Latest Research

With the second month of Q2-21 earnings in the books, our Up/Down ratio reads 2.03. This is inline with past YOY earnings-cycle highs but somewhat of a disappointment given the record “one-month” figure for July results.

The reflation trade stayed in a holding pattern with breakeven rates remaining range bound. Within fixed income, we are favorable toward TIPS and cautious on credit.

We take a look at how the market rewards different uses for cash and what drives management decisions about the use of cash over time. The focus here is on the three main cash applications: investment (Capex and R&D), return of cash (via buybacks and dividends), and M&A spending.

The S&P 500 stayed on cruise control in August, notching its seventh consecutive monthly gain. During that streak, our downside to median estimates have remained in a tight range as both numerators and denominators increased.

AdvantHedge was down 1.3% in August, ahead of the inverse S&P 500 (-3.0%), and the inverse Russell 2000 (-2.2%). Sector performance lacked any clear style drivers as Financials, Communication Services, and Utilities were the top-three S&P 500 sectors.

The Leuthold Core and Global portfolios both posted positive performance in August. Strong results from AdvantHedge (equity hedge) was a boost to return.

Read this week's Major Trend Index

Read this week's Major Trend.

Hiker #1: Can you run faster than that hungry bear looking at us?

Hiker #2: I don’t need to run faster than the bear, I just need to run faster than you.

The Momentum style of investing has a long history of generating excess returns, and ranks near the top of the list of essential smart beta factors. However, Momentum also has a dark side; it is prone to severe drawdowns whenever the market makes a significant reversal.

The weakness in Value* over the last few months has gotten a lot of attention (Chart 1). While we are still on board with the “Value trade” in general, a subtle but distinct change within the theme has emerged. There is a clear bid for Quality, which had not happened in the massive post-Covid junk rally until recently.

Read this week's Major Trend. 

Market environments are driven not just by industry preferences, but also by a bias toward the very largest companies. We have developed a new set of groups composed of the 10 largest companies from each sector. With several of these baskets sporting positive rankings, we felt a closer look was in order.

Read this week's Major Trend. 

Financials and Consumer Discretionary remain at the top of our sector rankings. Materials dropped out of the top three to 5th, along with Industrials moving from 4th to 7th. Information Technology and Communication Services moved in tandem to the 3rd and 4th spots, from 5th and 6th, respectively. Energy, Real Estate, and Utilities are the three-worst rated, which has been the case for over a year.

Market environments are driven not just by industry preferences, but also by a bias toward the very largest companies. We have developed a new set of groups composed of the 10 largest companies from each sector. With several of these baskets sporting positive rankings, we felt a closer look was in order.

The combined share classes of Google ended the month with a 4.25% weighting in the S&P 500. Google is now the seventh firm since 1990 to join the prestigious 4% Club. YTD, Google’s +54% return has added $545 billion to the index’s market cap (that’s one Tesla or three Walmart’s).

Large Cap Growth is back in gear and nearing its September 2020 relative-strength high versus Large Cap Value.

Stock market liquidity might seem plentiful, with the Fed still buying $120 billion in bonds per month under the all-too-predictable continuation of what was first billed as an emergency operation. However, the steadiness of QE masks a major second-quarter reversal in “excess liquidity.”

Using non-normalized trailing operating earnings, Small Caps are selling at an 18% valuation discount to Large Caps. At the end of March, we had an 8% discount for Small Caps. Since then, the Russell 2000 has done its best to tread water with a +0.5% gain, while the S&P 500 has shot +11.1% higher.

The half-percentage-point drop in the 10-year Treasury yield, since mid-March, has investors worried about “what the bond market might know” that the stock market doesn’t. Maybe it’s time to stop lionizing the bond market’s prescience and give the stock market its due.