking, savings and credit card accounts without customer consent over several years to satisfy management’s sales quotas.

Officials are seeking to find out if executives shared everything they knew about the phony accounts to the Wells Fargo board of directors and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the lead regulator for national banks.

Greece’s economy suffers a setback. Greece’s economy shrank by 1.2% in the fourth quarter of 2016, per the latest data from the country’s statistical service Elstat. That was worse than the previous estimate of a 0.4% contraction.

Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is suing Uber for theft of trade secrets, alleging that one of the top engineers in its self-driving car program decamped with thousands of confidential files, including designs that helped him start self-driving truck company Otto and then quickly sell it to Uber. Uber denies those claims.

Hope you enjoyed yourself with that Snapchat IPO, because the fun’s just about over, at least for now, according to a weekend feature on Barron’s .  You can start by trying to justify this crazy number: A market cap that surged at one point to $37.8 billion means 93 times its 2016 revenue of $405 million, with no profits expected until at least 2019. Several analysts initiated coverage of Snap as a “sell.” And many shareholders apparently felt it was a good time to pocket profits, as shares slid 7% today.

TG Therapeutics said a late-stage study testing a combination of its experimental cancer drug, in combination with an existing drug from AbbVie proved superior in high-risk patients with a common form of leukemia. The trial involved adult patients with high-risk chronic lymphocytic leukemia, who had undergone at least one prior therapy. TG Therapeutics more than double in share price intraday.

A strain of bird flu has been detected in a chicken breeder flock on a Tennessee farm contracted to Tyson Foods. Tyson, the biggest chicken meat producer in the United States, said in a statement it was working with state and federal officials to contain the virus by euthanizing 73,500 birds on the contract farm. In 2014 and 2015, during a widespread outbreak of bird flu, the United States killed nearly 50 million birds, mostly egg-laying hens.

The Arizona state Supreme Court is scheduled to hold a hearing Thursday on a challenge to a minimum wage increase. Last year, voters passed a measure to raise the state’s hourly minimum to $12 by 2020, up from $8.05. Under the measure, the minimum increased to $10 in January. In a court order issued last month, Chief Justice Scott Bales said “the court will limit arguments to whether [the measure] violated a state constitutional provision that requires ballot measures to identify a funding source.”

Even though the state is exempted from the measure, the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and other business interests argue it will be impacted because of increased wages for private sector employees under state contracts. Any relief from the court would appear to be limited to state contractors and not private employers, unless the court agrees with the business groups’ arguments that the entire measure is unconstitutional.

The chamber and other business interests went to court after Prop. 206 passed with support from 58 percent of voters. The measure gradually raises the state’s minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020 and requires employers to provide paid sick leave. The first step — an increase to $10 per hour — took effect Jan. 1. The sick-leave provision is scheduled to begin July 1.

Just 6% of U.S. adults who expect to receive a tax refund this year plan to splurge on something such as a vacation or shopping spree. According to a new Bankrate.com report, the most popular uses for the money are much more practical: save or invest it (34%), spend it on necessities such as food or utility bills (29%) and pay down debt (27%). Approximately 47% of all taxpayers anticipate a refund this year. Millennials are the most likely to receive refunds, the most likely to save/invest them and the most likely to have filed early.

Financial Review

Proactive in the Face of Volatility

Sinclair Noe — May 22, 2015

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 13:16 — 6.1MB)

Subscribe: iTunes | RSS

DOW – 53 = 18,232
SPX – 4 = 2126
NAS – 1 = 5089
10 YR YLD + .03 = 2.21%
OIL – .78 = 59.94
GOLD + 1.30 = 1,205
SILV - .03 = 17.11

Central bankers are speaking out. Earlier today, Mario Draghi, the President of the European Central Bank reiterated his call for euro zone countries to reform their economies, warning that future growth would remain modest. Draghi said: “It should…be clear that the argument that accommodative monetary policy constitutes an excuse for governments and parliaments to postpone their reform efforts is incorrect. Recently, economic conditions have improved somewhat in Europe…but growth is too low everywhere.”

This afternoon Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen delivered a speech in Rhode Island. Yellen said: “the U.S. economy seems well positioned for continued growth.” And she said: “If the economy continues to improve as I expect, I think it will be appropriate at some point this year to take the initial step to raise the federal funds rate target and begin the process of normalizing monetary policy.”

The Fed has consistently stated that they would be data dependent, but today Yellen said “Delaying action to tighten monetary policy until employment and inflation are already back to our objectives would risk overheating the economy.” So, apparently data dependent is subject to interpretation.

Yellen expressed confidence that the economy will get better and the first quarter weakness was just a transitory problem and maybe even some statistical noise. When the Fed raises rates, Yellen promised to do it gradually.

So, what will it mean when the Fed raises rates? The Fed has held its target lending rate at zero for almost 7 years, during which time almost every financial asset has seen nifty appreciation as investors chased anything with a yield above zero. Bank of America and Goldman Sachs have recently come out with their predictions for the stock market when the Fed raises rates. BofA says that if the broader economy improve and the Fed raises rates, it will cause stock market volatility and borrowing cost instability; and if the broader economy does not improves, corporate earnings would suffer and you could not justify high priced stocks moving to even higher prices.

Goldman Sachs was even less optimistic; they say stocks are overvalued already, based on forward P/E projections, and the only thing keeping the market floating is stock buybacks and dividends. The thinking is that buybacks and dividends would dry up with higher rates. The more optimistic conclusion of the Goldman Sachs report, is that if the economy picks up, companies will abandon stock buybacks and instead invest in growing their companies.

Here’s the problem, and it is the same problem we’ve seen for a long time; the slack in the labor market means wage growth has flat-lined, and even slipped a little. Consequently, consumers have cut back a little on spending and increased saving, squeezing every dollar until the eagle grins.

Next, look at where the markets are right now. The S&P 500 index closed yesterday at its 10th record high of the year. The market is almost perfectly tracking last year, when the S&P notched its 11th record close on May 23.  The steady assault on record highs by the S&P has come amid a market sapped of volatility and volume. There hasn’t been a 1% decline from any given intraday high since May 11. In other words, a very tight trading range. The first half of the year has seen a very tight trading range. If the markets finish out the quarter about where we are, it would be the tightest trading range for the first six months of a year, percentage-wise, in market history. It feels a lot like the calm before the storm.

Recent market data may or may not repeat in the same way going forward. I do not know where the markets will go from here. I do not know if a Fed rate hike increase will slam the markets or if the markets will just keep slogging higher. And it does not matter. The Fed is not responsible for your portfolio, you are. If things go bad, you can’t blame the Fed. If things go swimmingly, you don’t have to pay the Fed a commission.

Will the markets soar to new highs or crash? I don’t know, you don’t know, and those that are foolish enough to say they know, well, they don’t know. What we can say with some certainty is that periods of extremely low volatility are quite rare. What will the market do? It will fluctuate. That is an old line attributed to J.D. Rockefeller, or J.P. Morgan, or Jesse Livermore, or Jay Gould; nobody knows for sure. This well-known prediction for investors is also the most humorously vacuous.

Still, it can be helpful. If you know that low volatility won’t last, you should ask yourself just how much volatility you can handle. If the markets correct violently, will you get out? Will you ride it out? Is your portfolio diversified in such a way that you can ride it out? And don’t make that mental mistake of reclassifying an investment if it doesn’t perform. If you bought something for capital gains or dividends or whatever, you should not reclassify it as something that might do well if we get another financial crisis. How much volatility can you stomach? Are you ready to take advantage of short opportunities?

And then remember that volatility can move both ways, up and down; it presents both challenges and opportunities. If the markets move higher from here, we could be looking at an overvalued, overbought market. Will you take profits off the table? Will you ride it out? In other words, what is your exit strategy? If you’re not clear on that, now would probably be a good time to look at some “what if” scenarios and make some decisions in advance. You can’t force the markets to move the way you want but you can control what you will do when markets move. When things get wild and wooly, proactive is better than reactive.

The Labor Department reports the Consumer Price Index gained 0.1 percent last month after increasing 0.2 percent in March. In the 12 months through April, the CPI fell 0.2 percent, the largest decline since October 2009. The core CPI, which strips out food and energy costs, increased 0.3 percent, the largest rise since January 2013. In the 12 months through April, the core CPI advanced 1.8 percent. In the last three months, core inflation advanced an annualized 2.6 percent, the most since August 2011. Costs may continue to firm as fuel expenses rebound, apartment rents climb and health-care services become more expensive. Such price pressures should help Fed policy makers gain confidence in their forecast that inflation will move toward a 2 percent goal as they consider their first interest-rate rise since 2006.Last month, gasoline prices fell 1.7 percent, food prices were unchanged, and shelter costs increased 0.3 percent. A rough gauge of housing costs known as owners’ equivalent rent, or OER, was up 2.8% in April, compared to April 2014. That’s the fastest year-over-year change since late 2007.

China’s stock market burst back to life this week, continuing a year-long rally in the world’s second-largest economy as Beijing steps up monetary easing and money floods in from overseas due to the new trading link with Hong Kong. The rally took a brief pause recently on worries it had gone too far and too fast, but it seems like the bulls have returned. The Shanghai Composite advanced 2.8% today, taking gains to 8.9% this week while Shenzhen rose 1.1% to bring its rally to a 12.2% gain over the past five days. The Shenzen may be the hottest stock exchange anywhere. Among the 1,721 stocks on the Shenzhen Composite Index, four have declined this year. The gauge has jumped 166 percent in the past year. The best performer is Beijing Baofeng Technology Co., a developer of online movie players, which has jumped 3,822 percent since its initial public offering two months ago. There are 103 stocks in the Shenzen that are up at least 500 percent, and those stocks now trade at an average 375 times reported earnings, with and average market cap of $3.5 billion.

As widely expected, the Bank of Japan kept its massive ¥80-trillion-yen monetary stimulus program intact today, and revised up its assessment of the economy, despite inflation still hovering around zero. Data last week showed GDP grew an annualized 2.4% in the first three months of 2015, as consumption climbed for a third straight quarter and companies boosted spending for the first time in a year.

The bird-flu outbreak is forcing some poultry companies to suspend operations and boosting prices for eggs and turkeys as supplies tighten. Egg companies — the sector hit hardest by the virus — and turkey producers are spending millions of dollars to try to contain the disease. With eggs in particular, the problem is greatly complicated by the way the American industry is concentrated in the hands of relatively few producers. The government has earmarked nearly $400 million to help compensate poultry farmers for culled birds, cleanup and disease testing. Avian influenza has resulted in the deaths or extermination of at least 39 million birds, more than double the previous major U.S. outbreak in the 1980s. Of that total, more than 32 million are egg-laying hens, accounting for about 10% of the U.S. egg-laying flock.

If you are planning to get away for the Memorial Day holiday, the best time to leave was Wednesday. AAA starts counting travelers for the summer’s first holiday weekend on Thursday, and they expect 37.2 million people to attempt the great escape — travel 50 miles or more from home — this weekend. That’s the biggest Memorial Day weekend mini-migration in a decade. About 33 million of them will drive. Today’s national average price of regular gas is $2.73 per gallon, almost a dollar less than the average price a year ago.

In 2002, nine million people between the ages of 7 and 17 played baseball in the U.S. By 2013, that number had dropped by more than 41%, to 5.3 million. This might be a good weekend for a game of catch. I’m just saying.