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Growth continues to lead within Large Caps while Value has the advantage among the Mid and Small Cap arena.

There was some movement among the sector rankings. While Health Care, Information Technology, and Communication Services remained the top-three rated sectors (out of eleven total), Consumer Staples advanced to the 4th spot from 6th and Financials dropped to the 8th position from 5th. The bottom-three rated sectors, Real Estate, Energy, and Utilities are the same as last month.

Health Care has been resilient this year, but will that continue in the run-up to the presidential election?  We look at the performance of the Attractively-ranked industry groups and how they have historically performed leading up to an election and post-election. 

Several measures of U.S. economic “surprises” have soared to all-time highs in the last couple of months, showing that even economic forecasters have finally learned to play the corporate game of  “under-promise then over-deliver.” Mind you, that’s only 30 years after most industrial firms eliminated the role of “staff economist.”

Need more proof that we really are contrarians? While others were celebrating new all-time highs in the S&P 500 during August, we were wringing our hands over a disturbing new all-time low.

Despite equal-weighted measures’ long-time underperformance, all valuation ratios we monitor for the median S&P 500 stock have returned to their top historical deciles. Even worse, our new equally-weighted “Valuation Composite,” based on these measures, closed August at a 98th percentile reading.

In August, the S&P 500 notched its fifth consecutive monthly gain with the five largest firms accounting for nearly half of its 7% advance. Those companies are now within spitting distance of comprising 25% of the index—that’s a doubling of market cap for the five largest firms in just under three years.

In 2019 and 2020, our regard for time-tested valuation tools resulted in tactical portfolios being underexposed to stocks during a pair of tremendous rallies. Now, the critique is that we don’t appreciate the brilliance of today’s policymakers and their miraculous ability to pivot just when the stocks (and, in the latest case, the economy) need it most.

And all that winning has translated into an extreme stretch in valuations. The median P/E ratio of our Royal Blue Growth segment is now 90% higher than its average measured back to 1982.

The 2020 decline exhibits a strong resemblance to the “incomplete” bear market of March 2000-September 2001—in that neither decline sufficiently deflated the extreme valuations of the preceding bull, and each was followed by an immediate rebound in reliable valuation measures to top decile levels.

The most likely catalysts for improved relative performance of foreign stocks would be: (1) a bear market; (2) a recession; and, (3) a major downturn in the U.S. dollar. This year has supplied all three, yet the relative strength ratios of most foreign equity composites continue to grind lower as if it’s “business as usual.”

There’s an underlying faith that bureaucrats at the Fed and Treasury will keep good and bad businesses, alike, afloat—and overvalued. We’re still trying to unearth a single historical analog that merits such confidence.

Using non-normalized trailing operating earnings, Small Caps are selling at a 22% valuation discount to Large Caps. August marks the sixth consecutive month that our Ratio of Ratios has indicated a 20% or greater Small Cap discount.

Officially, those quick to pronounce the move off March lows as a new bull market have been proven correct with new S&P 500 all-time highs. Fundamentally, though, there’s enormous risk in Large Cap valuations, regardless of where one believes we are in the economic cycle.

With the second month of Q2-2020 in the books, our Up/Down ratio reads 0.72. We agree that Q2 earnings have come in better than expected, but in this binary study of the “ups” versus “downs,” that element of managed expectations is not captured.

A truly skilled writer would attempt to build up a little suspense before revealing the central theme of this section. But in this makeshift world of sixty-game baseball schedules and seven-inning doubleheaders, who has the time or patience for that?

The breakeven rates capture the spirit of the overall risk rally and continue to provide support. The change in the Fed’s policy goals means it will remain accommodative for even longer.

While most economic numbers have been positive, the fly-in-the-ointment was the latest Senior Loan Officers’ Survey. Banks have tightened their lending standards across the board.

The combination of rebounding economic activity and a surging enchantment with mega-cap growth stocks is pressing investors to make an important tactical call: whether or not to exit some highfliers and shift assets to sectors with more cyclical exposure.