Advisors.LeutholdGroup

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December’s Of Special Interest provided a recap of our Asset Allocation team’s view of small cap equities, suggesting that small caps had underperformed and reached a valuation discount that made them an interesting contrarian value proposition. Several clients responded with follow-up questions, wondering if the discount valuation of small caps was offset by their typically weaker business models.

Headline and Core CPIs both post slower than expected gains in their month-over-month figures. The Fed’s laissez-faire attitude for 2020 seems appropriate for now. Interesting movements in commodity indexes may signal future upward price pressure.

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Geo-political conflicts, an oil crisis, impeachment drama, and an upcoming presidential election are all currently rattling the stock market. Yet, what really matters for stocks this year is profits. For the stock market to make sustained progress in 2020, companies’ bottom-line performance needs to show renewed life.

During a decade characterized by surging equity markets and the proliferation of smart beta products, the best performing quantitative factor was Sales Stability.

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Including those who are bullish for this year, few expect stocks to continue delivering superior returns during the next decade. The economic expansion and bull market are simply too long in the tooth, and valuations too extended, to produce another decade of solid results.

It’s been a while since we looked at 2019’s stock market parallels to 1999. Sorry about that… we’ve been too busy reliving 1999 on almost a daily basis, and often not in a good way. 

Uncharted Waters! That is the overwhelming impression entering a new year in the midst of the longest economic expansion and bull market in U.S. history! After all, every day is now another record performance as investors are forced to travel where no man or women has gone before. 

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An occasional critique of our valuation work is that we consider “too much” market history to form a judgment as to what constitutes “high” or “low.” This type of feedback declined during and after the financial crisis (when historic valuation thresholds were temporarily revisited), but it has become more pointed as the U.S. market has soared to new highs.

Read this week's Major Trend. 

Economic reports have improved in recent months. In the U.S., job creation has remained healthy, consumer and business confidence measures have improved, housing activity has surged, and the Markit Manufacturing PMI survey has risen in three of the last four months. 

An occasional critique of our valuation work is that we consider “too much” market history to form a judgment as to what constitutes “high” or “low.” This type of feedback declined during and after the financial crisis (when historic valuation thresholds were temporarily revisited), but it has become more pointed as the U.S. market has soared to new highs.

Small Caps are showing signs of life and the decision to overweight small caps is starting to seem relevant – and perhaps nicely profitable - again.

The S&P 500 did not suffer a bear market last year. At least not by the conventional definition of a 20% decline. However, it was razor close—dropping 19.8% from its highest- to lowest-daily close. Given that, in every way except for -0.2%, the U.S. stock market did suffer a Bear last year, how does its 2019 rally compare thus far to the average “Bull Market Rally?” 

Read this week's Major Trend.

Since the early 1990s, with only a brief exception at the worst of the 2008-09 bear market, the U.S. stock market valuation has been considered “high” to “ridiculously high.” This is illustrated in Chart 1, which shows the Shiller CAPE Price/Earnings (P/E) multiple since 1900. 

Are incredibly low yields a signal of imminent peril and a clarion call for caution? Or, alternatively, could they represent an amazing investment opportunity?