David Fuller and Eoin Treacy's Comment of the Day
Category - Autonomies

    Powell Sees Solid Economic Outlook as Rates 'Just Below' Neutral

    This article by Christopher Condon for Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

    Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said interest rates are “just below” the so-called neutral range, softening previous comments that seemed to suggest a greater distance and spurring speculation central bankers are increasingly open to pausing their series of hikes next year.

    Treasuries and stocks rose, as Powell’s “just below” comment tempered remarks he made last month that markets had interpreted to mean that a larger amount of tightening was likely. Speaking at an event on Oct. 3, Powell said that “we may go past neutral. But we’re a long way from neutral at this point, probably.”

    In his speech Wednesday to the Economic Club of New York, Powell said the Fed’s benchmark interest rate was “just below the broad range of estimates of the level that would be neutral for the economy -- that is, neither speeding up nor slowing down growth.”

    If rates are closer to what policy makers ultimately judge is the neutral level, that could signal the Fed will tighten monetary policy less than previously projected. Eurodollar futures pricing reacted to Powell’s comments, reflecting even firmer expectations that the Fed will hike only once next year.

    Read entire article

    Salesforce Helps Drive Software Index on Revenue Forecast

    This article by Nancy Moran and Nico Grant for Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here it is in full:

    Salesforce.com Inc. climbed as much as 9.5 percent on an intraday basis Wednesday, helping to drive a third session of gains in the S&P 500 Software & Services Index, after
    issuing a revenue forecast that topped analysts’ estimates.

    Sales may reach as much as $3.56 billion in the fiscal fourth quarter, the San Francisco-based maker of cloud-based applications software said in a statement Tuesday. Analysts on average estimated $3.53 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

    Read entire article

    RBC Wealth Management 2019 Investment Stance

    Thanks to a subscriber for this report which may be of interest. Here is a section:

    2019 US Equity Outlook: The Return of Risk

    Thanks to a subscriber for this report for Goldman Sachs which may be of interest. Here is a section:

    BP Starts Production at Massive North Sea Oil Development

    This article Sarah Kent for the Wall Street Journal may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

    Clair Ridge is expected to reach a production plateau at a peak of 120,000 barrels of oil a day and is designed to run for 40 years. The companies are currently evaluating the potential for a third project within the field to expand output even further.

    It’s BP’s sixth new project to start production this year, the latest marker of the company’s return to growth after years of retrenchment in the wake of its fatal blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. To pay for the 2010 disaster, which killed 11 people and caused the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, BP was forced to sell off billions of dollars of assets, shrinking its production.

    But a string of new developments that started up over the past two years is reversing that trend, and BP is closing in on its ambition to regain its former size. The company’s production averaged 3.6 million barrels a day in the first nine months of the year, up nearly 3% compared with the same period in 2017. Output will receive a further boost from its recent $10.5 billion acquisition of BHP Billiton Ltd’s shale assets.

    Read entire article

    Email of the day on balancing a portfolio

    Yesterday’s article in The Wall Street Journal raises an interesting issue that may be interesting for discussion (see attached and the link - https://www.wsj.com/articles/octobers-market-rout-leaves-investors-with-no-place-to-hide-1540978259 ).

    “Adding to the stock market’s anxieties has been a rare simultaneous drop in bond prices that has pushed yields near their highest levels in years. The dual breakdown in stock and bond prices has upended investors’ traditional safety tool kit of buying Treasurys during periods of volatility, leaving many with losses.”

    Traditional investment portfolios of 60% equities and 40% bonds lost more than 3% in October and are down 1.2% this year, on pace for a rare annual loss that was last seen in 2008, as well as during volatile periods in 1990, 2001 and 2002, said Luca Paolini, chief strategist at Pictet Asset Management, which manages $191 billion. Even investors who are heavier on fixed income would still be in the red, with allocations of 75% bonds and 25% equities falling more than 2% this month to drag their performance down 1.1% for the year… Declines in bond prices, meanwhile, have exacerbated investors’ pain. Annualized losses among U.S. Treasurys and investment-grade bonds are at 9.7% and 4%, respectively, the third-steepest declines since 1970, according to a recent Bank of America Merrill Lynch report.”

    Portfolio with 60% equities and 40% bonds allocation has been the most traditional advice for individual investors for decades. But I just thought, those were decades of the secular, almost 40-year bull trend in the bond market. If, as you and David often say, we are now witnessing the beginning of the secular bear market in bonds, then this 60-40 allocation represents troubles ahead. Bonds will probably stop being the same safe haven they were in the past. Yes, they will continue to provide some stability to a portfolio in a sense that they won’t fall 10% as equities but instead of rising in times of turmoil, they will also slump.

    If this is the case, how allocation can be changed and where investors will look for safe heavens?

    As always, it would be interesting to know your view.

    Read entire article

    Equity and Quant Hedge Funds Hit Hardest by Stock Market Rout

    This article by Saijel Kishan and Suzy Waite for Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

    The selloff underscores the perils that funds face when they pile into the same stocks. Equity funds suffered after the top 10 stocks they’re most “crowded” in underperformed the S&P 500 Index by almost 3 percent on Oct. 29, the worst day since 2010, Morgan Stanley said. In addition, the top 10 stocks that funds bet against outperformed the index by more than 1 percent.

    Funds that use computer-driven models to follow big market trends were whiplashed as price volatility spiked. Among the casualties: Leda Braga’s BlueTrend hedge fund, GAM Holding AG’s Cantab unit and Man Group Plc’s AHL unit. Other quant models that lost money include Renaissance Technologies’ U.S. equity fund.

    Read entire article