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Compare the U.S. monetary response in early 2020 to China’s: The Fed quadrupled the M2 growth rate (from 6% to 24%) in three months, while China merely bumped M2 growth from 8% to 11%. This relative policy restraint leaves China in a better position to handle potential fallout than if it had gone “all in” like the U.S.  

In a recent “Chart of the Week,” we discussed the late-cycle “inversion” in Consumer Confidence, where consumers’ views of their “Present Situation” have jumped far above their “Expectations.” That’s the reverse of what’s typical in the first couple years of an economic expansion.

Financials, Information Technology, Health Care, and Consumer Discretionary occupy 19 of the 24 seats in the Attractive range at present. Cyclical groups have ranked well since last fall and continue to do so, while Growth-oriented themes have also recently made a comeback—with Health Care returning to the top five of our sector ranks back in August. 

Industries propelling performance have been diverse; the top-five groups are from five different sectors. Commodity-oriented, retail, and financial groups have been the primary drivers. The Leuthold Select Industries equity strategy, which chooses its thematic investments from the GS Score’s Attractive range, is up 20.2% YTD through September.

Notwithstanding the hit to consumers’ pocketbooks, it’s been amusing to follow the Fed’s recent evolution with its mindset regarding inflation. A year ago, the hope was for “symmetry”—Fed-speak for allowing inflation to run above its long-time 2% target, since it had previously undercut that level for awhile. Then, early in 2021, the word “transitory” entered the lexicon; yet months of debate and tens of thousands of utterances on financial television have clarified nothing about the Fed’s characterization of that term.

The post-COVID surge in the NASDAQ 100 has been a perfect match in terms of duration with the one following the crisis afflicting Russian debt (and the LTCM debacle) in the fall of 1998. Incredibly, both of these historic market moves lasted 369 trading—but that’s where the resemblance ends.

Elevated valuations and a global tightening cycle are usually not a favorable context for risky assets. Within fixed income, we remain positive toward TIPS and cautious on credit.

The MTI’s move to its Negative zone with the October 1st reading was driven by a few trend breakdowns—ones that could well reverse in short order. Recognizing the volatility of these signals (and perhaps having been “conditioned” by the one-way market of the last 18 months), we opted for just a minor asset allocation adjustment.

The Citi Economic Surprise Index fell to a negative extreme, while the Citi Inflation Surprise Index made all-time highs—a “stagflation” gap. Overall, if history repeats itself, the extreme ESI-ISI gap is apt to resolve itself, and the effect on asset markets will likely be limited. The global tightening trend will be a far more persuasive driver.

Massive gains in stock market wealth have undoubtedly been a contributor to inflation, yet few analyses of the inflation picture even mention the stock market—other than to predict it will soar when inflation proves transitory.

What if the S&P 500’s September 2nd closing high were to miraculously stand as the cycle’s high-water mark? If it did, the peak was presaged—in retrospect—by two Federal Reserve Bank presidents who rode the liquidity wave all the way to its crest after assuring the floodgates would be left wide open. Both resigned in September. 

Short positions did well as expensive stocks underperformed amid rising rates and market volatility.

The Leuthold Core and Global portfolios both held up better during the September selloff than their all-equity benchmarks.

Investors view Emerging Markets (EM) as the best source of economic growth across global equity markets, and rightly so. Annualized EM GDP growth of 8.6% since 2001 is more than double that of the U.S. and Europe. However, investors have not captured this extraordinary advance because earnings per share for the MSCI EM Index have lagged far behind EM economic growth rates.

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The S&P 500 shed 4.8% in September—its worst month since the panic of March 2020. This trimming of the numerator helped make our downside to median estimates a little less negative. In fact, these are the “best” figures we’ve seen since February.

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The recent bout of market turbulence has taken a little shine off of the two most famous meme stocks. Still, the elevated levels at which both AMC and GameStop trade can be described as nothing short of spectacular.

A replay of a Zoom Call with Chief Investment Strategist, Jim Paulsen where he shared his thoughts and observations on today's market and what he sees looking ahead. The slides are available through the PDF Download.

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