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Our Ratio of Ratios is unchanged from July, as the average stock in both the S&P 500 and S&P 600 experienced similar pullbacks in August: -3.4% and -4.3%, respectively.

Our latest ratio of 1.05 is awful. The improved earnings picture for the aggregated S&P 500 has not trickled down to the average firm. In this earnings vignette, where one firm gets one vote, EPS growth is still very hard to come by. That fact, and the narrowness of the 2023’s market strength are certainly linked.

The Risk Aversion Index ticked up in August, but its “Lower-Risk” message is unchanged. Within fixed income, we remain constructive on shorter maturity and higher-quality credit.

The 10-year yield made a new cycle high just before the Jackson Hole meeting. That is significant, as it not only broke the lower-high-lower-low pattern since last October, but also rejected the hypothesis, “we have seen the cycle high in interest rates,” which was the consensus at the start of 2023.

Bloomberg macro strategist, Cameron Crise, noted in early September that the 10-Yr./3-Mo. Treasury-yield spread was set to exceed the old record of consecutive days (217) in negative territory. That threshold, established in 2006-07, was indeed broken on September 7th, and—with the spread still more than 100 basis points—an end to the current inversion episode is hardly on the immediate horizon.

The Broker-Dealer Index (XBD) is one of just a handful of indexes to surpass its old bull market high, but its gains are far below average for the first year of a major advance. Meanwhile, the BKW Bank Index (BKX) is revisiting price levels of 25 years ago—it is just one percent above the average daily close in 1998. Yes, as a group, the big banks have been dead money for 25 years (excluding dividends).

After hovering near the highs of the post-COVID expansion, in August, the Present Situation Index turned down, and is now below its 10-month moving average for the first time since December. When this measure is at a high level, but declining (like now), it is the worst backdrop for stock performance.

Based on successful Russell 2000 VLT BUY signals, 1982-forward, the index had gained an average of 23% eight months later—and none had a losing position. Since the VLT BUY on January 31st (eight months ago), the Russell 2000 has dropped 3.9%. Furthermore, Small Caps bottomed 15 months ago, and in a normal cyclical bull market, the Russell 2000 would be up 50-70% by this time.

Most labor market measures continue to weaken, and for investors still heavily invested in stocks, we’d caution against waiting for all labor market figures to deteriorate before scaling back. Equities will likely take a big dive before such conclusive evidence arrives.

A contraction of 3% or more in the LEI’s six-month annualized rate-of-change has always been associated with a recession, with an average lead time of four months. Using that guideline, the most recent recession warning was triggered in June 2022, and the lead time is now approaching the longest ever recorded (16 months in 2006-07). If today’s lead time matches the 2006-07 experience, the business-cycle peak will occur in October.

In early September, rising bond yields and a falling Forward Earnings Yield caused the Fed Model to rank the S&P 500 at its least-attractive level relative to Treasury bonds since mid-2002. We think this illustrates—better than any other measure—why market pundits have finally jilted their mistress of a dozen years: TINA.

In early September, the co-founder of one of the largest U.S. private equity firms declared that predicting recessions is a “fool’s errand.” We couldn’t disagree more.

At long last, we’ve exited an investment world that was defined for more than a decade by zero interest rates and Quantitative Easing. Or so we thought.

Read this week's Major Trend.

This month’s Refresh continues our practice of summarizing the latest earnings season by evaluating the composite results of the S&P 500 member companies. Many analysts address sales and net income, but rarely speak to the middle lines of the income statement.

Option collar strategies provide a defined outcome on the date of maturity, but the value from inception to maturity varies. In the case of an extreme market move either direction, a collar strategy will not capture the fullness of the fluctuation early in its lifecycle, but should reach its cap/floor value as maturity nears.

Despite August’s strong second half, the S&P 500 snapped its five-month winning streak. The roughly 2% loss took a little air out of the recently ballooning downside estimates.

Read this week's Major Trend. 

An outstanding second half for Q2-23 earnings pushed the S&P 500 bottom-up EPS estimate from $51.30 to $54.92. Amazon and Nvidia were the two largest contributors to the August surge. With the entire index nearly done reporting, our current EPS estimate will end 11% below its high watermark ($61.56).

Read this week's MTI update.