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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Earnings were strong across the week, which pushed markets higher. Will it hold up for future quarters?
Monday
The S&P 500 rose .50% to open the week. This was a great opening figure. As of late, markets have opened the week with a blah performance. It has either been down or only up slightly. VIX is currently 16 and this would represent the upper ended of the daily range for the S&P 500.
Tuesday
The S&P 500 rose 0.20% on Tuesday. The housing market provided some explosive data as new home sales surged by 14%. Additionally, the Home Price Index, which measures change in average home prices rose 18.5% YoY (Oct). Believe it or not, this measure is a slow down from last month’s 19.2%.
Wednesday
Markets shifted lower for the first time in a while on Wednesday. The S&P 500 lost 0.50%. Corporate earnings contributed to the move lower for the first time. Earnings from large cap Tech stocks, out Tuesday evening, pushed market sentiment lower at the open. Compounding the sentiment was a larger than expected draw down of oil supplies. This lends to concerns around continued price pressures, AKA inflation concerns.
Thursday
The markets rebounded nicely on Thursday, as the S&P 500 rose 0.98%. Initial jobless claims fell to the lowest level since the start of the pandemic (281K). A trend that is happening more and more as of late. For perspective, average initial job losses at the end of the last expansion were around 200K to 220K per week.
Friday
Markets closed the day and the week on an up tone. The S&P 500 rose 0.20% to end the day and a weekly gain of 1.14%. This happened even as consumer sentiment came in at 71.7. The brighter news of the day was higher than expected consumer spending. Additionally, Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) came in at 4.4% YoY in September. While the highest level to date, it is still substantially lower than its CPI counterpart at 5.4%. The Federal Reserve Board (FRB) regards the PCE measure as a more accurate indication of inflation.
Conclusion
Markets celebrated another strong week for corporate earnings, even as GDP slides to 2.0% in Q3 from 6.7% in Q2. 55% of S&P 500 companies have now reported and 82% are beating on earnings and 66% have beat on revenue. Cost cutting initiatives should be expected over the next year as companies attempt to absorb higher input costs. Unfortunately, expect coming quarters earnings beats to fall as interest rates creep higher and inflation deteriorates bottom line performance.
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Always remember that while this is a week in review, this does not trigger or relate to trading activity on your account with Financial Future Services. Broad diversification across several asset classes with a long-term holding strategy is the best strategy in any market environment.
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.