Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/19/2009 19:49 -0500
Our stock markets are now well into 60% rally territory. Which begs the question: how does this rally stack up with previous ones based on such arcane concepts as economic fundamentals. We present some of the key criteria of how previous 60% rallies have looked like when analyzed across 10 different key economic dimensions (which are completely irrelevant now). Data courtesy of Contrary Investor.
- Year over Year Retail Sales: 9.3% average in prior 60% rallies versus -5.3% in the current one
- Consumer Confidence: 95.5 average; 53.1 now
- Capacity Utilization: 79.9% average; 66.6% now
- Year over Year Industrial Production: 4.1% avereage; -10.7% now
- ISM: 53.9 average; 52.6 now
- Payroll employment gains over period: 2.2% average; -2.0% now
- Decline in continued unemployment claims from cycle peak: -26.3 average; -11.6% now
- Year over Year growth in total credit market debt: 9.3% average; 3.0% now
- Year over Year growth in household debt: 8.8% average; -0.1% now
- P/E Multiple: 16.8x average; 20.0x now
With the exception of ISM, this 60% rally is completely nonsensical. On 9 out of the key 10 economic dimensions we are cruising purely on hope and on expectations that Uncle Sam will continue printing trillions of dollars simply to get us out of this mess. Or not even that, but merely the excess hundreds of billions in liquidity courtesy of Ben Bernanke, are following the path of least resistance straight to equities. Whatever the reason, the current rally, at least when juxtaposed with previous ones, is a complete sham. Anyone who believes there is any ounce of economic fundamental credibility to it needs to take a careful look at the data. Unfortunately, all will be happy to be blissfully ignorant until, as always, it is too late.
By Nico Isaac
Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:00:00 ET
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* Middle East: Thursday, July 03 - 2008 at 13:13
In the middle of June UK gilts had their biggest sell-off for years as markets digested the thought of what higher interest rates to tackle inflation might mean for bond prices. Inflation is bad news for bonds. Inflation tends to push up interest rates so fixed interest rate instruments decline in value. In the Gulf that means sukuks.
Sukuks have become very popular in the region, combining the ethical appeal of Islamic banking with exposure to local currencies which are thought likely to revalue upwards.
And international banks have rushed to join the sukuk issuance bandwagon over the past couple of years, sometimes displacing the local banks, even the Islamic ones.
Investors have, from time to time, wondered about the return on offer from sukuks. Earning 2.5% above Eibor on sukuk from the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority does not look like a great return: 4.5% 'profit' as interest on sukuk is termed, despite the geopolitical risk of the Gulf, is not a great deal.
Indeed, with UAE inflation above 10% - some say as high as 20% this year - this is a negative real rate of return on this investment. A few years of inflation roaring at this kind of level and your sukuk is going to be worth a lot less in real terms than you paid for it.
Likely Eibor rise
It gets worse when you think Eibor is likely to rise eventually to combat inflation. Admittedly because of the dollar peg this will be dictated by the policy decisions of the Federal Reserve in the US and not the local Central Bank.
But eventually the US economy will recover sufficiently from recession to allow the authorities to tackle inflation by raising interest rates from their present very low 2% level.
Then Eibor will go up and the price of sukuks, with their fixed margins above Eibor will fall in value. All the local sukuk are listed, so the price falls will be clearly visible on the big board of the Dubai Financial Market or Dubai International Financial Exchange.
Really sukuks are no more or less than US treasury-related corporate bonds tailored to an Islamic format. So if inflation and high interest rates make life tough for T-bonds then it is also going to be equally tough for the sukuk market.
Disastrous bond investment
The celebrated analyst Dr Marc Faber has written many times that he thinks 30-year treasury bonds may turn out to be a historically bad buy and, for what is supposed to be an ultra-safe investment class, prove to be a disastrous investment.
Of course nobody can be quite sure what the Fed has planned. Probably even chairman Ben Bernanke is not working to a fixed plan. It could be that the US recession proves to be longer and more intractable than anybody thinks and he is forced to keep interest rates very low despite problems of imported inflation from commodities.
Then sukuk may retain investor appeal as a defensive alternative to cash paying low deposit rates. But if interest rates go up, then sukuk values will go down.
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