Stock rally, rate-cut forecasts face test from Powell testimony and jobs report

A four-month-long U.S. stock market rally, partly fueled by investors’ expectations for interest rate cuts in 2024 by the Federal Reserve, faces a test posed by pair of big events in the week ahead.

The first is Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s semiannual testimony to Congress on Wednesday and Thursday, followed by Friday’s official jobs report for February.

Of the two, the nonfarm payrolls data has the potential to move markets more, given what it could signal about the risk that inflation may keep running hot if job gains come in above the 190,000 consensus expectation, according to analysts and investors.

“Inflation has bottomed out, but is still above the Fed’s objective and it seems like more labor-market weakness is going to be needed,” said John Luke Tyner, a portfolio manager at Alabama-based Aptus Capital Advisors, which manages $5.5 billion in assets. “The headlines we’ve been seeing on technology-related layoffs are missing the mark because there’s a resurgence of employment and wage growth in Middle America.”

January’s data proves the point. The month of February began with the release of January nonfarm payrolls, which showed 353,000 jobs created and a sharp 0.6% rise in average hourly earnings for all employees, despite the highest interest rates in more than two decades.

Then came a round of inflation data. Consumer- and producer-price readings were both above expectations for January, followed by last Thursday’s release of the Fed’s preferred inflation measure, known as the PCE, which showed the monthly pace of underlying price gains rising at the fastest pace in almost a year. Meanwhile, personal income grew at a monthly rate of 1% in January.

Fed-funds futures traders have since pared back their expectations for as many as six or seven quarter-percentage point rate cuts by December, and moved closer in line with the three reductions that the Fed signaled would likely be appropriate. However, this has still been enough to hand the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA
and S&P 500
SPX
their best start to a year since 2019, and fueled a four-month rally in all three major indexes. For the week, the S&P 500 rose 1% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.7%, but the Dow Jones slipped 0.1%, based on FactSet data.

Broadly speaking, Powell is expected to stick to his script by emphasizing the need for greater confidence that inflation is falling toward the Fed’s 2% objective, before policymakers can cut the fed-funds rate target from its current range of 5.25% to 5.5%, analysts said. He’s seen as loath to say anything just yet that could move markets or rate expectations.

“Powell needs to avoid doing what he did in November and December, which was to juice the market with a very bullish message suggesting that policymakers might be done with hiking rates and that the next moves would be rate cuts,” Tyner said via phone. “The Fed needs to remain unified about the need to be patient, with no rush to cut rates, and about being data dependent, with the current data pointing toward not cutting until later this year.”

Read: No Fed rate cuts in 2024, Wall Street economist warns investors

Aptus Capital’s strategies rely on the use of options overlays to improve results, and the firm is “well-positioned” to capture both upside and downside moves in the market because of a “disciplined approach on hedges in both directions,” the portfolio manager said.

Others see some possibility that Powell’s testimony to the House Financial Services Committee and Senate Banking Committee produces one of two non-base-case results: He could either push back on expectations around the timing or extent of Fed rate cuts this year, or, on the flip side, hint at the need for maintenance rate cuts because of prospects for softer inflation and economic readings going forward.

The rates market is the mechanism by which financial markets would likely react one way or another to Powell’s testimony and Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report — specifically with trading in fed-funds futures and Secured Overnight Financing Rate futures. Any reaction in the futures market would simultaneously impact longer-term Treasurys and risk assets, according to Mike Sanders, head of fixed income at Wisconsin-based Madison Investments, which manages $23 billion in assets.

Fed officials are not likely to have enough confidence that they’ve won the battle against inflation by June, raising the question of whether markets are overestimating policymakers’ ability to start cutting rates by that month, Sanders said via phone.

“Fed officials are more or less committed to cutting rates when appropriate, but are concerned that if they cut too soon they’ll have sticky inflation,” he said.

“The services side continues to be higher than the Fed wants, with much of the disinflation coming from the goods side,” Sanders said. Inflation dynamics are “still not in balance from the Fed’s perspective, and the services side has to be concerning to policymakers, especially in the face of the personal-income growth we’ve seen. It’s going to be status quo until the Fed knows whether the higher inflation prints seen in January were a one-off or if this continues.’’

Analysts said they are particularly worried about supercore inflation, a measure of core services that excludes housing, which is still running at levels which suggest that the services side of the U.S. economy is firing on all cylinders.

No major U.S. data is scheduled for release on Monday. Tuesday brings January factory orders and ISM service sector activity figures for February.

On Wednesday, data releases include ADP’s private-sector employment report, January readings on wholesale inventories and job openings, and the Fed’s Beige Book report. San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly is also set to speak that day.

Thursday’s data batch includes weekly initial jobless benefit claims, a revision on fourth-quarter productivity, the U.S. trade balance, and consumer-credit figures. Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester is also scheduled to make an appearance. Friday brings an appearance by New York Fed President John Williams and final consumer-sentiment data for February.

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Former hedge fund star says this is what will trigger the next bear market.

Much of Wall Street expects easing inflation, but an overshoot could dash hopes of a May rate cut, curtailing the S&P 500’s
SPX
waltz with 5,000, warn some.

Read: Arm’s frenzied stock rally continues as AI chase trumps valuation.

What might take this market down eventually? Our call of the day from former hedge-fund manager Russell Clark points to Japan, an island nation whose central bank is one of the last holdouts of loose monetary policy.

Note, Clark bailed on his perma bear RC Global Fund back in 2021 after wrongly betting against stocks for much of a decade. But he’s got a whole theory on why Japan matters so much.

In his substack post, Clark argues that the real bear-market trigger will come when the Bank of Japan ends quantitative easing. For starters, he argues we’re in a “pro-labor world” where a few things should be playing out: higher wages and lower jobless levels and interest rates higher than expected. Lining up with his expectations, real assets started to surge in late 2023 when the Fed started to go dovish, and the yield curve began to steepen.

From that point, not everything has been matching up so easily. He thought higher short-term rates would siphon off money from speculative assets, but then money flowed into cryptos like Tether and the Nasdaq recovered completely from a 2022 rout.

“I have been toying with the idea that semiconductors are a the new oil – and hence have become a strategic asset. This explains the surge in the Nasdaq and the Nikkei to a degree, but does not really explain tether or bitcoin very well,” he said.

So back to Japan and his not so popular explanation for why financial/speculative assets continue to trade so well.

“The Fed had high interest rates all through the 1990s, and dot-com bubble developed anyway. But during that time, the Bank of Japan only finally raised interest rates in 1999 and then the bubble burst,” he said.

He notes that when Japan began to tighten rates in late 2006, “everything started to unwind,” adding that the BOJ’s brief attempts [to] raise rates in 1996 could be blamed for the Asian Financial Crisis.

In Clark’s view, markets seem to have moved more with the Japan’s bank balance sheet than the Fed’s. The BOJ “invented” quantitative easing in the early 2000s, and the subprime crisis started not long after it removed that liquidity from the market in 2006, he notes.

“For really old investors, loose Japanese monetary policy also explained the bubble economy of the 1980s. BOJ Balance Sheet and S&P 500 have decent correlation in my book,” he said, offering the below chart:


Capital Flows and Asset Markets, Russell Clark.

Clark says that also helps explains why higher bond yields haven’t really hurt assets. “As JGB 10 yields have risen, the BOJ has committed to unlimited purchases to keep it below 1%,” he notes.

The two big takeaways here? “BOJ is the only central bank that matters…and that we need to get bearish the U.S. when the BOJ raises interest rates. Given the moves in bond markets and food inflation, this is a matter of time,” said Clark who says in light of his plans for a new fund, “a bear market would be extremely useful for me.” He’s watching the BOJ closely.

The markets

Pre-data, stock futures
ES00,
-0.41%

NQ00,
-0.80%

are down, while Treasury yields
BX:TMUBMUSD10Y

BX:TMUBMUSD02Y
hold steady. Oil
CL.1,
+0.79%

and gold
GC00,
+0.46%

are both higher. The Nikkei 225 index
JP:NIK
tapped 38,000 for the first time since 1990.

Key asset performance

Last

5d

1m

YTD

1y

S&P 500

5,021.84

1.60%

4.98%

5.28%

21.38%

Nasdaq Composite

15,942.55

2.21%

6.48%

6.20%

34.06%

10 year Treasury

4.181

7.83

11.45

30.03

42.81

Gold

2,038.10

-0.17%

-0.75%

-1.63%

9.33%

Oil

77.14

5.96%

6.02%

8.15%

-2.55%

Data: MarketWatch. Treasury yields change expressed in basis points

The buzz

Due at 8:30 a.m., January headline consumer prices are expected to dip to 2.9% for January, down from 3.4% in December and the lowest since March 2021. Monthly inflation is seen at 0.3%.

Biogen
BIIB,
+1.56%

stock is down on disappointing results and a slow launch for its Alzheimer’s treatment. A miss is also hitting Krispy Kreme
DNUT,
+1.99%
,
Coca-Cola
KO,
+0.24%

is up on a revenue rise, with Hasbro
HAS,
+1.38%
,
Molson Coors
TAP,
+3.12%

and Marriott
MAR,
+0.74%

still to come, followed by Airbnb
ABNB,
+4.20%
,
Akamai
AKAM,
-0.13%

and MGM Resorts
MGM,
+0.60%

after the close. Hasbro stock is plunging on an earnings miss.

JetBlue
JBLU,
+2.19%

is surging after billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn disclosed a near 10% stake and said his firm is discussing possible board representation.

Tripadvisor stock
TRIP,
+3.04%

is up 10% after the travel-services platform said it was considering a possible sale.

In a first, Russia put Estonia’s prime minister on a “wanted” list. Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate approved aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

Best of the web

Why chocolate lovers will pay more this Valentine’s Day than they have in years

A startup wants to harvest lithium from America’s biggest saltwater lake.

Online gambling transactions hit nearly 15,000 per second during the Super Bowl.

The chart

Deutsche Bank has taken a deep dive into the might of the Magnificent Seven, and why they will continue to matter for investors. One reason? Nearly 40% of the world still doesn’t have internet access as the bank’s chart shows:

Top tickers

These were the top-searched tickers on MarketWatch as of 6 a.m.

Ticker

Security name

TSLA,
-2.81%
Tesla

NVDA,
+0.16%
Nvidia

ARM,
+29.30%
Arm Holdings

PLTR,
+2.75%
Palantir Technologies

NIO,
+2.53%
Nio

AMC,
+4.11%
AMC Entertainment

AAPL,
-0.90%
Apple

AMZN,
-1.21%
Amazon.com

MARA,
+14.19%
Marathon Digital

TSM,
-1.99%
NIO

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Need to Know starts early and is updated until the opening bell, but sign up here to get it delivered once to your email box. The emailed version will be sent out at about 7:30 a.m. Eastern.

Check out On Watch by MarketWatch, a weekly podcast about the financial news we’re all watching – and how that’s affecting the economy and your wallet.

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Stock-market rally faces make-or-break moment. How to play U.S. October inflation data.

It has been a while since a hot inflation report sparked wild gyrations in U.S. stocks, like it frequently did in 2022, but that doesn’t mean Tuesday’s consumer price index for October is destined to be a snooze-fest for markets.

To the contrary, some Wall Street analysts believe it is possible, even likely, that the October CPI report could emerge as a critical catalyst for stocks, with the potential to propel the market higher on a softer-than-expected number.

At least one prominent economist expects the data to show that consumer prices were largely unchanged last month, or even fell.

“I would not be surprised to see a negative CPI inflation print for October,” said Neil Dutta, head of economics at Renaissance Macro Research, in commentary emailed to MarketWatch.

“After all, retail gasoline and heating oil prices declined a little over 10% over the month and we know that energy, while representing a small share of total CPI, roughly 7%, can account for a large chunk of the month-to-month swings in CPI.”

Markets at a crossroads

The October CPI report arrives at a critical juncture for markets. Investors are trying to anticipate whether the Federal Reserve will follow through with one more interest rate increase, as it indicated in its latest batch of projections, released in September.

Speaking on Thursday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell left the door open to another move, but qualified this — as the Fed almost always has — by insisting that whatever the Fed decides, it will ultimately depend on the data.

These comments added even more emphasis to next week’s data, said Thierry Wizman, Macquarie’s global FX and interest rate strategist, in commentary emailed to MarketWatch on Friday.

“Our own view — expressed over the past few days — is that the Fed — and by extension the fixed-income markets — won’t be anticipatory. Rather, the Fed will be highly reactive to the data,” he said. “The next milestone is…CPI. It is likely to have a calming effect on markets, as traders weigh the prospect that a very low headline CPI result will further cool the prospect of excessive wage demands in the labor market.”

Asymmetric risks

While assessing the potential impact of a soft inflation report next week, at least one market analyst expects the market’s reaction to the June CPI report, released on July 12, might serve as a helpful template.

Stocks touched their highest levels of the year within that month, as many interpreted the slower-than-expected increase in prices as an important turning point in the Fed’s battle against inflation. The S&P 500 logged its 2023 closing high on July 31, according to FactSet data,

Tom Lee, who anticipated both the outcome of the June CPI report and the market’s reaction, told MarketWatch that, at this point, inflation would need to meaningfully reaccelerate to have an adverse impact on the stock market.

The upshot of this is that the risks for investors heading into Tuesday’s report are likely skewed to the upside. Even a slightly hotter-than-expected number likely wouldn’t be enough to derail the market’s November rebound rally. While a soft reading could reinforce expectations that the Fed is done hiking rates, likely precipitating a rally in both stocks and bonds.

“I’d say the setup looks pretty favorable,” Lee said.

Even a modestly hotter-than-expected number likely wouldn’t be enough to derail the market’s November rebound.

“I think the reaction function is changing for the stock market,” Lee said.

“Because the Federal Reserve and public market kind of viewed the September CPI as a pretty decent number, and Powell even referred to it as such. Earlier in 2023, I think people would have viewed it as a miss.”

U.S. inflation has eased substantially since peaking above 9% on a year-over-year basis last summer, the highest rate in four decades. The data released last month showed consumer prices climbed 0.4% in September, softer than the 0.6% from the prior month, but still slightly above expectations.

However, the more closely watched “core” reading reflected only a 0.3% increase, which was in-line with expectations.

How long will the ‘last mile’ take?

There is a perception on Wall Street and within the Federal Reserve that driving inflation down from 3% to the Fed’s 2% target could pose more difficulty for the Fed. After all, most of the easing from last summer’s highs was driven by falling commodity prices and supply-chain normalization as the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic faded.

Powell has repeatedly warned of a “bumpy ride,” and he reiterated on Thursday that the battle against inflation is far from over.

See: Powell says Fed is wary of ‘head fakes’ from inflation

Inflation data released this month, and in the months to come, could help to define investors’ expectations for how long this “last mile” might take, helping these reports regain their significance for markets.

“I like a calm market, but I think CPI is coming more in focus these days now that we’re getting closer to that 2% target,” said Callie Cox, U.S. investment analyst at eToro, during a phone call with MarketWatch.

Since the start of 2023, the S&P 500 index hasn’t seen a single move of 1% or greater on a CPI release day, according to FactSet data. By comparison, the biggest daily swings seen in 2022 occurred on CPI days, with the large-cap index sometimes swinging 4% or more in a single session.

Economists polled by FactSet expect consumer prices rose 0.1% in October, following a 0.4% bump in September. They expect a 0.3% increase for core prices, which excludes volatile food and energy. Powell has said that he’s keeping a close eye on core inflation, as well as so-called “supercore” inflation, which measures the cost of services inflation excluding housing.

To be sure, the CPI report isn’t the only piece of potentially market-moving news due during the coming week. Investors will also receive a monthly update from the Treasury that includes data on foreign purchases and sales of Treasury bonds, as well as a flurry of other economic reports, including potentially market-moving readings on housing-market and manufacturing activity.

There is also the producer-price index, another closely watched barometer of inflation, which is due out Thursday.

U.S. stocks have risen sharply since the start of November, with the S&P 500
SPX
up more than 5.3%, according to FactSet data.

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#Stockmarket #rally #faces #makeorbreak #moment #play #October #inflation #data