Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
Gluskin Sheff + Associates Inc. is one of Canada’s pre-eminent wealth management firms. Founded in 1984 and focused primarily on high net
worth private clients, we are dedicated to meeting the needs of our clients by delivering strong, risk-adjusted returns together with the highest
level of personalized client service. For more information or to subscribe to Gluskin Sheff economic reports, visit www.gluskinsheff.com
August 20, 2010 – BREAKFAST WITH DAVE
Meanwhile, the commodity-based currencies are taking it on the chin and the In today’s action,
CAD endured a faltering session yesterday on the back of some dismal commodity-based currencies
wholesale trade realities — renewed recession pressures stateside are finding are taking it on the chin
their way north of the border at a time when the domestic housing market is
clearly rolling over. Why Mark Carney would continue to raise rates in this
environment is anyone’s guess but the consensus seems to think there’s at
least one more interest rate bullet in his chamber — even with today’s inflation
news that the year-over-year trend in core CPI dipped to 1.6% in July from 1.7%.
Corporate bond risks have staged a reversal and are now rising, as per the
modest deterioration in the CDX market. The resource complex is trading
completely on the defensive right now, with particular weakness in the base
metals group (nickel off 1.5%). And crude oil has traded down to six-week lows
on mounting global growth concerns. The front page news in today’s NYT on the
success the White House is having in convincing Israel to forgo, or at least delay,
the pre-emptive actions strike as it relates to Iran could trim some of the
geopolitical premium off the resource complex, oil in particular (see Israel
Assuaged on Iran Threat, U.S. Officials Say).
Yesterday’s action was impressive if you were short the market. The S&P was
clocked for a 1.7% loss and volume rose along with the selling pressure. St. Louis Yesterday’s action in the
Fed President Bullard reiterated his support for expanded QE if the economy U.S. was impressive if you
faltered, though he was quick to say that “continued expansion is the most likely were short the market
course going forward.” Someone forgot to tell him that real GDP, both real and
nominal, have contracted now for two months in a row (see more below).
If the backup in jobless claims to 500k wasn’t bad enough, the negative reading
on the Philly Fed for the first time in a year shook the markets badly (only two of
58 forecasters believed the manufacturing index would deteriorate). And, just
how strong can the economy possibly be when California is back paying out
IOU’s (see page 3 of the FT). The S&P 500 is now back to its lowest level in a
month and off 12% from the nearby April highs. In Europe, one has to really
wonder, bravado from the EU notwithstanding, how the periphery really is doing
when four-year bond yields in Greece are still in the stratosphere, at 11.9%, and
Portugal-German 10-year spreads back above 280 basis points.
As for politics, you know things are getting desperate when we see on In politics, you know things
Bloomberg News stories that the Democrats are blaming the Bush are getting desperate when
administration for today’s economic woes (hey, it worked for FDR — he blamed we start seeing stories that
Hoover over and over … and it worked), and when you see headlines like this in
the DEM are blaming the
Bush administration for
the New York Times (Once Banished from Campaign Trail, Clinton is Now a Top
today’s economic woes
Salesman — page 16). Who recalls back in the primaries in early 2008 when
Mr. Obama said “This has become a habit and one of the things that we’re going
to have to do is to directly confront Bill Clinton when he’s making statements
that are not factually accurate.” Question — does this also apply when the
former President starts to voice his support? One must read today, by the way,
is Why Pundit Predicts a GOP Romp in November on page A2 of the WSJ.
Page 2 of 15
August 20, 2010 – BREAKFAST WITH DAVE
“The latest fashion is to declare that there’s a bubble in the bond market:
investors aren’t really concerned about economic weakness; they’re just getting
carried away. It’s hard to convey the sheer audacity of this argument.” Paul, we
tried our best yesterday. Mr. Krugman is spot on that in contrast to some
bubble euphoria in the Treasury market, bond investors are actually “worried
about stagnation and deflation.”
So what happened with the data? Well, claims rose to 500k from 488k (was
484k) and are up now for three weeks in a row and in four of the past five
weeks. The last time they were this high was during the week of November 14,
2009. The four-week moving average has also trended higher — 482,500 from
474,500 the prior week and 454,750 a month ago. They were last at this level
on December 5th of last year.
600
525
450
375
300
225
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
Page 3 of 15
August 20, 2010 – BREAKFAST WITH DAVE
Continuing claims did manage to drop 13k in the week of August 7, to 4.478 The Philly Fed index was the
million, but this is misleading given the throngs who have moved onto the array final nail in the coffin on the
of federal “emergency” extended benefits; the aggregate backlog of claims tally ‘double dip’
soared 192k to 9.925 million. This is an unmitigated disaster.
Let’s just say that in the past, there were eight times when claims were on a rising
trajectory and broke above the 500k mark. On six of those occasions, the
economy was already in recession (though the consensus rarely sees this even as
it is unfolding) or heading into one. The two periods that the economy emerged
unscathed were in 1977 and 1992 and both times, it was seasonal adjustment
quirks that were the culprit, along with strike action in Atlanta in the former
episode. Both times were one-off weekly spasms (some will undoubtedly say that
federal government worker claims have skewed this latest move to 500k but let’s
be honest — all the bulls were saying that these Census workers were going to get
redeployed in the private jobs market very quickly. This clearly is not the case).
Claims are on a clear rising trend but we respect the view that you should never
rely too heavily on one data-point — even a nice round number like 500k. Let’s
just say that if we see the four-week moving average hit this level, a “double dip”
— assuming we aren’t still in a “single-scoop” that began in December 2007 —
will be baked in the ice cream cake. Fait accompli.
40
20
-20
-40
-60
70 75 80 85 90 95 00 05 10
Page 4 of 15
August 20, 2010 – BREAKFAST WITH DAVE
The Philly Fed came in at -7.7 for August — the consensus was looking for +7.0; The combination of Philly
the July reading was +5.1, the June reading was +8.0; and the May reading was Fed and New York Empire
+21.4. That is what would otherwise be called a freefall. points to a 53.0 reading on
ISM from 55.5 in July
This is the first negative reading since July 2009. A 29 point slide in three
months is rare and every recession was followed by such a steep descent,
though in fairness, there have been ‘head fakes’ along the way. But half the
time in the past, such a steep slide over a three-month span presaged recession
just about half the time. So at best, this is a flip of a coin and yet most Wall
Street economists are still somewhere locked between zero and 35% odds of
the economy turning down again (it looks to be contracting this quarter!).
The components were simply horrible too — orders down to -7.1 from -4.3, the
first back-to-back negative prints in 13 months; backlogs at -7.1 too. In a clear
sign that inventories are no longer being accumulated, this component came in
at -11.6, the first minus sign since March and most negative number in nine
months. The employment components were scary they were so bad — the
workweek index swung from +1.7 in July to -17.1 in August (worst since June
2009) and the jobs index went from +4.0 to -2.7, a 10-month low.
The bond bulls should have feasted on the inflation components: prices-received
(charged) was negative for the third month running, at -12.5 in August. This is
the weakest since August 2009 — in the past five decades, the Philly Fed prices-
received index been this negative less than 5% of the time.
Prices-paid also slipped but only to +11.8 from +13.1 and the fact that this proxy
for input prices is still positive at a time when prices charged for the output is so Yes, the LEI magically came
deeply negative, strongly suggests that profit margins are rolling off their peak. in at 0.1% MoM in July, but it
is being boosted by yield
The combination of Philly Fed and New York Empire points to a 53.0 reading on curve; outside of that, the
ISM (data out on September 1st) from 55.5 in July. That would be the lowest in LEI actually fell 0.2%
11 months and ratify the view that the peak was turned in at 60.4 in April.
Page 5 of 15
August 20, 2010 – BREAKFAST WITH DAVE
Moreover, the coincident-to-lagging ratio, which our friend Dennis Gartman has
often cited as a fairly reliable leading indicator of the leading indicator itself (!)
slipped to 94.0 from 94.1 in June and 94.3 in May. It really says something
about the lack of impetus in the economic landscape that this ratio would have
peaked at a level that it almost bottomed out at in the recession of the early
1990s. At no time in the past 40 years has the peak been as low as 94.3, and
think of all the hard lifting monetary and fiscal policy had to do just to get there.
100
96
92
88
84
80
60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 00 05 10
Below is the chart of the YoY trend in the leading indicator. This puts the data
into current context — it peaked at 11.6% in March and the growth has since
been pared to 7.1%.
-4
-8
00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
Page 6 of 15
August 20, 2010 – BREAKFAST WITH DAVE
The chart below plots the YoY trend in the LEI with a six-month lead against
industrial production. It has a decent 81% correlation and is pointing to a
discernible slowing ahead.
22.5 15
r = 0.81
10
15.0
5
7.5
0
0.0
-5
-7.5
-10
-15.0 -15
70 75 80 85 90 95 00 05 10
Interestingly, and dovetailing nicely with our deflation theme, nominal GDP fell
0.3% in May and by 0.4% in June. This is a key reason why Treasury yields are
melting.
Page 7 of 15
August 20, 2010 – BREAKFAST WITH DAVE
13400
13200
13000
12800
12600
12400
12200
05 06 07 08 09 10
2000
1600
1200
800
400
0
60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 00 05 10
For the real GDP count, this is obviously awful news for the current quarter, and
it seems like this, alongside a variety of other influences (weaker growth in
consumer spending, state and local government cutbacks, a more moderate
profile to the double-digit trend in capital spending, the end of the mini-inventory
cycle), will lead to a modest economic contraction this quarter, which will still
come as a surprise to a consensus still expecting near-2% growth.
Page 8 of 15
August 20, 2010 – BREAKFAST WITH DAVE
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
95 00 05 10
60
40
20
0
85 90 95 00 05 10
Page 9 of 15
August 20, 2010 – BREAKFAST WITH DAVE
6.00
5.25
4.50
3.75
3.00
2.25
1.50
80 85 90 95 00 05 10
With the homeownership rate still at 67%, versus the pre-bubble norm of 64%,
and with lending requirements more stringent, which means the ‘new normal’
includes a downpayment (how novel is that?), you can forget there being a
revival in demand coming any time soon. The demand will be coming for my old
room at ma and pa’s, the basement guest room at the in-laws or space in the
rental sector (think of the math — mean-reverting this series will imply a shift of
four million people to the apartment sector in coming years — these are the
REITs you probably want to be involved with because we can actually see
demand for apartments doing well in this environment).
68
66
64
62
65 70 75 80 85 90 95 00 05 10
Page 10 of 15
August 20, 2010 – BREAKFAST WITH DAVE
But lingering supply concerns and the resultant dampening impact on home
prices will keep buyers at bay, and turnover will be limited by the fact that 25% In the U.S., lingering supply
of the mortgage population are upside down and as such are immobile (unless concerns in housing and the
they can cut the lender a big check and move away). This statistic does not get resultant dampening impact
much play, but the Zillow national home price composite fell 0.2% in June and is on home prices will keep
down now for 49 consecutive months. buyers at bay
The critical question is: have the builders done enough cutting? In other words,
have we seen the lows in housing starts and can we begin the process of
building a base for future production?
Hell no.
It would be nice to have immigration solve our demographic problems but new Visa applications to the U.S.
visa applications to the U.S. are actually declining on a year-over-year basis. are actually declining on a
Who wants to come to a country where there is already a five million pool of YoY basis; who wants to
unemployed people competing for every meager job opening? Even Germany come to a country where
has a 7% unemployment rate, 2½% percentage points below America’s. there is already a 5mln pool
of unemployed people
Third, we have this other dilemma, which is supply. The homeowner vacancy anyway?
rate is off its all-time highs but only by a fraction and sits at 2.5%, the pre-bubble
norm was closer to 1.5%, so this means that there is well in excess of a million
units that are in excess inventory. So, with natural demand at an estimated
430,000 units, single-family starts would have to decline further, to around a
330,000 unit annual rate and stay there for a good year, (or correct to 380,000
for two years) for the excess stockpile to disappear and thereby establish a floor
under residential real estate prices. In other words, there is still the chance that
we would have to see single-family starts undergo another 12-24% cutback
before the pain begins to yield a longer-term gain. In the interim, avoid the
homebuilders and any investment correlated with them.
Page 11 of 15
August 20, 2010 – BREAKFAST WITH DAVE
3.2
2.8
2.4
2.0
1.6
1.2
0.8
70 75 80 85 90 95 00 05 10
Keep in mind one other thing. These are very conservative estimates. Look at the
last chart of vacant homeownership units that are being held off the market for
unspecified reasons — a proxy for the oft-cited “shadow” banking inventory (a
measure of the foreclosure pipeline). At 3.7 million units, this backlog is around
1.3 million higher than the pre-bubble normal levels. So make no mistake, barring
a dramatic reversal in household formation and/or the homeownership rate, the
bottom in starts could well end up being closer to 200,000 units, which would be
another 50% downside from here, which would be a replica of what we saw unfold
in the year to 2009 Q1. Over that period, the S&P 500 homebuilding group
tumbled 40% and the home furnishings sub-sector was off 20% (just a reminder).
4000
3600
3200
2800
2400
2000
95 00 05 10
Page 12 of 15
August 20, 2010 – BREAKFAST WITH DAVE
The LEI number is smoothed over five months and we prefer to focus on the
unsmoothed index as it’s more of a real-time indicator. On this basis, the LEI
rose just 0.2%, although this was the first increase after two months of sharp
declines. Even still, the YoY rate continues to roll over, slowing to 10.5% from
10.6% in June and nearly 5ppt below the April high of 15%. Clearly strong
growth is behind us.
We got another piece of the GDP puzzle, with June wholesale sales, which came
in at a disappointing -0.3% and fell 0.1% once adjusted for price effects (the
second decline in a row). The June GDP picture is a mixed one – we had strong
manufacturing data and auto sales were robust as well. All in, we expect June
GDP to rise at 0.2% MoM, leaving the quarter at 2.5% QoQ, about 50 bps shy of
the Bank’s forecast.
Page 13 of 15
August 20, 2010 – BREAKFAST WITH DAVE
IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES
Copyright 2010 Gluskin Sheff + Associates Inc. (“Gluskin Sheff”). All rights and, in some cases, investors may lose their entire principal investment.
reserved. This report is prepared for the use of Gluskin Sheff clients and Past performance is not necessarily a guide to future performance. Levels
subscribers to this report and may not be redistributed, retransmitted or and basis for taxation may change.
disclosed, in whole or in part, or in any form or manner, without the express
written consent of Gluskin Sheff. Gluskin Sheff reports are distributed Foreign currency rates of exchange may adversely affect the value, price or
simultaneously to internal and client websites and other portals by Gluskin income of any security or financial instrument mentioned in this report.
Sheff and are not publicly available materials. Any unauthorized use or Investors in such securities and instruments effectively assume currency
disclosure is prohibited. risk.
Gluskin Sheff may own, buy, or sell, on behalf of its clients, securities of Materials prepared by Gluskin Sheff research personnel are based on public
issuers that may be discussed in or impacted by this report. As a result, information. Facts and views presented in this material have not been
readers should be aware that Gluskin Sheff may have a conflict of interest reviewed by, and may not reflect information known to, professionals in
that could affect the objectivity of this report. This report should not be other business areas of Gluskin Sheff. To the extent this report discusses
regarded by recipients as a substitute for the exercise of their own judgment any legal proceeding or issues, it has not been prepared as nor is it
and readers are encouraged to seek independent, third-party research on intended to express any legal conclusion, opinion or advice. Investors
any companies covered in or impacted by this report. should consult their own legal advisers as to issues of law relating to the
subject matter of this report. Gluskin Sheff research personnel’s knowledge
Individuals identified as economists do not function as research analysts of legal proceedings in which any Gluskin Sheff entity and/or its directors,
under U.S. law and reports prepared by them are not research reports under officers and employees may be plaintiffs, defendants, co-defendants or co-
applicable U.S. rules and regulations. Macroeconomic analysis is plaintiffs with or involving companies mentioned in this report is based on
considered investment research for purposes of distribution in the U.K. public information. Facts and views presented in this material that relate to
under the rules of the Financial Services Authority. any such proceedings have not been reviewed by, discussed with, and may
not reflect information known to, professionals in other business areas of
Neither the information nor any opinion expressed constitutes an offer or an Gluskin Sheff in connection with the legal proceedings or matters relevant
invitation to make an offer, to buy or sell any securities or other financial to such proceedings.
instrument or any derivative related to such securities or instruments (e.g.,
options, futures, warrants, and contracts for differences). This report is not Any information relating to the tax status of financial instruments discussed
intended to provide personal investment advice and it does not take into herein is not intended to provide tax advice or to be used by anyone to
account the specific investment objectives, financial situation and the provide tax advice. Investors are urged to seek tax advice based on their
particular needs of any specific person. Investors should seek financial particular circumstances from an independent tax professional.
advice regarding the appropriateness of investing in financial instruments
and implementing investment strategies discussed or recommended in this The information herein (other than disclosure information relating to Gluskin
report and should understand that statements regarding future prospects Sheff and its affiliates) was obtained from various sources and Gluskin
may not be realized. Any decision to purchase or subscribe for securities in Sheff does not guarantee its accuracy. This report may contain links to
any offering must be based solely on existing public information on such third-party websites. Gluskin Sheff is not responsible for the content of any
security or the information in the prospectus or other offering document third-party website or any linked content contained in a third-party website.
issued in connection with such offering, and not on this report. Content contained on such third-party websites is not part of this report and
is not incorporated by reference into this report. The inclusion of a link in
Securities and other financial instruments discussed in this report, or this report does not imply any endorsement by or any affiliation with Gluskin
recommended by Gluskin Sheff, are not insured by the Federal Deposit Sheff.
Insurance Corporation and are not deposits or other obligations of any
insured depository institution. Investments in general and, derivatives, in All opinions, projections and estimates constitute the judgment of the
particular, involve numerous risks, including, among others, market risk, author as of the date of the report and are subject to change without notice.
counterparty default risk and liquidity risk. No security, financial instrument Prices also are subject to change without notice. Gluskin Sheff is under no
or derivative is suitable for all investors. In some cases, securities and obligation to update this report and readers should therefore assume that
other financial instruments may be difficult to value or sell and reliable Gluskin Sheff will not update any fact, circumstance or opinion contained in
information about the value or risks related to the security or financial this report.
instrument may be difficult to obtain. Investors should note that income
Neither Gluskin Sheff nor any director, officer or employee of Gluskin Sheff
from such securities and other financial instruments, if any, may fluctuate
accepts any liability whatsoever for any direct, indirect or consequential
and that price or value of such securities and instruments may rise or fall
damages or losses arising from any use of this report or its contents.
Page 15 of 15