Nobody can predict at the moment how the Middle East situation will unfold, but if history is a guide market impacts of geopolitical scares are usually short lived
Will it be different this time? Source: Michel A.Arouet
Heavy Supply remains a risk for US Treasuries
How long will the Fed be able to continue with QT? Source: Michel A.Arouet
The 10 Biggest Swiss Watch Brands 🏆by revenues
Source: Morgan Stanley
The bull-market is one-year old and the leadership has been unusual
• Since 1980, every single end to a bear market and start of a new bull has been accompanied by a broad rally in stocks, with the Equal Weight Index and small-caps stocks outperforming the S&P 500. • This time is different: the S&P 500 is heavily influenced by the 10 largest companies, which have enjoyed outsized returns. The so-called "magnificent seven" (Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA and Tesla) are up 77% over the past 12 months. But the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index, which assigns the same weight to all the stocks that are included, is up a more modest 11% for the same timeframe. Small-cap stocks are up 5%. Source: Edward Jones
Cash + Treasury Bills now account for 15% of BoA's Global Wealth AUM, the highest level since the onset of the pandemic and one of the highest levels since the GFC
This could potentially limit the downside risk if that capital rotates back into stocks. Source: Barchart, BofA
For the first time in the last 5 decades, rising interest rates have failed to cause Stock P/E multiples to contract
Source: Barchart
US Treasuries were bid this week due to the search of "safe havens" on the back of Middle East turmoil
However, ugly auctions on Thursday came as a harsh remainder of the unfavourable supply/demand situation faced by US Treasuries. On the supply side, there is a tsunami of notes and bonds that is going to flood the market. And it is occurring while the Fed, under its QT program, is letting about $60 billion a month in maturing Treasury securities roll off the balance sheet without replacement. With the Fed reducing its holdings, that tsunami of notes and bonds being issued will have to find buyers, and those buyers will have to be enticed by yields. Unless inflation and growth slow down meaningfully, yields are unlikely to drop aggressively. Source: www.wolfstreet.com, Bloomberg
Big opportunities ahead for fixed income investors?
The past three years' pain in bonds could indeed be setting the stage for outsized gains ahead. To put the decline into perspective, long-term government bonds, with maturities greater than 20 years, have dropped 50% from their 2020 peak, a drawdown that is comparable to the 56% decline in stocks during the height of the Global Financial Crisis in 2008 Source: Edward Jones
