THE STOCK MARKET IS DISLOCATED FROM REALITY
by ilene - October 18th, 2009 12:36 am
THE STOCK MARKET IS DISLOCATED FROM REALITY
Courtesy of The Pragmatic Capitalist
David Rosenberg is still unwavering in his belief that the rally is built on quicksand:
There are some very serious headwinds facing the U.S. economy, and one of them is access to credit for people who are at the lower end of the income spectrum (and who also represent the greatest default risk). A great article on this can be found on the front page of the weekend WSJ (The ‘Democratization of Credit’ Is Over – Now It’s Payback Time). Families at the lower end of the income spectrum spend nearly all of their income, so this is a vital part of the economy and it is going to be very difficult for lower-income families to secure credit going forward. The ratio of credit card debt outstanding to income is 50% higher for the bottom 40% of the income strata than is the case for the upper 40%. The highest default rates are the folks at the bottom of the pay scale. In 2007, fully 35% of poor families had a balance owing on their credit card compared with 21% in 1989. This is the byproduct of government policy inducing lenders to make credit cards available to high-risk, low-income individuals — a reckless policy drive that started in the late 1970s (the policy did help drive homeownership rates up and crime rates down).
Now that lenders have started to respond to their record-high delinquency rates by rationing credit, a mad scramble for cash is occurring to replace the loans — food stamp usage is up 22% year-over-year, pawn shop business is up nearly 40%, and there is a tidal wave of applications for Social Security disability benefits that are not explained alone by workplace mishaps.
In any event, so much effort is being expended by the government to keep the credit cycle going that it isn’t even funny, nor is it useful, anymore. Allowing households to still finance almost 100% of a new house purchase has meant that the FHA default rate for loans made in the last year has surged to 20%; and to 24% for loans made since 2007. Private lenders are now requiring a 20% downpayment, and the credit officers at the FHA only need a 3.5% downpayment. The U.S. taxpayer could be facing up to…
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5 REASONS THE RALLY IS BUILT ON QUICKSAND
by ilene - September 10th, 2009 3:52 pm
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5 REASONS THE RALLY IS BUILT ON QUICKSAND
Courtesy of The Pragmatic Capitalist
From the desk of David Rosenberg this morning:
1. This remains a hope-based rally (with strong technicals). I say that because during this six-month 50%+ rally in the S&P 500, the U.S. economy has shed 2.4 million jobs, which is almost as many as we lost during the entire 2001-02 tech wreck — in just six months. The market’s ability to shrug off the loss of 2.4 million jobs is either a sign that it is treating this as old news or sees the cost-cutting as good news for profits. Either way, what we are seeing transpire is without precedent — the magnitude of the employment slide versus the magnitude of the market advance. Truly fascinating stuff.
It’s remarkable to add that jobless claims were 550K this morning – a staggering number this deep into a recession. But fear not – it was “better than expected”.
2. Companies have not really been beating their earnings estimates — only the very final estimates heading into the reporting quarter. For example, the consensus view for 3Q EPS at the start of the year was $21.00, last we saw the estimates were down to just over $14.00. But there is a deeply rooted belief that earnings are coming in better than expected. This is a psychology that is difficult to break. It is completely unknown (for some reason) that corporate revenues are running at a -25% YoY rate, which compares to the -10% we saw at the worst part of the 2001-02 bear market and the -3% trend at the most negative point in 1991.
It’s also interesting to note the very real weakness in corporate revenues. The bottom line can be manipulated, but revenues never lie….
3. Valuation is a poor timing device but even on “normalized” trailing 10-year earnings, the S&P 500 is trading near 18x, which is now above the historical average of 16x.
Market value matters less to me at this juncture. If we were to get a much stronger than expected recovery you could easily argue that the market is cheap. PE ratios are a moving target based on guesses. That is what makes them poor market timing indicators.
4. All the
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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. She manages the site