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MACRO VIEW
The Good World industrial production is pointing to the right direction So far this season, companies have posted nice better than expected EPS numbers. Eurozone composite output PMI climbed to a 31-month high of 53.2 in January from 52.1 in December, with the manufacturing and services sectors improving. German investor confidence remains strong. Moody's upgraded Ireland's rating to IG and Standard & Poor's removed Portugal from its credit watch list. GIIPS bonds and stocks are at or near multi-year highs, driven by hunger for yield. The Bad A global economic perfect storm is building momentum as the consequence of converging bad news from Europe (deflation risk and mild recovery), China (signs economic weakness and an intensifying fight with shadow banks), Emerging Markets (Forex turmoil and fears of an eventual debt crisis) and the US (mixed economic picture and sub-par recovery) China released its report on manufacturing output, which is now clearly slowing, actually turned negative. New home sales fell 7.1% month-over-month in December to an annualized pace of 414,000 units. Housing starts continue to fall, and December pending home sales report was much weaker than expected The Ugly Emergence of China risk.
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Industrial Production
Manufacturing activity in the US and Eurozone economies continues to recover Manufacturing activity in the U.S. rose at a 6.8% annualize rate in Q4-2013
Industrial production in advanced economies rose at a 4.2% annualized pace in the six months ended Nov 2013. Industrial production in EM has been growing at a 45% pace for the past several years.
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Unemployment
At 1.6% YoY, nonfarm employment seems to struggle to make a new high
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Unemployment
Seasonally adjusted initial claims was 348,000 (+19,000 from the previous week). The 4-week moving average was 333,000. We do not want to read too much into this latest increase in claims because the claims data can be especially volatile around federal holidays. When Viewed at as a percentage of the Civilian Labor Force, weekly Initial Claims seem to have reached a bottom in Sep 2013.
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Unemployment
Unemployment pushed through 12% in Europe, is increasing in Italy, Spain and France, but falling in the US
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Consumer Confidence
Consumer Confidence strengthens In January. At 80.7, it continues its upward move from its interim low of 72.0 in November but remains below its 82.1 interim high in June 2013 Consumers' assessment of the present situation continues to improve, with both business conditions and the job market rated more favorably Looking ahead six months, consumers expect the economy and their earnings to improve.
The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment preliminary number for January came in at 80.4, declining from the 82.5 December final. It remains 4.7 points below its interim high in July 2013
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Small business sentiment represented by the Small Business Optimism Index continues to closely track the consumer confidence.
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European Macro
The Eurozone recovery is going on with an improving momentum (consumer sentiment, composite PMI)
Eurozone composite PMI looks consistent with 1% real GDP growth and 10%+ EPS growth!
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Inflation - US
Inflation data (whatever the measure you use) shows continued weakness in price pressures The inflation trend is clearly to the downside since the end of QE2 in 2011
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Inflation - Eurozone
The threat of a deflation trap is real in eurozone economies. ECB's task in striking the right monetary policy balance for Europe is complicated by the economic /fiscal divergence between its northern and southern member countries
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Chinas PMI
China's flash PMI points to contraction, for the first time in six months. The HSBC/Markit PMI last reading stands at 49.6 compared to last month's 50.5. Among the subindexes, new orders, new export orders (already in contractionary territory) and employment showed a faster rate of decline than in December The weakness of forward-looking components points to further deceleration in activity ahead.
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Few countries to keep an eye on in order to capture any contagion risk: China, India, Brazil and perhaps Australia as they are BIG and combine all the required ingredients (important current accounts deficit, price bubbles, dependence on Chinese growth) Compared to 97 crisis, the key players here are more important economies running much larger current account deficits
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EQUITY
We have been for a limited correction (5% to 10%) on equities. A healthy correction is under way, driven by a combination of Fed's tapering, emerging market currency crisis and the clouds over China. Thus far, the pullback is a normal bull market correction until new evidence appears
Current valuation appears lofty both for the aggregate market as well as the median stock From here, any further upside on the S&P 500 should be driven by profit growth rather than P/E expansion
Bottom line (and for the same reasons than a month ago): We keep our bet on a limited correction (and move our target region up), with a test of 1757 - 1722 (the former seems more reasonable!) level on the S&P 500 We keep our UW (deflationary) Europe and EM vs. US and Japan (even if we expect EM weakness to favor lower US yields, stronger JPY and weaker Nikkei). We still prefer more defensive high-yielding stocks.
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Equity Earnings
So far this season, companies have posted nice better than expected EPS numbers. As of Jan 23, nearly 25% of the S&P 500 Index constituents have reported earnings In aggregate, over 68% of reported Q4 2013 earnings have beaten estimates, but only 57% of companies have exceeded revenue estimates
According to S&P Capital IQ, earnings estimate will increase from $107.82 in 2013 to $121.09 in 2014 (+12.3%)
Source: Bespoke
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Equity Earnings
Earnings estimates from Standard and Poor are far more optimistic. As reported earnings are estimated to rise 21% from September 2013 to September 2014, when operating earnings are estimated to rise 15% Historically, these high estimates seem incompatible with an improving federal budget. The picture is even clearer when we look at de-trended data
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Equity Earnings
Profit margins have been running at a high level12.6% of GDP) over the last 2-3 years 10y interest rate seems to lead profit margins by 15 months. Given this lead time and the 10y all time low yield of 1.53% in July 2012, we think that a top has been already reached on profits (probably around Oct 2013)
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S&P500 vs EPS
Earnings estimate for 2014 implies an S&P500 around 1700 - 1750
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Equity Valuation
Goldman equity strategist David Kostin declares in his 'Weekly Kickstart* note that the market is getting pricey:
The current valuation of the S&P 500 is lofty by almost any measure, both for the aggregate market as well as the median stock: (1) The P/E ratio; (2) the current P/E expansion cycle; (3) EV/Sales; (4) EV/EBITDA; (5) Free Cash Flow yield; (6) Price/Book as well as the ROE and P/B relationship; and compared with the levels of (6) inflation; (7) nominal 10-year Treasury yields; and (8) real interest rates. Furthermore, the cyclically-adjusted P/E ratio suggests the S&P 500 is currently 30% overvalued in terms of (9) Operating EPS and (10) about 45% overvalued using As Reported earnings.
Reflecting on our recent client visits and conversations, the biggest surprise is how many investors expect the forward P/E multiple to expand to 17x or 18x. For some reason, many market participants believe the P/E multiple has a long-term average of 15x and therefore expansion to 17-18x seems reasonable. But the common perception is wrong. The forward P/E ratio for the S&P 500 during the past 5-year, 10-year, and 35- year periods has averaged 13.2x, 14.1x, and 13.0x, respectively. At 15.9x, the current aggregate forward P/E multiple is high by historical standards.
Most investors are surprised to learn that since 1976 the S&P 500 P/E multiple has only exceeded 17x during the 1997-2000 Tech Bubble and a brief four-month period in 2003-04. Other than those two episodes, the US stock market has never traded at a P/E of 17x or above.
* US Weekly Kickstart: Valuation fact vs. fiction
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Equity Valuation
Valuation appears lofty both for the aggregate market as well as the median stock According to these chart from GS, representing PE historical distribution since 1976, the only times that (1y-forward) PE ratios have been higher than where they are now were during the tech bubble. The picture get worse when viewed on a median basis. At 16.8x, the current multiple is near record levels
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Equity Valuation
P/E multiple expansion cycles historically peak at 15x From here, any further upside on the S&P 500 should be driven by profit growth rather than P/E expansion.
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Source VectorGrader
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Equity Outlook
The long-term outlook for the S&P 1500 remains bullish as 78.4% of the 1500 stocks in the index have bullish long-term trends. No market top seems to be forming yet. The intermediate-term outlook is also strong. But the short-term is getting weaker.
Values reflect the percentage of members with rising moving averages: 200d MA is used for long-term outlook, 50d MA is used for intermediate outlook, and 20d MA is used for short-term outlook.
On the short-term, the consumer discretionary and material sectors seem to be leading the way down.
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Risk Aversion
At -0.42, the RAI remains in neutral territories. The correction is not significant. Equity 6m-momentum is still too high to be sustainable.
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Investor Sentiment
According to the weekly survey from AAII , bullish sentiment among individual investors declined for the second straight week.
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Chinese WMPs
A wave Of Chinese Trust defaults may be underway Wealth management products (WMPs) are off-balance-sheet vehicles invested in a pool of securities like trust products, bonds, stocks that offer higher yields than bank deposits. WMPs are sold to provide credit for local governments and raise funds for other economic actors (coal-miners). WMPs are sold by private investment firms and marketed by banks as low-risk investments
On Jan 16, Reuters reported that Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC, Chinas largest state-owned bank and the world's largest bank by assets) said that it has no plans to use its own money to repay investors in a troubled off-balance-sheet investment product (WMP) that it helped to market This a 3 billion yuan ($495 million) trust product (expected to mature on Jan. 31) sold to raise funds for coal-miner Shanxi Zhenfu Energy Group which is now unable to repay the debt that funds the payments on that WMP. As of today Jan 29th, this default seems to be avoided as ICBC invited investors to sell their rights to unidentified buyers to recoup the principal (and only the principal).
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Chinese Banks
According to official data, commercial banks' non-performing loan ratio rose to 0.97% in Q3-2013 (8th consecutive quarter). But the real situation is probably much worse. The downside move should not stop yet. Chinese banks have to face big challenges introduced by deposit rate deregulation, and opening up of the banking sector to private investors Newsflow regarding WMPs defaults and an increase in interbank rates adds to the concerns for Chinese banks.
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Fund flows data show continued inflows into both high yield and investment grade retail funds over the past week We stay neutral on credit as a whole European HY has been hit hard this month. Although spreads could widen further (we target 340 bps on iTraxx Xover, 90bps on iTraxx Main), we remain constructive on the short-term. We are OW High-Yield (BB and B) vs Investment Grade, and more specifically OW European HY vs US High Yield
Bottom line : neutral Govies, Neutral credit, neutral TIPS, keep our OW High Yield vs High Grade
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US Treasuries
Over January, Treasury yields have been driven lower by the flight-to-quality induced by turmoils in EMs
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According to CFTC data and Citi Research, net positioning for HFs, as CFTC spec positions on UST, are now in neutral territories. 35% of Treasury duration is owned by the Fed.
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US Treasuries
At 2.64, the 10y UST yield stands on (or just below) an important support daily oscillators are oversold but the current pattern shows a strong downside pressure.
We have to keep an eye on the current level, watching for signs of a clean break (next notable pivot below stands at the 200-dma at 2.54%.) or rebound
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TIPS
TIPS demand picture will remain weak as long as the perspective of a strong economic recovery is not on the radar The TIPS ETF shares outstanding showed some liquidation of positions Weve been OW TIPS because we expected wider breakevens. The picture is now less clear and we prefer ta take a neutral stance.
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Corporate Credit - US
The EM crisis and the increase in global risk concerns impacted the CDX indices this week. US IG and US HY widened respectively to 73bps and 350bps, levels not seen Oct 2013 CDX.IG underperformed CDX.HY as IG (rather than HY) is usually used to hedge for non-US risks, because most of its members have a foreign exposure (through revenues for example)
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Corporate Credit - US
HY has been hit hard this month. CDX.HY widening and S&P500 selloff remained aligned
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Emerging Sovereigns
CDX.EM has underperformed CDX.IG and CDX.HY in the last sell-off. The average rating of CDX.EM is BB+ when those of CDX.IG and CDX.HY are BBB+ and B+ respectively. This average rating is not expected to change over the short-term, but the EM index is relatively concentrated on some touchy names like Turkey, Venezuela, Argentina and Brazil. This is enough to explain the underperformance, specially when investors used CDX.EM to hedge and/or express views.
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EXCHANGE RATES
We keep our view for a stronger USD index in 2014 based on higher US rates and non-US fundamental weakness Add to dollar longs. Stresses emanating from EM extended the dollar rally and induced the underperformance of EM and commodity-linked currencies. JPY continuous strengthening versus USD, over the last few weeks, seems to be the new theme to follow. On the EUR, we still target a pull back to 1.31-1.25. On USDJPY, we have to keep an eye on the current level (102.04), watching for signs of a clean break (next target would be 105.50) or a rebound .
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EUR-USD
Our view is unchanged. We still target a pull back to 1.31, then to 1.25. As was expected in our previous report, a material top has formed in EUR-USD chart, after the spot failed to go through the 1.38 resistance area We ended January at 1.3486, clearly below the interim low from Jan. 20, thus entering negative territory. Next target would be the 200 dMA (around 1.338)
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EUR-USD
Yield differential between US and Germany implies a forex in the 1.20 1.25 range
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USD-JPY
Last month, after our initial target for wave 5 was met at 104.71, we kept our ultimate target of 107-108 and set a stoploss at 103.70, which was activated on Jan 11th. We end January at 102.04 and there are still a number of signals arguing for continued weakness
We have to keep an eye on the current level, watching for signs of a clean break (next target would be 105.50) or rebound .
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EM Currencies
EM currencies remain under pressure Transmission between the Fed decision to taper and EM currencies takes to canals: Tapering hurts risk appetite, which hurts riskier EM assets. It also implies higher US bond rates, which increase EM borrowing costs
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EM Currencies
EM currencies are now testing again a key technical support level. This support seems to hold for the moment.
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COMMODITY
We started 2014 by going OW on commodities, as we think that a more positive fundamental picture is gradually developing. Commodities are outperforming other assets so far this year, despite the difficult macro-economic environment (China, EMs, higher US$). We expect the GSCI index to deliver 5% to 10% thanks mainly to backwardation (of the 24 major commodity markets, ten are now in backwardation); institutional money, higher prices on energy and a stabilization in precious metals. Agriculture prices should trend modestly lower on higher supply Over the short run, We remain OW on commodities Risks are skewed to the downside for energy markets. We switch from OW to Neutral. We stay UW precious metals (targeting 1180-1150 on gold and 18-17 on silver) because of rising real interest rates. Technically, the bias seems skewed to another significant move lower. Reaching a base will give a buying signal not only on physical gold but also on gold miners. On MT, we stay UW copper. The downside risk due to increasing supply is too significant to be ignored. We target 6600, and ultimately 6000. COMEX gold inventories should be watched very closely given the stunning move we witness on COMEX registered gold stocks. Today, if less than 1% of COMEX outstanding contracts go to delivery there will not be enough gold to meet the delivery requirements!
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Commodities vs EM FX
Commodities and EM FX seem to be the victims of the same headwinds: probably the USD move up
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Crude Oil
We find that risks are globally skewed to the downside for energy markets At 106.40, the Brent is getting closer to its important support at 104.43, convergence of its 200-wma and the uptrend from Jun. 2012 lows.
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Gold
Has the gold found a new bottom? In order to answer this question, we would wait for the end of Lunar New Year celebrations in China. The post celebrations period usually sees excess inventory sales that may weight on gold prices. Last year, gold prices went down more than 6% between Feb 6 and Feb 22.
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Gold
The trend on Junior gold miners is beginning to go upwards, but it sis clearly not enough to point to an effective long-term rebound.
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Natural Gas
Natural gas soars to the highest level in three and half years (+29% in 2 weeks), as frigid winter grips the US This is clearly not a reason to jump in! There is plenty of gas to replenish supplies, and drillers will likely ramp up production and prices will go down again. As shown on the chart, approximately half the natural gas wells were shut-in because of falling prices. Plenty of capacity is waiting for a better time to get back on the scene.
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Base Metals
Iron ore prices have been dropping amid forecasts for a reduction in Chinese steel production. Chinese iron ore stockpiles rose to 88.6 million tons in December (21% yoy, source: mining.com) Chinese copper consumption remains resilient. Copper stockpiles in LME warehouses have fallen 50% since Jun 2013. Much of that copper has been moving to China according to industry experts talking to WSJ. For now, copper is trading sideways in a consolidation pattern. We will watch for a bearish break (support near 7 000) before initiating a short.
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ALTERNATIVE INVESTMENTS
We are always OW on AI as we expect a 10% return in the coming year versus 5% on a traditional balanced portfolio (stocks + bonds+ cash). Our overweight position focuses on Commercial Real Estate (even if the current message is still mixed) We are OW Equity long-short market-neutral, Convertible arbitrage, CTAs and Global Macro
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Based on BoA exposure analysis: Market Neutral funds have slightly decreased their market exposure to 8% net long. They also reduced their growth / small cap / low quality bias Equity Long/Short market exposure increased to 22% net long, but still below the 35-40% benchmark. They also neutralized their growth preference.
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Based on BoA model, Global Macro funds: reduced their long exposure to S&P500 and NASDAQ and increased their large cap bias increased their long exposure to US Dollar and commodities. increased a little their long exposure to 10-year. covered their short EM exposure
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