One Overvalued Market
There has been plenty of debate over whether equities are overvalued or not, and certainly we would assume that many investors know where we stand on the topic.
On an operating (“scrubbed”) basis, the trailing P/E multiple on the S&P 500 has expanded a massive 10 points from the March lows, to stand at 27.6x.
While we will not belabour the point, when all the write-downs are included, the trailing P/E on “reported” earnings just widened to its highest levels in recorded history of nearly 140x, which is three times the levels prevailing during the height of the tech bubble.
PE Expansion
It is interesting to hear market bulls talk about how distorted it is to be using trailing multiples that include ‘recession earnings’ (even though using ‘forward’ earnings means relying on consensus forecasts on the future and these are rarely, if ever, correct). It is also interesting that the last time the multiple was this high was back in March 2002, again after a huge countertrend rally that deployed ‘recession earnings’ from the 2001 downturn. If memory serves us correctly, this was right around the time that the bear market rally started to roll over and in fact, six months later, the S&P 500 was hitting new lows and 34% lower than it was when the multiple had expanded to … today’s level!
Even On A Forward Basis, The Market Is Overvalued
Bullish analysts like to dismiss the actual earnings because they are “depressed” and include too many writeoffs, which, of course, will never occur again.
The consensus is usually overly-optimistic, which is why so many analysts love to do their analysis on “forward” earnings since the market almost always looks “attractively priced” on that basis. The reality is that the forward P/E multiple is now at 16.2x after bottoming at 11.7x at the market lows. The multiple has not been this high since February 2005
What’s the Shape of Your Recession?
by ilene - November 9th, 2009 5:02 am
What’s the Shape of Your Recession?
Courtesy of Tim at Psy-Fi Blog
Clueless Commentators
Over the past few years we’ve had endless economic experts opining on the nature of the recession. From initial hopes of a bouncy V shaped recovery we moved onto a sluggish U and then a very droopy looking L before a dose of government pump-primed financial Viagra re-erected the idea of the V. More pessimistic predictors – mainly those who originally plumped for a U or an L – are now hopefully suggesting that we’ll get a double-dip W or a triple-dip VW in an attempt to save their remaining credibility.
Of course, the reality is that none of them have the faintest clue because none them possibly can have the faintest clue. We are, as always, in the uncharted waters of the future. The only letter that needs apply is the X that marks the spot where we bury the commentators and their useless predictions.
Blithe Ignorance
As we’ve sailed on through the treacherous shoals of economic uncertainty people have naturally looked to the world’s experts for advice. Occasional suggestions by central bankers, who actually have the real data to analyse, that they don’t have a clue what’s going to happen have resulted in shudders across world markets. Meanwhile commentators have happily carried on making essentially random predictions based on their thirty years or so experience of largely benign economic times. It’s like watching a weather forecaster from Hawaii trying to make predictions for the Mid-West: amusing, but not terribly helpful.
In fact, as economies have uncertainly recovered we’ve seen the standard reactions by experts who’ve been caught out (see You Can’t Trust The Experts With Your Investments). Many have simply ignored the fact that they were wrong and have blithely continued to make further predictions; presumably on the grounds that yesterday’s media makes tomorrow’s lining for kitty litter trays. Others have opted for the standard “I was right, but not yet” or “I was wrong, but for the right reason” responses as though getting your timing wrong about the world economy and causing people to flee into overpriced government bonds just as the biggest stockmarket rally in history kicked off is a normal sized mistake.
The highly respected John Authers of the Financial Times is…
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Overly Optimistic Consensus Plays Greater Fools’ Game Once Again
by ilene - October 9th, 2009 3:40 pm
Overly Optimistic Consensus Plays Greater Fools’ Game Once Again
Courtesy of Mish
The crowd is often right except at market turns. After the turn, the crowd tends to holds on until most previous gains vanish. In a secular bull market, such optimism works out acceptably well. In a secular bear market, rampant optimism is severely punished.
David Rosenberg is discussing the overly-optimistic consensus in a Special Report: A “V”-Shaped Recovery.
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW.