The Inflation Concern

I am still not terribly worried about near-term inflation; although, I am paying more attention to the intermediate-term.  Many of the disinflation/deflation prognosticators I read regularly, who have been right, are changing their tune slightly, and this is causing me pause. Eventually we will transition from this disinflationary secular bear/range bound market to an inflationary secular bull. 

However, here is why nothing is imminent: until wages move, we won’t have inflation, and wages have been stagnant:

Second, if inflation does get out of hand an equity allocation should do quite nicely:

The charts indicate basically that inflation doesn’t appear to be a threat now, but if it does become one then stocks should help weather that storm.  One caveat is that inflation is the only thing in my opinion that will cause interest rates to rise (via the Fed), so that could have a near-term negative impact on stocks.

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author(s) noted and may or may not represent the views of Capital Analysts, Inc. or Lincoln Investment.  04/13

Blog Note Update

Posting has been slow of late, and for that I apologize.  I have re-tooled the message for three main reasons:

1. To give the blog a more distinct and personal feel
2. To make posts timelier and more scheduled
3. To tie the blog into other social media

Here is what I came up with:

1. Posts will now exclusively cover how various things impact someone’s portfolio, and how to capitalize on them or how to mitigate risk. It could be a macro event, a theory, or just something which occurred to me from reviewing countless research.  Regardless, it will focus on possible impact on the markets.
2. I will post twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday with a more precise message.
3. I will tie in a Twitter account and link it to other platforms, like Linkedin.  When this happens I will outline where to follow.

So, look for regular posting as outlined above starting Thursday.  And if you have any questions, comments, want me to touch on something, or anything else please email me – zabrams@capitalavisorsltd.com. 

Election, Fiscal Cliff, Europe… But Earnings were also Weak.

So right after the election equity markets got a bit shaky; although, have now perked up a bit.  Fears that the President will raise taxes and sink the economy, the Fiscal Cliff is right around the corner, and more negative news out of Europe seemed to “drive” equity markets lower.

So what did move equity markets?  Anyone who professes to have an idea is guessing.  Take your pick of the above if you want to rationalize whatever it is you want to rationalize about changes in the stock market; however, you should consider this – QE3 earnings were bad and forward guidance was weak…

1.  Looking ahead, assuming markets discount the future, once again future guidance was poor.

2.  The earnings beat was up from the last few quarters, but nothing spectacular.

3.  The revenue beat rate was much worse, in fact we've now had consecutive two quarters where revenue beat was below 50% and that hasn't happened since Q4 '08 and Q1 '09.

Remember, earnings  are the ultimate drivers of stock markets, so when you hear various noise it’s important to keep that in mind. 

Why the Euro Bailouts Might Not Work…

To sound clichéd, pictures are worth a thousand words.  And these pictures from Boston.com speak to why the Euro is still in trouble. 

They capture the protests taking place in Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal.  These pictures seem to indicate the protests in Europe are substantially more intense than anything we see in the states.  Further, they indicate why any “solution” or “fix” to the problem is met with skepticism.

Any bailout or EU external funding is wrought with conditions, namely budget targets.  The only way is to get to said targets is to make cuts in benefits (spending) or raise taxes.  The thing about this austerity (deficit-cutting by lowering spending) is that the people tend not to like it.  And when they don’t like it you have protests and/or riots like we can see in those pictures. 

In short, the political situation in the Eurozone may not allow for any agreed upon framework to take place.  The fallout is anyone’s guess.  Again, this points to the difficulties of having a fractured monetary and fiscal union.  

Why is Gold Attractive?

There are a handful of reasons, but I want to highlight one – real interest rates are really, really low.  The real interest rate is what you get once inflation is taken into account.  For example, the interest rate is 4% and inflation is 1.5% the real rate is 2.5% (note: actual equation is not as straightforward, thus real rate shown is for the sake of simplicity).  So why does this matter?

One of the drawbacks of holding gold is that you are paid nothing when you purchase it.  If I hold a bond, for instance, I am paid an interest rate bi-annually for providing my capital.  On the other hand, if I hold gold, not only I am not paid for providing capital, but it costs me capital to hold it (e.g. a safe).

Today the real interest rate on a 10 year bond (10 year yield taking into account 10 year inflation expectations) is at roughly .20%, close to an all-time low.  In fact, real rates have been trending down for a long time.  During that time, gold has increased in value.  The negative correlation, while moderate, is pretty clear:

The negative correlation picks up as real yields fall for a sustained period, although interestingly is uncorrelated when real yields drop below 1.  That maybe indicates something else drives prices as the benefit from a low opportunity cost of holding gold is being reduced. 

Past performance is no guarantee of future results.