The NASDAQ served up an annualized return of 66% in its final two years of dot-com mania. Only after the balloon had burst did people begin to question the lunacy of paying 10x revenue for the privilege of being a shareholder. Ironically enough, since early 2016, the top 10 growth names in tech collectively produced an annualized return of 67%. That’s right. The NYSE FANG+ Index has topped turn-of-the-century craziness. For the current bull-bear cycle, then, we may be witnessing…
Here is an economic data point that you will not hear about in the mainstream financial media: U.S. wage growth in 2017 had been the weakest since 2010. In fact, labor costs rose a paltry 0.35% on a year-over-year basis. Are higher wages for workers, then, right around the bend? Some believe that the tighter labor market is about to spark wage inflation. Yet it seems that this could be wishful thinking. Actual inflation has shown up in housing costs (e.g., rent, repairs,…
Today’s stock market may not be as dangerous as 2000’s dot-com euphoria or 2008’s asset balloon. Why not? Global central banks are likely to act quicker and with far more “shock-n-awe” to minimize bearish price depreciation than they did in the previous sell-offs. Some argue that policy efforts would fail to reinvigorate yet another wealth effect because central banks are out of ammunition. I disagree. Indeed, I expect that monetary gamesmanship in the near future will result in an average…
Mainstream media commentators regularly tell you that higher interest rates in 2018 will not threaten your portfolio. After all, they assure you, tax reform added piles of dollars to the bottom line profits of corporations as well as placed mounds of money back into the pockets of millions of households. Can one be certain, however, that fiscal stimulus (e.g., new spending package, recent tax overhaul, etc.) will neutralize increased borrowing costs? For example, a large chunk of prospective homeowners have already dropped…
The U.S Department of the Treasury currently forecasts that the national debt will reach the $25 trillion mark by the 3rd quarter of 2020. That’s just two and a half years from now. What is $25 trillion among American friends? If you combine the debts of every other sovereign state on the planet, you still do not reach $25 trillion. Our nation is a serial debtor. It is easier to dismiss the enormity of the obligation when government is capable of…
A top-tier financial web site interviews me at the start of every year. The interviewer typically asks me about specific securities, asset allocation, economic backdrop as well as the impact of events (e.g., central bank monetary policy, mid-term elections, tax reform, etc.) This year, at the tail end of the interview, I fielded an atypical query. He wanted to know what “market surprise” might occur in 2018 (good or bad) that the financial media are not talking about. I thought…
The U.S. stock market has rarely notched 150 trading days without back-to-back 0.5%-plus declines. It happened on one occasion prior to the financial crisis in 2007. It also occurred once in the mid-1990s and twice in the 1960s. More recently, the S&P 500 logged an additional streak for consecutive trading sessions. This time, however, 150 days did not serve as the high-water mark. Nor was it 200 or 250 days. The new record streak that culminated on January 30, 2018? Try…
I have quite a few clients in their eighties and a number in their late eighties. That is not particularly surprising when your client base is chock-full of retirees and near retirees. What did surprise me a bit is a call from an 87-year old client yesterday afternoon. She called to inquire why her friends are making more money in the stock market than she has been making recently. “Are most of your friends in their 40s or 50s?” I…
Stock market bearishness is practically extinct. You would have to travel back in time to 1987 to find a greater level of disparity between investment adviser bulls (64.4%) and bears (13.3%). The mainstream media continue to fuel the enthusiasm for equities by touting desirable tailwinds, including tax cut-led economic growth, low inflation and full employment. Indeed, these conditions are favorable for the time being. What the mainstream media are missing, however, is the nature of asset bubbles themselves. Specifically, asset…
Richard Russell, an exceptionally well-regarded Dow Theorist, explained that a stock market can do absolutely anything over short periods of time. Yet, over longer periods, the greatest certainty is “regression to the mean.” “Regression to the mean” refers to the inevitability of prices revisiting a long-term trend. For example, near the beginning of the Roaring ’20s, stock prices sat nearly 60% below their long-term historical trend. As the Roaring ’20s rolled along, demand for equities outstripped supply to such an extent,…
