The Stock Market
Bad Hair Days Are Back
We recently discussed the many divergences between major US indexes, which led us to expect that a downturn in the stock market was close (see The Calm Before the Storm for details). Here is an update of the comparison chart we showed at the time:
The divergences between various indexes seem to be resolving as expected.
A Global Pattern
You are no doubt aware of the saying “sell in May and go away”. It is one of the best-known and oldest stock market truisms.
Mark Twain’s famous saying about stock market speculation (the other one was “There are two times in a man’s life when he should not speculate – when he cannot afford it, and when he can”). From a seasonal perspective he was definitely right about September and October. [PT]
Do You Hear a Bell Ringing?
The sun shines brightest across the North American continent as we enter summer’s dog days. Cold sweet lemonade is the refreshment of choice at ballparks and swimming holes alike. Many people drink it after cutting the grass, or whenever else a respite from the heat and some thirst quenching satisfaction is needed.
Regardless of whether companies were able to “beat estimates” (which as often happens, were revised lower just before the reporting season started), their actual Q2 results didn’t look very encouraging so far. The manufacturing sector in particular looks a bit frayed around the edges as the saying goes. [PT]
A Pleasant Surprise
You can probably imagine that I am convinced of the merits of seasonality. However, even I was surprised that an investment strategy based on seasonality is apparently leaving numerous far more popular strategies in the dust. And yet, this is exactly what a recent comprehensive scientific study asserts – a study that probably considers a longer time span than most: it examines up to 217 years of market history!
A chart of nominal commodity prices since the mid 12th century. A little aside to this: Estimates for some commodity prices date as far back as 3000 BC. The oldest price records permitting construction of a price index are from the time of the Babylonian empire, the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and the Minoan civilization (which blossomed during a time of global warming) from approx. 1840 BC to 1620 BC. One of the most intense periods of nominal commodity price inflation occurred in the roughly 130 years following the death of Emperor Severus Alexander in AD 235 (which marked the beginning of the Roman Empire’s “crisis of the third century”) until the reign of Julian the Apostate from 361 AD to 363 AD. Price information after Diocletian’s attempt to impose price controls in 301 AD (“edict on maximum prices”) is too spotty to permit index construction, but it is known that inflation accelerated even more after the edict failed. Rome’s history of monetary debasement started with Nero’s reign from 54 AD – 68 AD – Nero reduced the silver content of the Denarius by 10% to 90%. By the time Diocletian’s edict was promulgated in 301 AD, the silver content of the Denarius was a mere 0.02%. The worst offender among the third century emperors was Aurelian, who in the five years of his reign from 270 AD to 275 AD reduced the coin’s silver content from 50% to just 5%. Not surprisingly, he tried his hand at price controls as well (at least he won the wars he funded through debasing the realm’s coinage). It took until the 20th century and the adoption of a “scientific monetary policy” by central planning agencies for prices to increase almost as rapidly and strongly as in the chaotic third century. [PT]
Intra-Market Divergences Galore
US big cap stocks have rallied to new highs in recent months, but just as in the rally from the low of the February 2018 mini-panic to the September/October 2018 peak, sizable divergences between different indexes have emerged in the process. New highs in the big cap indexes (DJIA, SPX, NDX) are once again not confirmed by small caps (RUT), the broad market (NYA) and a number of sub-sectors (such as the DJTA which is included in the chart below; according to Dow Theory, the DJTA must confirm moves in the DJIA to validate its trend).
From the top: weekly charts of DJIA, SPX, NDX, RUT, NYA and DJTA. The recent new highs in the three large cap indexes have not been confirmed by small caps and the broad market. Note also the sizable RSI/price divergence in the DJIA (which is mirrored by SPX and NDX) – this is a sign of faltering momentum that is often seen ahead of trend changes.
Maurice Jackson Interviews Rick Rule
Rick Rule is a renowned investor in junior resource stocks. He is currently working for Sprott USA. Recently Maurice Jackson of Proven and Probable sat down with him for an extensive interview which you can watch below.
Rick Rule, legendary resource stock investor
The “Greatest Economy in History” Stumbles
“This is the greatest economy in the history of our country”, Donald Trump opined just a few months ago.
Alas, recently there is growing evidence of an economic slowdown.
The Morgan Stanley MSBCI business conditions gauge plummets to its lowest level since 2008, as recent economic data releases ominously persist in disappointing. [PT]
The Ugly End of Globalization
Sometime in the fall of 2018 a lowly gofer at the New York Stock Exchange was sweating bullets. He had made an honest mistake. One that could forever tag him a buffoon.
Art Cashin the living hat-stand, going through a succession of DJIA milestone hats. He promised was going to crack a smile for the Dow 27,000 hat photo, alas, it was not to be. [PT]
The Seeds of the Next Bust Are Closer to Sprouting
The price of gold was up this week, by $10 and that of silver by ¢6. Something is brewing in the fundamentals that we haven’t seen since… last year. We will show a picture of this, below.
There are many problems with assuming a rising stock market means a growing economy. We’ve written many times about the much-greater growth of debt, i.e., borrowing to consume, which adds to GDP.
S&P 500 Index, monthly – the huge rally since 2009 was accompanied by the weakest economic recovery of the post-WW2 era. Evidently, the stock market does not necessarily reflect economic growth. Very often numerous other factors prove to be far more important drivers of stock prices. A pertinent example is Venezuela’s soaring stock market, which is up by 88,500% in the past year alone (this is not a typo). Meanwhile, the country’s economy is contracting since 2014, with the slump accelerating to a stunning -16.5% y/y in both 2017 and 2018. The S&P 500 Index is an island of sanity by comparison, at least superficially (the ceteris are of course not paribus). [PT]
Investors are Oblivious to the Market’s Downside Potential
This is a brief update on a number of sentiment/positioning indicators we have frequently discussed in these pages in the past. In this missive our focus is exclusively on indicators that are of medium to long-term relevance to prospective stock market returns. Such indicators are not really useful for the purpose of market timing – instead they are telling us something about the likely duration and severity of the bust that will follow on the heels of the current market mania. The first chart is an update of the current situation in RYDEX funds. Despite their small size, these funds have always represented a quite accurate microcosm of general market sentiment.
A RYDEX overview: RYDEX money market fund assets have recently declined to new all time lows; the pure non-leveraged bull-bear fund ratio is back above 29 (i.e., bull funds assets are more then 29 times larger than bear fund assets). At the top of the tech mania in early March 2000, this ratio peaked at roughly 17. Lastly, the amount of assets in RYDEX bear funds demonstrates that bears remain extremely discouraged. It is fair to say that at this stage almost no-one expects that the market could suffer a serious slump.
Earnings Lottery
Shareholders are are probably asking themselves every quarter how the earnings of companies in their portfolios will turn out. Whether they will beat or miss analyst expectations often seems akin to a lottery.
The beatings will continue until morale improves… [PT]
Europe at an Important Juncture
European economic fundamentals have deteriorated rather noticeably over the past year – essentially ever since the German DAX Index topped out in January 2018. Now, European stock markets have reached an important juncture from a technical perspective. Consider the charts of the Euro-Stoxx 50 Index and the DAX shown below:
The Euro-Stoxx 50 Index already peaked in early November 2017, the DAX followed suit in January 2018 – such divergent peaks are a hallmark of major turning points. The recent rally has pushed European stocks back up to trendline resistance and they are now severely overbought.
Most read in the last 20 days:
Sovereign Bonds – Stretched to the Limit
Anti-Vigilantes We dimly remember when Japanese government debt traded at a negative yield to maturity for the very first time. This happened at some point in the late 1990s or early 2000ds in secondary market trading (it was probably a shorter maturity than the 10-year JGB) and was considered quite a curiosity. If memory serves, it happened on just one brief occasion and it was widely held at the time that the absurd situation of a bond buyer accepting a certain loss if the bonds were...
Writing on the Wall
Not Adding Up One of the more disagreeable discrepancies of American life in the 21st century is the world according to Washington’s economic bureaus and the world as it actually is. In short, things don’t add up. What’s more, the propaganda is so far off the mark, it is downright insulting. Coming down from the mountain with the latest data tablet... [PT] The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports an unemployment rate of just 3.7 percent. The BLS also...
Global Stock Markets: Danger Lies Directly Ahead
A Global Pattern You are no doubt aware of the saying “sell in May and go away”. It is one of the best-known and oldest stock market truisms. Mark Twain's famous saying about stock market speculation (the other one was “There are two times in a man's life when he should not speculate – when he cannot afford it, and when he can”). From a seasonal perspective he was definitely right about September and October. [PT] The saying is in fact justified...
Bond Yields in the Netherworld - Precious Metals Supply and Demand
A Record Amount of Bonds with Negative Yields to Maturity Last week the price of gold went up $22, while the price of silver dropped ¢17. The big news last week was that the yield on all German government bond maturities is now negative. They are also all negative in Switzerland. And in Denmark, all maturities out to 20 years are negative. Interest rates are dropping rapidly in the US as well. More than $14 trillion in bonds now trade at negative yields to maturity –...
Rising Stock Market Volatility – Another Warning Sign
Bad Hair Days Are Back We recently discussed the many divergences between major US indexes, which led us to expect that a downturn in the stock market was close (see The Calm Before the Storm for details). Here is an update of the comparison chart we showed at the time: The divergences between various indexes seem to be resolving as expected. The next chart shows analogous divergences between the S&P 500 Index and two major foreign stock markets: US...
Retail Holders Sell Their Gold - Precious Metals Supply and Demand
A Myriad of Reasons to Buy Gold – But Small Holders are Selling Big moves occurred in the prices of the metals last week, with that of gold up $57 and silver $0.77. We have now reached a price of gold (if not silver) not seen since 2013, when it was on the way down. What is causing this sudden spike in price and renewed interest in gold? A well-known depiction of investor emotions over a complete market cycle. Interestingly, it appears as though many retail gold holders...
Bitcoin – From Greed to Fear
A Noteworthy Sentiment Change Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have declined quite sharply in recent days. Here is an overnight snapshot of the daily chart: Bitcoin corrects again... It is difficult to gauge sentiment on BTC objectively, but there is a service that tries to do just that. According to its greed & fear barometer, the recent decline seems to have triggered quite a bit of apprehension: The BTC sentiment measure of alternative.me has...
Getting to a Special State of Ugly
Suspicious Phrases There are certain phrases – like “trust me” or “I got this” – that should immediately provoke one’s suspicion. When your slippery contractor tells you, “trust me, your kitchen renovation will be done before Christmas,” you should be wary. There is no way it will be done before late spring. USD-CNH (offshore yuan) exchange rate – the support/resistance level at 7 finally breaks amid escalating trade war rhetoric. [PT] Or...
Interest Rate Watch and Bond Market Curiosities
Things To Keep An Eye On Below is an overview of important US interest rates and yield curve spreads. In view of the sharp increase in stock market volatility, yields on government debt have continued to decline in a hurry. However, the flat to inverted yield curve has not yet begun to steep – which usually happens shortly before recessions and the associated bear markets begin. 2-year note yield, 3-month t-bill yield, 10-year note yield, 10-year/2-year yield spread,...
Tumbling Interest Rates - Precious Metals Supply and Demand
An Era of Low Time Preference Last week the price of gold moved up another $16, and the price of silver was up $0.14. 10-year treasury note yield since 1999 – it is almost back at the multi-decade low of 2016. The only other time in history when US treasury yields were this low was in 1944-1945, when the Fed was actively suppressing yields in order to provide cheap financing for the war effort. One year later (from mid 1946 to mid 1947) the CPI jumped to more than 17%...
A Bubble in Complacency - Incrementum Advisory Board Discussion
Incrementum Advisory Board Meeting of 31 July 2019 At the end of July the Advisory Board of the Incrementum Fund held its quarterly meeting (a full transcript is available for download at the end of this post). The board was joined by special guest Simon Mikhailovich, a financial market veteran who inter alia co-founded the Toqueville Bullion Reserve. The title of the transcript and this post was inspired by his remarks. Special guest Simon Mikhailovich We...
Austrian Theory and Investment
Realtime Charts
Gold in USD:
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/gold/t24_au_en_usoz_2.gif)
Gold in EUR:
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/gold/t24_au_en_euoz_2.gif)
Silver in USD:
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/silver/t24_ag_en_usoz_2.gif)
Platinum in USD:
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/platinum/t24_pt_en_usoz_2.gif)
USD - Index:
![[Most Recent USD from www.kitco.com]](http://www.weblinks247.com/indexes/idx24_usd_en_2.gif)
