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By Jani Ziedins | End of Day Analysis
End of Day Update:
The S&P500 slipped for the sixth-time over the last two-weeks and finds itself under the 50dma. But as bad as this sounds, this “selloff” hasn’t even given up one-percent over this period. The reason we slipped under the 50dma is because it came up to meet us, not that we dipped down to find it. Clearly the Trump Trade is cooling off, but this is hardly panic material.
The interesting thing is the mood in the market has changed from unbridled optimism to reservation and caution. Trump’s had his share of missteps, the health care repeal blew up, and there is simmering tension with Russia, Syria, and North Korea. Add to this the negative price-action we’ve seen recently and the market has plenty of excuses to sell off. That leaves us with the question, why is this dip so modest?
One of the most useful ways I found for analyzing the market is looking at what it is NOT doing. We have all the excuses I listed, plus we can add “too-high, too-fast” and stretched valuations to the list too. With all of these reasons, why aren’t we dramatically lower? Why aren’t more people selling and taking profits? Why isn’t anyone panicking?
When we ask, “what is the market not doing?” Clearly it’s not selling off in a meaningful way. While some people will tell us to be patient, one of the things I learned during my two-decades in the market is big selloffs are breathtakingly fast. They happen before you know what hit you. Not this slow motion stuff we find ourselves in the middle of. If we were extended and vulnerable to a breakdown, it would have happened by now.
No matter how good the reasons the bears have, it doesn’t matter when owners refuse to sell. As long as stubbornly confident owners continue keeping supply tight, the market will keep finding support and defying the skeptics. Clearly this cannot last forever, but it will last far longer than anyone thinks possible.
This market will crack and break down because every bull market eventually ends, but we are not there yet. As long as these dips fail to attract follow-on selling, expect them to be modest and bounce. That means this is a better place to be buying stocks than selling them. As long as we keep recycling the same old headlines, we don’t have anything to worry about. If the healthcare dud and launching missiles at Syria didn’t faze owners, it is hard to imagine a headline that will convince them to change their mind.
Over the near-term I will keep buying the dip, but I will keep an eye out for that new and unexpected headline that sends chills through this market. That will be the one we have to watch out for. But until then approach this rangebound market by buying weakness and selling strength.
Jani
By Jani Ziedins | End of Day Analysis
End of Day Update:
It was a wild ride for the S&P500 as respectable gains evaporated in a late-day selloff. The Fed’s meeting minutes poured cold water on the market when they told us the easy-money party was coming to an end. Many people believe the Fed’s aggressive bond buying program inflated this market and now the Fed is telling us they plan on shrinking their enormous balance sheet later this year. While today’s dramatic reversal on elevated volume was noteworthy in of itself, the bigger question is if this is just another buyable dip like all the others before it, or if this is a true turning point that represents a fundamental change in the market’s outlook.
The market clearly didn’t like today’s news and that’s what lead to the largest intraday reversal in quite some time. But for this to represent a real change, this needs to be a new and unexpected development. Something that caught optimistic owners by surprise and will finally be the catalyst that causes them to give up hope and sell.
Personally I didn’t find this revelation all that surprising. The Fed told us they were going to boost interest rates and that’s what they’ve been doing. So far stocks have brushed off the last three rate-hikes and we continue hovering near all-time highs. Shrinking the balance sheet is the next logical step in the return to normalized monetary policy. It’s been eight-years since the depths of the financial crisis and the economy has proved itself far more resilient than most expected. While equity owners would love to keep the money printing presses running full-tilt, we find ourselves at a point where the risks outweigh the rewards.
If I knew this was coming, was it a surprise to you? If it doesn’t seem like a big deal to either of us, should we really expect this to send a chill through the market? The current crop of owners is stubbornly confident. Every other dip this year bounced because owners refused to sell. Do we think this headline is so shocking and unexpected that it will turn these stubbornly confident owners into fearful sellers? I doubt it. And there’s our answer. Today’s news doesn’t change anything. Stubbornly confident owners will remain stubbornly confident and this dip will bounce like all the other ones before it. No matter what the market “should” do, when people don’t sell, supply stays tight and prices resilient. Something will break this market eventually, but this isn’t it.
As a trade, I would give this reversal a little time to work its way through the system. These things are rarely one-day events, but I would be buying this weakness, not selling it.
Jani
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By Jani Ziedins | End of Day Analysis
End of Day Update
The S&P500 experienced its first one percent loss since October. This came as quite the shock for those that assumed the Trump trade would take us to the moon. But it was little surprise for those of us that have been doing this for a while. Many people will claim they saw this was coming, but the following is what I wrote the day S&P500 exploded to record highs following Trump’s first address to Congress and when Trump mania reached a fever pitch:
While owners feel good and comfortable with their positions, we really should be asking ourselves if this is a better place to be adding new positions or taking profits. Risk is a function of height and by that measure this is the riskiest the market has been in quite some time. Momentum is clearly higher and will likely continue, but I feel much safer buying discounts than paying a premium. It is simply a matter of risk versus reward. This breakout carried us to record highs and has already moved us 15% above the November lows. While we can keep drifting higher, what are the odds we rally another five, ten, or fifteen percent? With history as our guide, a near-term dip is more likely than a continuation. As we started with, markets move in waves. You know it, I know it, everyone knows it. Unfortunately many in the crowd have temporarily forgotten it.
And given today’s meltdown, we now we find ourselves in the midst of this expected pullback. The more pressing question is if this the start of a major correction, or just a routine two-steps forward, one-step back?
The excuse for today’s selloff was the failure of a Republican controlled Congress to quickly reach a deal on repealing Obamacare. The thinking goes that if they cannot get their ducks in a row on Obamacare, then the much more important tax reform is also in jeopardy. But the thing to remember is this is how politics works. As the saying goes, there are two things you don’t want to know how they are made, sausages and laws. This is an ugly and drawn out process. Just because Representatives claim they won’t support this bill doesn’t mean they won’t support a bill. This is how negotiations work in politics. Grind the process to a halt, get concessions for your constituents, and then let everything proceed. If our politicians were not doing this, they wouldn’t be doing their job.
So if this is the way politics always works, should we really be worried that the repeal of Obamacare and Tax Reform are dead? No of course not, that is just as ridiculous as assuming the Trump trade was taking us to the moon. Today’s pullback is normal, routine, and most importantly buyable. But the thing to remember about buyable dips is they wouldn’t happen unless they felt real. If everyone knew it was a buyable dip, no one would sell and we wouldn’t dip in the first place. Of course this feels real and of course it is scary. Every buyable dip feels this way.
The challenge isn’t knowing if we will bounce, but when. Most owners have been confidently holding for higher prices despite concerning headlines and price-action. Are today’s headlines likely to change their mind after they stood their ground through far more bearish headlines? No probably not. That means we should expect this selloff to run out of supply soon and rebound back into the heart of the trading range. What happens after that is an entirely different debate, but at the moment this is a better place to be buying equities than selling them.
The one exception is if we stumble across truly unsettling news that shifts the market back into a half-empty outlook. That said, today’s headlines are definitely not that. Repealing Obamacare is not dead. Tax cuts are not dead. Reducing regulation is not dead. This is simply a process and that takes longer than the stock market was hoping for. The great thing for us is these discounts create profit opportunities for those that are willing to take them.
Jani
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