Category: US & Canada

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US inflation falls, Personal Consumption grows

A dip in the latest consumer price index (CPI) growth figures brings the inflation measure back in line with the Fed target of 2.0%. Inflationary pressures appear contained, easing Fed motivation to implement restrictive monetary policy.

Consumer Price Index

Personal consumption continues to grow at a modest pace. The down-turn in expenditure on services would be cause for concern — this normally precedes a recession — if not for a strong rise in expenditure on durables.

Personal Consumption

Manufacturers new orders for capital goods display a similar recovery.

Manufacturers New Orders: Capital Goods ex-Defense

The housing recovery continues at a modest pace.

Housing

Construction spending as a percentage of GDP remains soft, suggesting that the recovery still has plenty of room for improvement.

Construction/GDP

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S&P 500 Price-Earnings Ratio rises

With 84.4% of S&P 500 index constituents having reported first-quarter earnings, 302 (73.84%) beat their earnings estimates while 77 (18.83%) missed. Forward estimates for 2017 contracted by an average of 4.6% over the last 12 months but not sufficient to raise the forward Price-Earnings Ratio above 20. That is the threshold level above which we consider the market to be over-priced.

Forward Price Earnings Ratio for S&P 500

Comparing the forward estimates for 2017 to actual earnings for 1989, we see that the market is expected to deliver a compound average growth rate of 6.0% over almost three decades.

With a dividend yield of 2.16%, that delivers a total return to investors of just over 8 percent.

Price-Earnings ratios fluctuate over time, so any improvement in the ratio should be considered temporary.

Buybacks have averaged just over 3 percent since 2011. The motivation for buybacks is that they should accelerate earnings growth but there is little evidence as yet to support this. As Reported Earnings grew at an average rate of 3.2% between December 2011 and 2016, below the long-term average.

A spike in earnings is projected for 2017 and 2018. Hopefully this continues. Else there will be a strong case for restoring dividends and reducing stock buybacks.

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Nasdaq buying pressure

The Nasdaq 100 continues its impressive climb, shown here on a monthly chart. Rising troughs on Twiggs Money Flow signal strong buying pressure and a test of 6000 is likely.

Nasdaq 100

Dow Jones Industrial Average continues to test resistance at 21000 after a shallow correction. Elevated troughs on Twiggs Money Flow again signal buying pressure. Breakout is likely and would signal a fresh advance, with an immediate target of 22000.

Dow Jones Industrial Average

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Echoes of the Past: Syria, Chemical Weapons, and Civilian Targeting

Everyone should read this as a reminder of the brutality that states may employ for political ends, whether Ethiopia (1935), Chechnya (1995), Iraq (1998) or Syria (2017). Chemical weapons such as sarin or mustard gas leave horrific injuries, but any deliberate targeting of civilians — such as bombing of hospitals and residential neighborhoods — should IMO be treated as a war crime.

Luke O’Brien is a U.S. Army officer assigned to Aberdeen Proving Ground and is currently a Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Graduate Fellow at National Defense University:

…..Perhaps the most notorious example of this from recent memory, however, was the Iraqi chemical attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja in March 1988, as part of the Anfal Campaign at the end of the Iran-Iraq War. This attack struck the small Kurdish village with both conventional and chemical bombs, including sarin, just as Assad’s forces would nearly 30 years later. The first attacks used normal high-explosive bombs, which both drove civilians into basement shelters as well as broke open the villages windows and doors. These initials attacks were then followed up with chemical munitions, which quickly filled the basement shelters and killed their occupants.

Such brutality was intentional. The attacks were intended to break the back of the Kurdish peshmerga militia by depopulating its support. Commenting on the matter at the time, Iraqi Gen. Ali Hassan al-Majid bragged that he would “kill [all the Kurds] with chemical weapons.” The chemical bombardment of Halabja had its desired effect, with a stream of surviving civilians abandoning the town and fleeing to nearby Iran. This use of chemical weapons, moreover, had another added benefit: driving away civilians and insurgents who had become numb to the effects of conventional weapons…..

Read more at: Echoes of the Past: Syria, Chemical Weapons, and Civilian Targeting

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Dow prepares for a fresh advance

Dow Jones Industrial Average is testing resistance at 21000 after a shallow correction. Rising troughs above zero on Twiggs Money Flow signal strong buying pressure. Breakout is likely and would signal a fresh advance, with an immediate target of 22000.

Dow Jones Industrial Average

Small Cap stocks are also advancing, with the Russell 2000 Index testing resistance at 14.00. Breakout is likely and would offer an immediate target of 15.00.

Russell 2000 Small Caps

A broad advance across large and small caps, suggests low market risk. Advance of only large caps would indicate that investors are risk averse. Advance of only small caps normally occurs towards the frothy end of stage III of a bull market — when the smart money is taking profits while the dumb money has lost all fear.

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Weak Dollar strengthens gold outlook

The Dollar Index broke support at 100 despite strengthening interest rates, warning of a down-trend. Target for a decline would be the May 2016 low of 93.

Dollar Index

China has burned through a trillion dollars of foreign reserves in the last 3 years, attempting to support the yuan. I believe the sell-off is unlikely to abate and plays a major part in the Dollar’s weakness.

China: Foreign Reserves

A falling Dollar would strengthen demand for gold. Spot Gold is retracing from resistance at $1300/ounce and is likely to find support at $1240/$1250. Respect of support would suggest another advance; confirmed if gold breaks $1300.

Spot Gold

Spot Silver displays a more bearish medium-term outlook, however, with a stronger correction testing support at $17.00/ounce. Breach of support would test the primary level at $15.65 and warn of further gold weakness.

Spot Silver

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No Plan? No Strategy? No Problem! Syria and Trump’s Russia Policy

Michael Kofman is an Analyst at CNA Corporation and a Fellow at the Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute:

….Past American attempts at coercive diplomacy with Russia have typically lacked actual coercion, and a theory of how to gain leverage over Moscow. It will be rather startling if 59 cruise missiles turn out to be the answer to this problem. Thankfully, the previous administration tested a lot of theories that didn’t work, from empty threats at the United Nations, to disproven assumptions on what influences Russian behavior, to narratives about quagmires. It would be best for Trump’s White House not to set us on this journey, mounted on that very same broken wheel (or one just as broken in a different way).

In a contest of wills, Trump needs a plan to establish coercive credibility rather than hoping to scare the Russians with expensive fireworks. The number one mistake previous administrations made with Moscow is that, rather than deal with the Russia that is, they all imagined a Russia that suited them more, and then tried to have relations with that imaginary country.

The reality is, this administration’s only current leverage with Russia is the notion inside the Kremlin that a cooperative agenda with the United States is still possible. That’s a dubious proposition which offers the U.S. some advantages. Russia still hopes that there are carrots the United States might offer, or at the least it could get respite in the current confrontation and consolidate gains. If the administration is able to drag out this perception, rather than demonstrating that the White House is rapidly reverting to classical archetypes that Moscow anticipates, then there is an opportunity to obtain concessions.

Given that a cooperative agenda between the United States and Russia is well-nigh impossible, where does that leave us?

Source: No Plan? No Strategy? No Problem! Syria and Why Trump’s Russia Policy Is Off to a Rough Start

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Inflation surges

Inflation is rising, with CPI climbing steeply above the Fed’s 2% target. But core CPI excluding energy and food remains stable.

Consumer Price Index

Job gains were the lowest since May 2016.

Job Gains

But the unemployment rate fell to a low 4.5%.

Unemployment

Hourly wage rate growth has eased below 2.5%, suggesting that underlying inflationary pressures are contained.

Average Hourly Earnings Growth

The Fed is unlikely to accelerate its normalization of interest rates unless we see a surge in core inflation and/or hourly earnings growth.

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Dow consolidation

Dow Jones Industrial Average is consolidating in a narrow band between 20400 and 20800. Narrow bands in an up-trend signal accumulation and breakout above 20800 would signal another advance.

Dow Jones Industrial Average

Declining 21-day Twiggs money Flow is typical of a consolidation, provided it respects the zero line. A trough above zero confirms medium-term buying pressure.

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