Market moves across the month were to the south. Fixed income markets seemed to have a more drastic message on the monitor than that of equities.
Fixed Income: 2-Yr Treas Yield 4.16% | 10-Yr Treas. Yield 4.28%
Bond markets went for a reversal ride in October. After several months of falling rates, we began to see a pullback in the bond market as interest rates rose. The 2-year treasury rose 0.55%, while the 10-year treasury rose 0.54%. The good news is that while rising, the rates did not invert again. The long picture remains intact. We are still in an elevated rate environment with them more likely to drift south rather than north. This move may have been the result of predictions for a potential structure that would mean tariffs. This would reflect a higher inflation potential which would signal a slower path in future rate cuts. Additional good news is that while rates from 6 months on rose, shorter duration rates continued to fall. This bodes well for the normalization of the entire curve.
Equities: Dow Jones 1.34% | S&P 500 0.99% | NASDAQ 0.52%
While it was a down month for equites, the overall move south was not bad for the month. From the top of the market for the S&P 500 (10/18/2024) to the end of the month logged a 2.83%. This proved to be a mild lead up to the beginning of November. The nice part is that while a correction has not materialized, earnings season did, bringing the P/E ratio for the S&P 500 back down to 21.19.
Throughout the month utility stock did well until the last week of the month. A shifting towards Financial and consumer discretionary was underway. Neither of which are surprising given interest rates (favoring financials) and the fact that we are in the fourth quarter… I like to say, ‘Americans spend money they do not have on things they do not need’, AKA: holiday season!
Conclusion
Equities pulled back less than was indicative of the rate move on the bond market. The move there signaled more concern about higher rates for longer than equities chose to price in. The shift in rates seemed like a long-term change in projection, while short rates seemed anchored to FRB actions. The longer rage rates often can be equated to long range GDP expectations. If the view is that we would have stronger forward GDP in 5 years, then we see a stronger 5-year rate.
A Look Ahead…
Market responses in October could have been far more drastic than they were. We should feel fortunate that we got the October that we did. This still leaves a correction (a market fall of 10% to 19%) unattended to. The last one ended 10/27/2023. While stretched P/E’s from over the summer have become more reasonable, that’s been due to strong earnings. Those may continue in the short run, but moving into 2025 those might be harder to come by. It may very well cause a correction in the first half of the year.
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Taper Tantrum 2.0 looks inevitable, but will it be as bad as last time?
Monday
The S&P 500 dug itself quite the hole on Monday morning. It spent the whole day climbing out of it and successfully closed 0.2% higher on the day. Strong earnings from Home Depot and Walmart buoyed markets.
Tuesday
Broadly, markets fell on Tuesday. Relinquishing all the effort from Monday’s trading activity. The S&P 500 fell 0.7%. Retail sales fell 1.1%, while a 0.7% increase was expected. The hit to consumption sent a shock through markets. The prevailing thought was, perhaps the re-opening trade will not last as long or as strong as many had expected.
Wednesday
After remaining stable most of the day, markets sold off in the closing hour of trading. The S&P 500 lost 0.85%. This was in response to Federal Reserve Board (FRB) minutes. They indicated tapering of their bond purchase program ($120B/month) may end sooner than most investors expected… Queue ‘Taper Tantrum 2.0’.
Thursday
Despite a volatile day, markets were little changed as the S&P 500 gained 0.1%. Initial jobless claims continue to impress as 348K jobs were lost. While 75% higher than pre-pandemic levels this is the lowest level since the beginning of the pandemic!
Friday
The markets bounced on Friday, as the S&P 500 rose 0.8% on the day. This did not erase the losses from the week but did manage to more than half those losses. The economic data and earnings calendars were light on Friday. This came more as a comeback bounce from the previous volatility. With all the concerns, the weekend news cycle was not one of them…
Conclusion
The last Taper Tantrum occurred in 2013 when the FRB decided to start trimming its bond purchase program ahead of rate increases in 2015. This is a form of monetary tightening. When the FRB buys bonds they go on their balance sheet and the money they paid goes into the economy (currently $120B/month). As they slow those purchases, less money is being infused into the economy. This time the FRB is attempting to telegraph the decision to taper bond buying as to not shock bond markets. These attempts will help, but regardless of their efforts markets will still react adversely to a tightening of monetary policy.
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Any and all third-party posts or responses to this blog do not reflect the views of the firm and have not been reviewed by the firm for completeness or accuracy.