FMX | Connect – www.fmxconnect.com - (Reported 6/23/2010)
Excerpts from MARKET MUSINGS & DATA DECIPHERING
MARKET THOUGHTS
Well, well, so much for consensus views. Like the one we woke up to on Monday morning recommending that bonds be sold and equities be bought on the news of China’s “peg” decision. As we said on Monday, did the 20%-plus yuan appreciation from 2005 to 2008 really alter the investment landscape all that much? It looks like Mr. Market is coming around to the view that all China managed to really accomplish was to shift the focus away from its rigid FX policy to Germany’s rigid approach towards fiscal stimulus.
What is becoming clearer, especially after the latest reports on housing starts, permits, resales and builder sentiment surveys, is that housing is already double dipping in the U.S. The MBA statistics just came out for the week of June 18 and the new purchase index fell 1.2% – down 36.5% from year-ago levels and that year-ago level itself was down 22% from its year-ago level. Capish, paisan? So far, June is averaging 14.5% below May’s level and May was crushed 18% sequentially, so do not expect what is likely to be an ugly new home sales report for May today to be just a one-month wonder. Meanwhile, the widespread view out of the economics community is that we will see at least 3% growth in the second half of the year: fat chance of that.
What is fascinating is how the ECRI, which was celebrated by Wall Street research houses a year ago, is being maligned today for acting as an impostor -- not the indicator it is advertised to be because it gets re-jigged to fit the cycle.
From our lens, there is nothing wrong in trying to improve the predictive abilities of these leading indicators. Still -- it is a comment on how Wall Street researchers are incentivized to be bullish because nobody we know criticized the ECRI as it bounced off the lows (not least of which our debating pal, James Grant).
As for the equity market, we are at a critical juncture and it could break any day. After successfully testing support at the key Fibonacci retracement level of 1,040, the S&P 500 has since bounced up to the 200-day moving average of 1,115 – and this failed to hold. Resistance prevailed. My sense is that the market will break to the downside, and for three reasons:
1.Even if a double dip is avoided, the market is not priced for a growth relapse.
2.The intense volatility in the major averages over the past three months is consistent with the onset of a bear phase.
3.Bob Farrell believes a test of the March 2009 lows is likely. I don’t think anyone is in a position to debate five decades of experience, not to mention his track record. Louise Yamada, a legend in her own right, not to mention the likes of Bob Prechter and Richard Russell, are on this same page. Notice how none of them work at a Wall Street bank.
TRUE, NORTH, STRONG ...
… And free. Free of the dramatic fiscal retrenchment and tax rate increases that are going to be plaguing much of the rest of the industrial world. Shortly after reading Miners Agree to Higher Royalties in yesterday’s WSJ on a story out of Australia, we saw Canada Seeks to Capitalise on Australia’s Resources Super-Tax in the FT. Canada is one of the few countries with a low primary budget deficit and as such is in the process of lowering corporate tax rates, which will be below 25% for the combined federal-provincial levy in most parts of the country by 2012. The one thing we know about capital is that it flows to the jurisdictions that treat it the best.
We are still reeling over that article in the Economist that showed how more market- and business-friendly Canada has become, especially in relation to what is happening south of the border. Canada has a Finance Minister who delivered a credible plan that balances the books and cut taxes in the next five years, and is resisting calls for a special levy on the banks. Meanwhile, the White House only has a plan that involves higher taxation and no intent on eliminating the deficit even for the longer-term, and the U.S. Budget Director (Orszag) just resigned (see After Orszag, Red Ink and Hard Choices on page A4 of the WSJ).
Two-years ago, the Canadian dollar approached par as oil was about to hit $140 a barrel. In the latest go-around, the loonie approached par with oil nearing $80 dollars. In other words, the Canadian dollar was behaving strictly as a commodity currency back in 2007 and 2008 (in both directions). But this rally in the Canadian dollar has a different feel to it; it’s much more than just a commodity story this time around. Canada has basically been re-rated coming out of the credit crisis as a bastion of stability in an increasingly unstable world.
It was fascinating to see the Canadian dollar only correct down to 92 cents during this most recent round of global financial turbulence and flight-to-safety. That is a far cry from the correction down to 78 cents following the Lehman aftershock, not to mention the move down to 62 cents after the tech wreck a decade ago.
At the current time, the Canadian dollar is moderately overpriced but the fair-value line is moving up two to three cents a year, which means that within the next half-decade, it could easily be worth 15% more than it is today. This is something for global investors in general and Americans in particular to contemplate for in any given year, half of the total return differential between Canada and the U.S., whether it be in stocks or bonds, is derived by the direction of the exchange rate.
For the birdwatchers among us, this may well be the time when the loon beats up on the eagle.
David A. Rosenberg
Chief Economist & Strategist Economic Commentary
drosenberg@gluskinsheff.com
+ 1 416 681 8919
Source: Market Musings & Data Deciphering
http://www.fmxconnect.com/
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