The monitor flashed quite a bit of red last month. But the market was seemingly undeterred and pushed higher anyway. Should this continue?
Fixed Income: 2-Yr Treas Yield 3.91% | 10-Yr Treas. Yield 3.91%
The bond markets saw volatility in August as questions mounted about an impromptu rate-cut by the Federal Reserve Bank (FRB). The most meaningful fall came at the beginning of the month. The perceived weakness in jobs data prompted a move to safety as expectations increased for a rate cut. At the time, people were calling for 0.50% before the September meeting. Cooler heads prevailed and the market is now expecting a 0.25% cut in September. The more impressive data point over the last month was the parody reached on the last trading day of August. This was the first time the two closed at parity since July 5th, 2022! It is still to be determined if rate normalization (higher rates on longer dated fixed income) will prevail. It is a good sign that the anticipated rate cuts are making a large enough impact for us to reach parity.
Equities: Dow Jones 1.76% | S&P 500 2.28% | NASDAQ 0.65%
The market moves that led to a strong month for fixed income signaled weakness for the equity markets. The Nasdaq lost almost four percent in the first week of the month to spend the next two weeks crawling out of that hole. The last week of the month saw the index continue to falter. Strong earnings from bellwether Nvidia (NVDA) was not enough to bolster confidence. Investors seemed to come to the realization that the FRB will likely take a slow methodical path towards rate reductions. That path did not buoy equity markets. In a retracement of the July trades, other major market categories failed to capitalize on weaker large caps:
S&P 400 (Mid Cap Index): 0.21%
Russell 2000 (Small Cap Index): 1.59%
Conclusion
It was, in all, a good month… That’s for two reasons, 1) fixed income made up ground that equities lost, 2) the spread between the 2-yr treasury and the 10-yr treasury reached parity. Something of a signal that the soft landing the FRB is looking for has been achieved. Generally, a recession (that would be evident by this point) would have caused a normalization of the curve.
A Look Ahead…
We see two key reasons to expect further volatility in equity markets during the next month:
- The 22.40 price to earnings (P/E) ratio for the S&P 500 will need to narrow further before markets can start a real rally.
- September is notoriously the worst month of the year for equities:
- 2023: 5.35%
- 2022: 8.92%
- 2021: 4.89%
- 2020: 4.12%
- 2019: 2.32%
Some logic would point to the high frequency in recent years being a signal that volatility should weaken in September. I find that unlikely given the elevated P/E referenced.
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Markets retreated throughout April. Should we expect ‘Sell in May & Go Away’ or is there a reason for hope?
Monday S&P 500 0.02% | NASDAQ 0.14%
The trading week opened deep in the red. The week was expected to be weak as technology companies were reporting. The equity markets climbed throughout the day, but it was not enough to end in the green. Interestingly, the 10-year treasury retreated, lending to the climb in equity prices throughout the day.
Tuesday S&P 500 2.84% | NASDAQ 3.95%
Markets pushed lower curtesy of technology stocks. Safe haven bonds caught a bid on the day as interest rates fell in response to the broad equity sell-off. Markets are now near their lows from early March.
Wednesday S&P 500 0.21% | NASDAQ 0.01%
Equities attempted to gain on the day, but their momentum faded late in the day. Facebook was set to report earnings after hours and concerns may have caused late selling. The 10-year treasury rose 0.1% on the day (rates and price move in opposite directions).
Thursday S&P 500 2.47% | NASDAQ 3.06%
In a major course reversal of recent sessions, markets rose substantially on Thursday. The move came in spite of a surprise contraction in the US economy. GDP was expected to rise 1% and actually fell 1.4%. The market turn may have come as a weaker economy creates less reason for the Federal Reserve Bank (FRB) to be aggressive. The 10-year treasury remained fairly unchanged, which is the bond markets way of saying, not so fast. This indicates FRB moves should remain as previously expected.
Friday S&P 500 3.67% | NASDAQ 4.17%
Whelp, that was short lived. The rally from Thursday was completely erased on Friday as markets tumbled right from the open. Amazon earnings disappointed sourly and served up a sell off on Friday. AMZN alone fell over 14% on the day.
Conclusion S&P 500 3.27% | NASDAQ 3.93%
Markets successfully swept the month of April. All four weeks were down. The month opened with FRB minutes announcing quantitative tightening and markets did not need much else to start the retreat. One out of every five years (on average) we get a ‘Sell in May and Go Away’ where markets retreat. Could this be inverted as the first four months only saw one month of gains? Friday’s rout of markets may be reason to think so. The S&P and NASDAQ have revisited their February lows and Friday’s sell-off was broad and extended. Generally, that is the type of sell-off that sets a floor. Of course, the FRB meeting on the 4th could change all that. Some hope exists for a more dovish Fed given the lower GDP and softening core PCE (Inflation).
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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.