Q1 earnings in focus

April 10, 2009 — Mitul Kotecha

Equity markets have continued their ascent albeit with continuing volatility around the Q1 earnings season. Other indicators of market stress have also improved whilst bond yields haved edged higher. Next week will test the markets optimism with a plethora of banks set to release their results for the past quarter. Wells Fargo provided a boost to financials today with its earnings report. Banks will benefit from the changes to mark to market accounting regulations allowing banks more flexibility in valuing their dodgy assets. Although I am somewhat concerned about the political push for the change in these accounting rules it will no doubt ease some of the pressure on banks and their estimates of writedowns.

Meanwhile the economic news continues to be less negative as the bigger than expected narrowing in the US trade deficit reveals. This adds to the run of better than expected numbers over recent weeks that is perhaps showing that the pace of economic deterioration globally is easing. The economic news has also contributed to the better tone to equities and improvement in risk appetite.

Action to prevent the economic and financial crisis from deepening is also creating a floor under markets. The Bank of England left interest rates unchanged but maintained its commitment to conduct asset purchases having done around 1/3 of the planned GBP 75 billion so far, with the remainder to be undertaken over the next couple of months. Elsewhere Japan will provide further fiscal stimulus to boost its flagging economy although the unstable political situation could yet derail such plans. Nonetheless, the picture is clear as policy makers continue their battle to boost sentiment and thaw credit markets.

If markets can get through Q1 earnings without a major set back there maybe hope that the rally really has got legs. I still think there is a whiff of a bear market rally going on but I would happy to be proved wrong.

Posted in Bond markets, central banks, Currencies, Economics, equity markets, Financial crisis, UK, US. Tags: , , , , , , . 1 Comment »

What drives currencies?

April 7, 2009 — Mitul Kotecha

Currency forecasting is never an easy thing to do. The drivers of currencies appear to change over time making it quite tough to develop forecasting tools with great accuracy. This is not an excuse from someone who has been trying to analyse currencies for a number of years but just a statement of reality. Over the past year or so one of the biggest drivers of currencies has been risk appetite. As equity markets sank in 2008 the main winners were the dollar and yen both of which appreciated due to strong repatriation flows and safe haven demand. This influence of risk in determining currency movements saw historical influences such as interest rate differentials pushed into the background.

Where does it leave FX now? Well, if the rally in equity markets continues it implies that both the dollar and yen will fall further whilst long suffering currencies such as the pound will strengthen further. In the pound’s case it has a lot of room to recover given that is massively undervalued by many measures. For instance during my time in Hong Kong the pound against the dollar has dropped by around 30% making things look far more expensive than when I first came. However, to a foreigner UK assets now look quite well priced and London is no longer such an expensive city. Add in the steep drop in house prices and the UK looks even more competitive. This will no doubt benefit the economy in time.

So if the current risk/FX relationship holds it means that we should all be watching equity markets to see where currencies are going to move over coming months. If equity markets fail to sustain their rally it could put the dollar back on the front foot which will see the pound back under pressure. Eventually the dollar will weaken as risk appetite improves and when that happens the pound may be one of the main beneficiaries.

Ps. I hope this works as I am posting this article on holiday. It also means that my contributions may be a bit more sporadic over the next couple of weeks.

Posted in Currencies, Economics, equity markets, Financial crisis. Tags: , , , , , , . 4 Comments »

Pricing in recovery

April 1, 2009 — Mitul Kotecha

As was pointed out to me in one of the comments following my last article there are some signs that the market has become increasingly resistant to bad news. Indeed, it is encouraging that a host of weak economic data, more bad news on the banking sector front, bickering by leaders ahead of the G20 meeting, and the likely bankruptcy of a couple of US automakers has not prompted a more negative reaction.

Is the market tired of selling? It’s highly possible. Having faced an onslaught of bad news over recent months perhaps market players are simply exhausted. Adding weight to this is the fact that any pullback in equities has been relatively small compared to the gains over recent weeks whilst technical indicators are suggesting a more positive picture emerging.

I am not convinced. I will grudgingly admit that the market looks in better shape than it has done for months but this is far from a sustainable rally. Retail investors have yet to get in on this rally and like past equity crashes such as that following the Nasdaq bull burst, it took a long time for many investors to get back into the market having been burned so badly on the way down.

As I write this the US ISM manufacturing and pending home sales data have been released and both have come in on the positive side of expectations. The caveat is that the ISM is still in contractionary territory, consistent with falling GDP. Even if the data coming out now is less negative economic stabilisation is unlikely to take place until at least the end of the year. Based on past trends equity markets begin pricing in recovery around 6 months ahead of actual economic recovery, suggesting that we may only be a few months away from a more sustained turnaround in equity markets.

My only concern with this theory is that this is unlike any previous recession and so the equity market signal may be false. The current US recession has already lasted around 16 months, which is already a few months longer than the average for past recessions. It will need banks to be healthy before the economic outlook improves. If banks continue to remain in bad shape then past history will be a poor guide to the current path of the US economy.

Posted in bank rescue, Economics, equity markets, Financial crisis, US. Tags: , . 1 Comment »

Tough week ahead

March 30, 2009 — Mitul Kotecha

It looked as though it all went wrong today as the bad news just kept on coming. Following reports on Friday that JP Morgan and BoA had a more difficult month in March following a stronger start to the year, reports that UBS would be shedding thousands of staff and would announce billions more in writedowns as well as news of the takeover of a Spanish regional bank by the Bank of Spain hit market sentiment hard. Topping all of this were comments by the US administration that some banks would need more capital in addition to that already provided. The administration also said that bankruptcy may be the best option GM and Chrysler.

This sets up a difficult week ahead, with risk aversion set to rise further and the news unlikely to get any better. Economic news is likely to add to the market’s gloom as US releases such as the ISM manufacturing survey for March and the jobs report will likely reveal further deterioration. Expectations for another hefty drop in payrolls in March could see a total of over 5 million jobs lost so far in the current cycle with many more to go.

The news in Europe will not be much better and as today’s Eurozone sentiment indicators have shown the outlook for the economy remains gloomy. The ECB is likely to cut interest rates but will refrain from embarking on the quantitative easing policies followed by other central banks such as the Fed or BoE. As risk aversion rises the USD is set to continue to strengthen against most currencies this week.

Posted in bank rescue, central banks, Currencies, Economics, equity markets, Europe, Financial crisis, UK, US, US administration. Tags: , , . 6 Comments »

Is the bad news priced in?

March 28, 2009 — Mitul Kotecha

I have been harping on about the fact that the market rally is losing its legs, that the market is too optimistic about the bank rescue plans, that there is a lot pain ahead on the economic front. This has been a view that is generally not a consensus one.

There is a good article in the FT today about the divergence between the equity market reaction to the US administration’s plans and the fixed income market reaction. The article sums up quite well the thoughts I have been having and why I believe the rally does not have legs. The article describes how “broken finance” has become since the onset of the crisis and how the US Treasury is relying on leverage and securitsation when this was exactly what got banks into the mess in the first place. The difference in the price that banks are willing to sell toxic assets (realising losses at the same time) and the price private investors are willing to pay could be a major stumbling block to the plan working. In addition, another question revolves around the type of toxic assets banks will be willing to offload with the worst quality likely to be sold off first.

If the the process results in better disclosure of such debt then it may finally reveal that some institutions are technically insolvent. If so, will the administration do the right thing and temporary nationalise “zombies” or even allow them to go bust? My view is that in the end a quick end to the pain, with a lethal injection may be better than the slow tortourous debt that is happening now.

I was asked on CNBC this week why I believe the rally won’t last and I said that there was a lot of bad news still out there. The presenter replied that is this not priced in to markets? I replied that perhaps some of the bad news is priced in, but there is still a lot more to come. I would add to this, does this pricing in of bad news also justify the magnitude of the rally seen over recent weeks. I don’t think so.

Posted in bank rescue, Economics, equity markets, Financial crisis. Tags: , . Leave a Comment »
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