Market Insights Archives - Page 11 of 11

February 2, 2014

The hole in US employment

US employment is topical after two months of poor jobs figures. Employers added 113,000 new jobs, against an expected 185,000, last month and a low 75,000 in December. Rather than focus on monthly data, let’s take a long-term view.

The number of full-time employed as a percentage of total population [red line below] fell dramatically during the GFC, with about 1 in 10 employees losing their jobs. Since then, roughly 1 out of 4 full-time jobs lost has been restored, while the other 3 are still missing (population growth fell from 1.0% to around 0.7% post-GFC, limiting the distortion).

Employed Normally Full-time as Percentage of Population

Comparing employment levels to the 1980s is little consolation because this is skewed by the rising participation rate of women in the work-force. The pink line below shows how the number of women employed grew from under 14% of total population in the late 1960s to more than 22% prior to the GFC. The effect on total employment [green line] was dramatic, while employment of men [blue line] oscillated between 24% and 26%.

US Men & Women Employment Levels as Percentage of Population

Part-time employment — the difference between total employment [green] and full-time employed [red] below — has leveled off since 2000 at roughly 6% of the total population. So loss of full-time positions has not been compensated by a rise in casual work. Both have been affected.

US Full-time and Total Employment as Percentage of Population

The “good news” is that a soft labor market will lead to low wages growth for a considerable period, boosting corporate profits.

The bad news is that low employment levels will depress sales growth [green line]….

Total US Business Sales Percentage Growth and over GDP

And discourage new investment…..

Which would harm future growth.

January 26, 2014

Beware of the CAPE

I have just read John Mauldin’s warning that the market is overvalued:

Not only does today’s CAPE of 25.4x suggest a seriously overvalued market, but the rapid multiple expansion of the last few years coupled with sluggish earnings growth suggests that this market is also seriously overbought, as I pointed out last week and as we are seeing play out this week.

CAPE

Robert Shiller’s CAPE ratio compares the current index price to a 10-year simple moving average of inflation-adjusted earnings in order to smooth out earnings and provide a long-term indication as to whether the market is under- or over-valued. But ratios are far from infallible. One of the first things fundamental investors/traders learn is: do not buy a stock simply because the Price-to-Earnings (PE) ratio is low, and never short a stock simply because the PE ratio is high. The reason is fairly obvious. In the first case, current earnings may be expected to fall and, with high PE ratios, earnings are likely to grow.

Let’s examine CAPE more closely. First, we have experienced the worst recession in almost a century; so does a moving average of the last 10 years adequately reflect sustainable long-term earnings? In the chart below I removed the highest and lowest quarter’s earnings in the last 10 years [dark green]. Note the visible difference losses reported in Q/E December 2008 make to the long-term average.

Price Earnings Ratio

The chart also highlights the fact that Shiller’s CAPE is relatively low compared to the last 15 years, where the average is close to 30. The normal PE of 18.4, calculated on the last 12-month’s earnings*, is also low compared to an average of 28 for the last 15 years.

*Reporting for the December quarter is not yet completed and unreported earnings are based on S&P estimates.

As novice investors learn, it is dangerous to base buy or sell signals on a PE ratio, whether it is CAPE or regular PE based on 12-months earnings. Using CAPE, we would have sold stocks in 1996 and again in 2003, missing two of the biggest bull markets in history. And we would have most likely bought in 2008, when CAPE made a new 10-year low, right before the collapse of Lehmann Brothers.

I submit that CAPE or PE ratios are not an end in themselves, but merely a useful tool for highlighting expectations of future earnings. At present both ratios are rising, suggesting that earnings prospects are improving.

January 3, 2014

Household debt indicates confidence improving

Good news for the US economy is that household credit has started to grow, recovering above zero after a protracted contraction. Not only does this indicate a recovery in consumer confidence, but it will fuel additional expenditure and stimulate income growth.

US Household Credit Growth

The ratio of household debt to personal disposable income continues to contract, indicating that debt is growing at a slower rate than disposable income. This is likely to continue for some time as households recover from the credit binge leading up to the GFC, but is a healthy sign provided credit growth remains positive.

Household Debt over Disposable Personal Income

Declining corporate bond spreads and historically low readings on the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) suggest a healthy bull market ahead.

CBOE Volatility Index

Australia

Australian household debt remains elevated at 150% of disposable income, almost 50% higher than US levels.

Australian Household Debt to Disposable Personal Income

While household debt levels will need to be addressed in the long-term, declining corporate bond spreads indicate there is no immediate cause for alarm.

Australian Bond Spreads

All who are able, may gain virtue by study and care, for it is better to be happy by the action of nature than by chance. To entrust to chance what is most important would be defective reasoning.
~ Aristotle

December 21, 2013

Why Australian manufacturing is dying

The following graphs from the Productivity Commission Preliminary Report on Australia’s Automotive
Manufacturing Industry give an insight into the problems facing Australian manufacturers.

The first graph compares average hourly labor costs for auto-manufacturers in different countries. Australia is second-highest (behind Germany), in terms of labor cost per hour, and roughly 7 times as high as China and India — ignoring local ABS figures for which there are no comparatives.

Hourly Labor Costs

The second graph shows how the rising Australian Dollar has impacted on local auto-manufacturing.

Australian motor vehicle production compared to the trade weighted exchange rate

The local market is not big enough to sustain a competitive auto-manufacturing industry, but that argument does not seem to have hindered five of the top seven global manufacturers — Volkswagen, Hyundai, Toyota, Nissan and Honda — whose local markets are of a similar scale to our own. The difference is that they have adopted a global outlook rather than focusing on their own domestic market as Australia has done.

December 2, 2013

What is contributing to the surge in US corporate profits?

Some concern has been expressed in the media about the rising level of margin debt in the US. When expressed as a percentage of GDP, NYSE margin debt is approaching 1999/2007 levels.

NYSE Margin Debt as percentage of GDP

But not only margin debt is rising. Market capitalization, while not as fast, is also on the increase.

NYSE Market Cap as percentage of GDP

And market cap merely reflects the underlying rise in corporate profits, measured here as a percentage of GDP.

Corporate Profits as percentage of GDP

My initial reaction was to attribute the rise to increasing globalization of US corporations, but Rebecca Wilder points out that earnings from abroad have scarcely grown. Closer scrutiny of the Bureau of Economic Analysis Q1 2013 release shows Manufacturing is the top growth sector.

So what is contributing to the surge in corporate profits?

Employee compensation has declined as a percentage of net value added by the corporate sector over the last decade.

Corporate Profits as percentage of GDP

And there has been a sharp rise in petroleum and coal output, reflected by producers’ annual value shipped ($billion) in the graph below.

Petroleum and Coal shipments

Also, the percentage of corporate profits paid as taxes is shrinking. The following graph compares corporate profits after tax to corporate profits before tax. Less than 20 percent of corporate profits is currently being paid in taxes.

Corporate Profits as percentage of GDP

Are these ratios sustainable?

While unemployment remains high, growth in employee compensation is expected to be low. And corporate taxes are likely to remain low until there is a major overhaul of the tax code (don’t hold your breath). So market capitalization is likely to remain strong for at least the next two to three years.

Australia

Australian margin debt is declining steeply as a percentage of GDP.

ASX Margin Debt to GDP

ASX market capitalisation as a percentage of GDP is also trending lower. The 2009/2012 lows should provide a sound base for further gains.

ASX Market Cap to GDP

The ASX is muted compared to US markets, but offers value in the long-term.

November 6, 2013

Is the market in a bubble?

As global growth recovers we expect equity markets to be buoyed by improvements in both earnings and dividends, with strong momentum over the quarter. There is much discussion in the media as to whether various markets are in a “bubble”. Little attention is devoted to the fact that bubbles can last for several years, and sometimes even decades. The main driver of both stock market bubbles and real estate bubbles is debt. Anna Schwartz, co-author with Milton Friedman of A Monetary History of the United States (1963) described the relationship to the Wall Street Journal:

If you investigate individually the manias that the market has so dubbed over the years, in every case, it was expansive monetary policy that generated the boom in an asset. The particular asset varied from one boom to another. But the basic underlying propagator was too-easy monetary policy and too-low interest rates …..

Currently, there is evidence of expansive monetary policy from the Fed, but the overall impact on the financial markets is muted. Most of the QE bond purchases are being parked by banks in interest-bearing, excess reserve deposits at the Fed. The chart below compares Fed balance sheet expansion (QE) to the increase in excess reserve deposits at the Fed.

US Household Debt

A classic placebo effect, the Fed is well aware that the major benefit of their quantitative easing program is psychological: there is little monetary impact on the markets.

Corporate debt (green line below) is expanding rapidly as corporations take advantage of the opportunity to issue new debt at low interest rates, but household debt (red) is still shrinking.

US Household Debt

There are pockets of concern, like the rapid recovery in NYSE margin debt, but risk of a Dotcom-style stock market bubble or a 2002/2007 housing bubble is low while household debt contracts.

Australia

Australian personal debt (included with household debt in the US chart) and corporate debt growth are both close to zero. Household debt, while also low, appears to have bottomed. Resurgence above 10% would be cause for concern.

RBA Household Debt