Paulsen's Perspective

Recently, when Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and President Donald Trump both blinked—one on rate hikes and the other on trade wars—the S&P 500 surged by more than 6% in about a week! Many sensed the primary challenges holding back stocks were finally resolving and sentiment quickly turned bullish as investors did not want to miss the Santa Rally! 

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The valuation of the stock market has been under steady pressure this year. The S&P 500 trailing price-earnings (P/E) multiple has declined by about 25% from a recovery peak of 23 in January to about 18. The hope for this bull market is that P/E contraction is almost over, allowing stock prices to again rise with earnings gains. 

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We first published the accompanying chart in March of this year. The PP Ratio had just spiked sharply upward in the previous three months, as it did near the end of the dot-com era in 2000. Since March, in a very similar fashion as shown, the PP Ratio has eerily traced the same path as during the dot-com era.
 

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he velocity of the money supply measures the pace at which cash is spent in the economy, or the amount of total GDP activity created by each dollar of the money supply. Monetary velocity has long been a focal point for the Federal Reserve, economists, and investors because its growth often shapes the character of the recovery.

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From the mid-1920s until the mid-2000s, the performance cycles of small cap stocks relative to large cap stocks (i.e., the small/large market cap factor or SLF) were typically multi-year events.

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Solid economic growth and fabulous profit results have underpinned the stock market in the last couple years. Since the presidential election, the global economic recovery exhibited a rare synchronization for a time, and within the U.S., confidence measures rose from mediocre to near post-war highs...

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The accompanying chart illustrates the annual rate of wage inflation for all U.S. nonsupervisory private nonfarm payrolls. This was the primary wage series used by the Bureau of Labor (BLS) until 2006 when it began using a wage series based on all private sector workers.

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Productivity has been weaker in the contemporary recovery than any other in the post-war era. At just a little above 1% per annum, the pace of productivity growth in this recovery has only been about 40% of the average growth experienced during past periods of economic expansion! 
 

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Amongst a week of elevated financial market volatility, a few random short vignettes on recent action.

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U.S. inflation has been modest for the last 35 years. The annual rate of core consumer price inflation has only briefly been above 5% since 1983, and for the last 20 years has been below 3%! Since inflation has been low for so long, an entire generation of investors often consider it a nonevent. 
 

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A central quandary for equity investors is whether Emerging Markets (EM) represent an opportunity or a risk? Current relative valuations highlight the opportunity. The relative forward P/E multiple (versus the S&P 500) is as low today as it was at the start of this bull market in early 2009, and relative price-to-sales and price-to-book ratios have not been this attractive since the early 2000s!

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Bond yields have taken center stage in the financial markets. Overheat anxieties have awakened, the Federal Reserve is poised for its fourth Fed funds hike of the year in December, and the 10-year bond yield has risen by about 40 basis points in a little over a month!
 

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Inflation has remained low throughout this recovery causing many investors to conclude it is not much of a problem even if it rises a bit further. However, inflation has been trending higher for much of the last four years and has already significantly impacted the stock market. Moreover, because both wage and price inflation recently reached new recovery highs, overheat pressure seems poised to become even more pronounced. 

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Even though the calendar has turned to fall, it sure seems like the Dog Days of Summer have persisted. Volatility across the Financial Markets has been remarkably modest in the last year. It’s not just a low VIX volatility reading in the stock market, but rather, weekly volatility in the stock,

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Despite a very strong economy, defensive stocks have been matching the performance of the overall stock market since early this year. Indeed, in the last three months, while the S&P 500 has returned to a new record high, the top four leading S&P 500 sectors have been those normally considered defensive (i.e., Health Care, Telecom, Utilities, and Consumer Staples), and the five sectors which have trailed the S&P 500 are much more cyclical (Consumer Discretionary, Technology, Financials, Materials, and Energy). 

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Everyone has a favorite stock market valuation tool. For some, it’s the celebrated Shiller CAPE P/E (price/earnings) ratio. Many prefer to value stocks based on expected future earnings or the forward P/E multiple. Others are more comforted by a “show-me-the-money” approach basing the P/E multiple on (actual) trailing earnings.

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Confidence has arguably played an outsized role in the contemporary bull market. It was born amidst widespread fears of the “second coming of the Great Depression,” and until recently, had persevered despite lingering crisis fears and confidence measures which remained below post-war norms. 
 

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Fantastic Fundamentals have pacified the White House, the Federal Reserve, and investors during the last couple years. Is this about the end? 

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The potential for the stock market to rise depends on how much capacity there is for improvement. Can its valuation rise? Could investor confidence improve? Do corporate profits still have room to run? Will stocks become more competitive relative to alternative investments? How spent is the economic recovery?
 

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Potpourri week! No common thread, just a bunch of unrelated thoughts. None are earth shattering, but hopefully each may prove marginally intriguing? So, sit back, grab a refreshing adult beverage, and let your mind wander about a bit…

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