Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:13):
Hello, and welcome to What Goes Up, a weekly markets podcast.
My name is Mike Reagan, I'm a senior editor at.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Bloomberg, and I'm all Donna Hirich, across asset reporter with Bloomberg.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
And this week on the show, well, don't pinch yourself,
you're not dreaming, and don't bother to call the IT
department to adjust your computer monitor.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
It's working fine.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
The stock market really did just put in one of
the strongest first halfs of a year in well forever,
at least for the Nasdaq one hundred, which as of
this recording is up about thirty seven percent so far
in twenty twenty three. So how exactly did that happen
when everyone and their dog was calling for a recession
this year? And what can we expect next? We'll get
(00:55):
into it with a very special guest. But first of Feldona,
I think many listeners are probably familiar with the famous
Bloomberg pantry. We're very lucky to have snacks and coffee
on soft drinks.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
What's your favorite part of the Bloomberg pantry?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Bloomberg pantry, Okay, we have these really cool machines that
I heard are straight from Italy. That make lattes. Do
you use those? They're like dotted all over the place.
One of them is a brand new and makes like
the silkiest latte, So I love those.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
I was going to be corny and say the people.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Oh my god, please don't make me roll my eyes.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
All right. I was walking through the pantry the other.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Day, and there is something to being back in the
office and not working at home all the time, because
you run in the people. I had my eggs, my
hard boiled egg, my coffee, a pocket full of red liquorice,
and I ran into our guests this week and made
me think, you know what, it's about time we had
on the show. We have a lot of strategists on
the show from outside of the firm, but we're lucky
(02:04):
to have one of the best in the business right here.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
When I see her in the hallways, I never say
hi because I'm like, oh, no, I'm leaving her alone
because she needs her time. She's so busy, really really, yes,
hello to me. Oh I never say hello to you
on purpose.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Yeah, turn the other way, completely different reason.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
I guess, turned the other way. Yes, Okay, it's Gina
Martin Adams, Chief Equity strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence. Since she's
been on the show before, and we're so lucky to
have you back. Thank you for joining me.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Wow, thank you for having me. That was quite an introduction.
Well we should just stop it right there on that
high and call it a quit.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Thanks everybody for listening this week.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
But it's a good week, Gina, to have you on.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
You guys just came out with your mid year outlook
for equities. Talk to us about sort of your main
takeaways about this crazy strong rally we've seen this year
and what we should take away most from the mid
year outlook.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Yeah, I think there's a lot to unpack with the
market so far this year. I think the biggest takeaway
for me really is we cannot drop the ball on
following earnings trends and earnings did give us a lot
of indication that twenty twenty two was going to be weak.
They also have given us a lot of support in
twenty twenty three, and I think that many people dismissed
(03:23):
the gains in the equity market. It has been a
powerful rally, but remember it comes off of a really
rough go in twenty twenty two. For that, Nasdaq and
for some of those tech stocks, so earnings trends very
very important. Inflation likewise important not only for its impact
on earnings trends, but because inflation in the seventies and
eighties was a really great timing mechanism for stock tops
(03:44):
and bottoms. Once again, inflation peaks, stocks bottom, and we're
off to the races as inflation is decelerating. So that's
a big takeaway from US. I think thirdly, sentiment is
still pretty mixed. A sentiment gave us an indication in
Octo Tilboro of last year that we should start getting
more constructive to stocks because everybody else had left the building.
(04:04):
There was just nobody left that wanted to touch equity markets.
And sentiment is still somewhat mixed. I do think that
people are still really nervous about this potential economic recession
and how deep or long it may be. People are
still really nervous about the FED. As long as I
keep getting pushed back from people that we shouldn't be constructive,
(04:26):
and then we probably should be constructive.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
I really like the very first line of the midyear
of your mid year outlook, so I want to read it.
Stocks should breathe a sigh of relief as the inflation
pig appears to have passed through the S and P
five hundred earnings Python. That's so good and so visual.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
And then you also mentioned margin pressures from twenty twenty two.
They're fading and should offset any revenue weakness. Can you
talk a little bit about that, And then also about
the idea I want to bring AI into this as well,
like if we are expecting all these companies to be
spending on AI, does that hurt margins?
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Yeah? Really great questions. So I'm I am very well
known as being obsessed with margins. As a matter of fact,
one of my associates one time accidentally wrote my name
Gina Margin Adams on a piece of work instead of
Gena Martin Adams. She says it was an accident, but
it's it's just something that I follow very very carefully.
(05:23):
And margins had been just crashing when inflation was accelerating.
Margins x energy, which is an important clarification on the
S and P five hundred, crashed from late twenty twenty
one right through to the first quarter of this year,
but started we're starting to see margin improvement occur on
the index, and that is a direct reflection of the
(05:44):
inflation landscape. Consumer prices are decelerating, Producer prices growth is
also decelerating, but consumer price growth is decelerating at a
slower pace than producer price growth, and that margin is
directly impacting the S and P five hundred. On top
of that, we did go through some pretty significant layoffs
in twenty twenty two, and that's enabling margin recovery for
(06:05):
some of the index. So what we're starting to see
is actually green shoots in the earning stream. And we
started writing about this in the first quarter earning season.
People were like, you got to be crazy. The economy
is going to fall apart. You can't have green shoots
in the earning stream when economy is going to be
falling apart. But that's what we see, and as long
as that continues, that fundamental shift in margins should lead
(06:26):
to much better earning stability for the index going forward,
in particular for X energy sectors. Now, tech is a
really interesting phenomenon right now because what's happening in tech
is in some cases very different from what's happening in
the rest of the index, and in some cases the same,
and where it's very different is there is optimism in tech.
(06:48):
There's optimism nowhere else in the S and P five hundred.
The equal weighted S and P still trading below its
pre pandemic average levels, but there's a ton of optimism
in tech. Tech valuations are at pandemic peace in the
S and P specifically, and that's a function of both
margins starting to improve. This really started the tech rally.
(07:10):
Nobody wants to admit it because everybody thinks it's all
about AI, but the reality is Tech cut costs. Tech
cut those costs that created a margin bottom for tech
and created an uptrend in an updraft in earnings estimate
revision for that space going into latter the later part
of this year. So that created the initial rounds of optimism.
And then what's different is AI and AI certainly is
(07:33):
driving an anticipated recovery and spending at large, and capital
spending in particular, that impacts different segments of tech and
communications and some of the consumer discretionary sectors in very
different ways. So some of the companies that are big
beneficiaries of that capital spending obviously can see really significant
revenue growth to offset any any spend that they have
(07:55):
to develop product Companies that are simply going to have
to spend in or to onboard have face a different scenario.
They'll need to see revenue growth in other spaces. But
it does appear to be creating this sort of snowball
effect throughout the entire in the entirety of the tech sector,
where there is this optimism embedded in prices. That could
be a risk later this year if tech companies aren't
(08:18):
starting to post the earnings growth that it's anticipated in
that valuation, then we could face some downdraft in tech,
But for now, it looks like it's only creating an
upwave in expectations.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
You know, one of the most interesting things to me
in the mid year outlook is you guys have at
BI Equity Strategy have your own economic regime model. That
model actually suggests that the recession is come and gone,
happened in what the second half of twenty twenty two,
(08:50):
which sort of makes this market make a lot more
sense than everyone bracing for a recession. But could you
walk us through sort of the inputs of that model
and what exactly it's showing and what makes you make
that analysis that it really looked like a recession last year.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Yeah, so the economic regime model. We designed this. I
designed this many many years ago when I was with
another firm that shall remain nameless. But nonetheless, it is
designed to give us a read on the current read
on the economy by indicators that are historically very meaningful
for predicting stock prices. So we really isolate that read
(09:27):
on the economy into four factors. We use consumer confidence,
we use ism, we use capacity utilization, and we use
continuing claims. And those four factors together have given us
We put them into a logistic regression. I don't want
to get too nerdy, but nonetheless, most of the time
those factors give us an output of a range of
(09:48):
from zero to one, and most of the time they
give us an output of near one, which would suggest
the economies just fine. The input from the economy for
the equity market is very positive. You should expect positive
returns over time when they the output is at one.
When it drops below one, it creates risk to the
equity market, right, And so this indicator gave us an
(10:08):
started suggesting there were economic risks emerging for the equity
market as early as June of last year, and then
it hit just an outright low level, like a low
that you never see outside of recession, near zero in
December of last year. So we effectively had this big
loss of momentum in the economy that impacted the equity
market extremely negative between June and December of last year.
(10:30):
Since December, it's certainly not out of the woods. It's
still terrible. The reading is awful. It suggests we may
and we may actually still be in some form of
an economic correction or recession, but it's off of the low.
So this is what's really meaningful for price direction is
as we know, equity prices are driven by shifts in momentum. Right,
So even if the economy is still in recession, the
(10:52):
recession reached its big momentum trough according to this indicator
as of December. Now, this is really contradictory to any
economic thought out there, and you know every economist will
tell you no way we're in recession. The job market
was very stable.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
I was going to ask what was the main driver
of that? Was it in poor consumer confidence?
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Mainly?
Speaker 4 (11:09):
Oh, it was everything. I mean, you know, remember ism
peaked all the way back in twenty eleven. We use
our twenty twenty one. We use ISM as another indicator
as a component of our market health checklist, and it
gave us a really early read that things were going
south as of the end of twenty twenty one. So
ism was plummeting for much of last year. May have
crested it's low as well, and that certainly helps. Continuing
(11:31):
claims were stable to hire, so they weren't particularly great.
Consumer confidence was awful.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
We had those two back to back negative GDP readings
as well.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
We did there were definite weaknesses, and we saw that
really clearly in earnings. And I think that this is
the important point. I'm not trying to make a forecast
for the economy. It doesn't matter to me whether we
fall into a technical recession or not. I need to
forecast earnings, and I need to forecast what's going to
happen with or figure out what's going to happen we're
likely to happen with stock price returns, and these four
(12:01):
indicators as a group, I've done a very good job
of suggesting to me where I should be with respect
to the equity market and how constructive you want to be.
And basically what it said is go as far away
from equities as you can in June and in December
get back in. And that's what the model said to us.
And it may or may not eventually prove. It could
(12:22):
be the case that we did or did not fall
in recession in twenty twenty two, But the economic indicators
that matter to me as an equity strategist suggest that
the distress has reached some sort of low point. We're
still somewhat distressed, but not as distressed as we were
last year.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
This is really interesting to me because I feel like
in recent days more and more people have been bringing
up the fact like we've been waiting for this recession.
There still aren't crazy great signs that something is happening
right now. But somebody I spoke with earlier this week said,
if you're looking at the market, if you look at
small caps for instance, or you mentioned the eco weight
(13:05):
SMP index, that actually you could almost make the argument
that those stocks are pricing in a recession because they're like,
what do you think of that?
Speaker 4 (13:13):
Yeah, And as a matter of fact, I think large
caps priced in recession as well. Last year. We were
on a different model. We call it our fair value model,
and this is a model that utilizes consensus expectations to
suggest where the fair value for various equity markets are
around the world macroeconomic expectations, and that model at the
lows of last year, was anticipating of fifteen percent decline
(13:36):
in earnings coming over the next twelve months, So that
would say that, Okay, if the market is right here
as of October first, twenty twenty two, we are officially
headed into a major earnings recession in twenty twenty three,
a major decline in earnings of fifteen percent more. Because
remember earnings were already declining by that point in time,
(13:56):
so that would be equivalent to roughly a twenty percent
drop in earnings, which is very consistent with historical recession experience.
We already priced it in the equity market, and unless
we get a greater than twenty percent drop in earnings,
those lows are probably pretty firm. Yep, the October lows
are probably pretty firm. At least that would be what
was implied in that model at that time. Small caps
(14:18):
very similarly, small caps are much more economically sensitive or
sensitive to the movements in the US economy than our
large caps, so the divergence between large caps and small
caps could be easily explained by the ongoing weakness and
the domestic economy, the divergence between what's happening in tech
and some of the bigger cap names and some of
the multinationals that are more sensitive to foreign exchange in
(14:40):
large caps versus small caps, which don't get those benefits
of the dollar move. Small caps are not as beneficent,
not as benefited by a re emerging Asia out of
COVID restrictions, where large caps get a little bit of
boost there. So there's I think a lot of what's
happened in the equity market, As much as people think
it's very mysterious and things are not a explained by fundamentals,
(15:01):
I actually think the equity advance is largely explained by
some fundamental shifts.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Well, you also discuss the notion of a FED pause
in your outlook and what historically has happened after a pause.
I guess we don't really know if this is the
highest that the Fed funds rate will be. Jerome Powell
keeps saying maybe probably two more quarter point increases this year.
I feel like the market could digest another half point
(15:27):
on the Fed funds rate after this, And you know,
whether this is a pause or it's a pause after
another fifty basis points. I don't think it's that big
of a difference, but I do wonder, you know, if
we do plateau there for a while and the bond
market falls in line with that, and we have an
elevated risk free rate compared to what we saw a
(15:47):
pre pandemic, how does that influence your thinking on what
the market will do and valuations specifically, does that suggest
to you a sort of lower ceiling for valuations or
does this tech euphoria overshadow that and outweigh where the
risk free rate is going to be.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
Yeah, it's a really good question. I think the equity
market will really dismiss anything that happens with the FED
in the short run. I think that we're kind of
over it, right. It's just, yeah, okay, we're pausing. It
might hike one or two more times, but it's largely
been the near term price section is the near term
action from the FED has been priced. I do think
there's a risk, though, that the bond market is very
(16:28):
convinced that this is not a pause. It's just a
short term pause that leads to a series of cuts
and we do see that sort of infiltrating equity market
psychology through valuations for long duration versus loaduration stocks. So
high duration equities are much more sensitive interest rates. Higdration
equities are still trading and increasingly trading at a premium
(16:50):
to low duration equities, which would substantiate that bond market forecast.
So I think later this year you do have some
risk if the economy does not comply, we don't ultimately
fall into that growth malaise or recession. If we don't
see inflation really viciously come down to more normalized levels,
then the bond market has to adjust, and that will
(17:11):
have impacts on the equity market. It won't be as
negative as the last year's impacts because you have the offset. Right.
If the bond market is having to adjust to an
outlook where the Fed Funds rate doesn't have to come
down and instead stays stable for longer, that only impacts
valuations because that only happens in an environment where economic
(17:33):
growth is actually still stronger than anybody had hoped, right,
and inflation is coming down, And so that offset that
stronger economic growth than anybody had hoped with a decelerating
inflation is very good for the earning stream, and it
really substantiates twenty twenty four forecasts for earnings, which should
help the equity market sustain that movement, but it will
create volatility and equities, probably for longer duration equities more
(17:56):
than short duration equities. That's what I'm worried about with
respect to the FED. That longer term.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
I remember it was just a couple of weeks ago,
I think when people some people were suggesting the FED
was going to start cutting in July.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
Yeah, yeah, now, yeah, But.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
I want to ask you just to go back to
the AI theme, just broadly speaking, what you make of
it in terms of it being such a big driver
for the rally for companies spending on AI, and what
the possibilities are of it driving not just spending with
the big megacaps, but also with I don't know, smaller
(18:33):
companies that might start utilizing AI in different ways, and
how that might be beneficial or even underpin the ball case.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
Yeah, I think it's really early to say what the
potential of this is long term, and certainly we'll go
through the process of trying to price that over the
next six to twelve months. That said, every cycle starts
with some new innovation, some new catalyst for growth. And
what you do tend to find is that if you
get this catalyst for growth, it emanates throughout and tends
(19:01):
to broaden in terms of its impact on industries, companies
and sectors at large. And think about this. If we're
able to accelerate the utilization of AI and tech, there's
no reason why that ultimately would not also benefit the
margins of even consumer staples companies long term. Right, So
this is right now really being implemented as a driver
(19:23):
of revenue growth, right and I think that's the psychology
right now, is that this will help drive revenue growth
long term for tech. What we haven't thought through and
probably the second derivative impact of this is Okay, it'll
help drive revenue growth for tech, and companies will spend
a little bit more on this. They'll probably shift spending
so it's not a net net margin drag in that capacity.
(19:45):
Instead of spending on other capital investments, they'll spend on AI.
Presumably in that sense, if they're spending the same amount,
they're elevating the value of revenue or they're elevating revenue
growth potential for the tech space, which are the producers
of AI, but then they also are implementing these technologies
which should reduce their margin pressures or reduce margins longer
(20:07):
term make their companies much more efficient. And that efficiency
improvement is the long term, big, big benefit that I
think we have yet to really price because we just
don't know how fast can it be implemented, how quickly
can it actually improve efficiency and drive productivity gains. We
all have read all the articles about how horribly unproductive
the US economy is. This is a potential big game changer.
(20:30):
I don't think that it's at all in the consensus
forecast right now. I think most people are saying, look,
you know that we're still going to struggle with this,
these labor dynamics and very low productivity rates and whatnot.
So it's a potentially very big game changer longer term,
but it's going to take us a while to work
that out. For now, it is very much a driver
of revenue optimism in tech.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Well, I hear efficiency gains and I interpret that as
job layoffs, which obviously feeds back into your economic models.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
How big of a risk is that, do you think?
Speaker 4 (21:05):
I think it's limited in the short run, mostly because
we have record levels of available jobs open in the economy.
As it is, the way that I see the job market,
I think it's a little different than the way that
many people have characterized the job market. The way that
I see it is in twenty twenty, we had a
mass mass layoff experience, I mean, the worst layoff experience
that any of us hopefully will ever face in our lives,
(21:26):
with the unemployment rate just shooting higher, layoffs throughout all
industries except for tech and to a lesser extent, financials.
It is therefore no surprise that come twenty twenty two,
the sectors that did not lay off in twenty twenty
suddenly had to lay off workers. And so it was
just this sort of twenty twenty two was kind of
(21:47):
this mini to me, mini layoff experience, mini recession, whatever
it might be, however you want to characterize it, reflecting
the twenty twenty experience. And now we've gotten to the
point of presum close to stable labor market conditions. And
I derive this expectation really through an analysis of Challenger layoffs.
It's not the most popular economic series, but if you
(22:09):
look at Challenger layoffs, Challenger layoffs really peaked with the
fourth quarter layoffs in the tech space, they started to descelerate.
As of the first quarter, they're continuing to decelerate. Can
that's very consistent with what we're getting out of earnings
call sentiment and the announcements of layoffs in earnings calls.
Earnings layoffs announced by US companies in earnings reports peaked
(22:32):
in the fourth quarter. They decelerated to a lower level
in the first quarter, and I anticipate that to continue
in the second quarter. So so far, it looks like
the labor market weakness is really minimal ultimately long term,
Do you have some layoffs affiliated with AI or is
your growth so much faster that those jobs all come
back even faster, right? I don't know how much transfer
(22:55):
of labor there is between the layoff worker, the laidoff
workers and communications and technology industries into AI sorts of positions. Yeah,
but it is a question. But I don't think we're
going to face major labor constraints as a result or
major labor weaknesses as a result of AI for quite
some time, and.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
It seems like it'll be you know, while the revenue
lines are moving higher for the chip makers and the
cloud companies. For companies actually trying to utilize AI to
boost their own efficiencies, it feels like we're just only
in the R and D phase for all of that.
It's not immediately going to be a needle mover for anything.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
From that side of it, it does seem very very
early in the game. The equity market moves so far
in advance in so much faster than the economy that
will feel the economic impacts for five years. In the
equity market will price itent in six months. So I
think we do need to respect that dynamic. But nonetheless,
I do think it's still very very early. And the
(23:55):
degree to which this took the consensus by surprise was
quite shocking.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Well, does that notion of the benefits of AI broadening
out beyond big tech affect at all?
Speaker 3 (24:07):
How you're thinking about?
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Magnificent seven is the latest new buzzword for the top
seven weights in the SMP your big megacap alphabets and
in videos.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
Your team had Magma, we did, we had a few.
We've tried a Fab five for the Big five. We
have done the Magnificent seven as well. I've gotten into
this game and none of them have really taken off.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
So you need to get one that sticks.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
I know I need to find one that sticks. The
problem is also the market cap concentration shifts are pretty significant.
So sometimes Tesla's in there, Sometimes Berkshire Hasay, Hathaway is
in there, Berkshire Hathaway with a bunch of tech companies.
How do I describe this?
Speaker 3 (24:42):
How are you thinking of that concentration?
Speaker 1 (24:44):
I've heard sort of different arguments from different people that
a lot of people think, well, the rest of the
market's bound the catch up eventually, but it's hard to
see a correction in megacap tech without a really nasty
s and P.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Five hundred.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Have you done any thinking about this type of top
heavy rally and what we should think will come next?
Speaker 4 (25:05):
Yeah, we actually dedicated a note to it a couple
of weeks ago. I really looked at concentration risk and
what it may or may not mean. We are historically
concentrated in terms of gains, but what it actually means
going forward as gains might slow. Let me just start there. Yeah,
but there are two experiences in our past in which
we have had extraordinary concentration in similar fashion to the
(25:28):
concentration that we have today. And twenty twenty, and the
outcome of both of those was totally different. In two thousand,
the concentrated gains and died in tears right, all of
the biggest names really crashed. In twenty twenty, the rest
of the market caught up, and the difference there was
earning strengths. In two thousand, earnings for the rest of
(25:52):
the market just kept crashing along with the tech stocks.
Tech earnings fell. In twenty twenty, the rest of them
market started experiencing in earnings recovery. So I believe that
earnings are going to make the difference now when I
look at the earnings outlook for tech and the rest
of the sectors, I actually see some justification for this
concentration risk in earnings as well, because the biggest stocks
(26:14):
in the index had a magnificent earnings recession in twenty
twenty two. We're talking twenty twenty five in some cases
thirty percent declines in EPs. They have started to show
some signs of stabilization and recovery earlier than the rest
of the market, which has enabled this rotation. So right
now they have an earning's edge on the rest of
(26:35):
the market, if you will. They're the only stocks that
you know, people feel confident that their earnings recovery is
already emerging, that they have a longer term outlook for
earnings growth that is emerging. The rest of the market
will have to prove the case that they too can
participate in this. But unless they start failing on that
earnings recovery, there's no reason to fade it, and I
(26:56):
think that's important to consider. Maybe they'll start failing on
the earnings recovery, and that would be a very good
reason to fade that rally. I'm working on the presumption
that the rest of the market will broaden out and
start to catch up to tech in terms of earnings,
mostly because of the inflation dynamic that we talked about
the pig and the python at the very beginning, But
it's important. The other thing I'll say about concentration risk
that I think nobody talks about is twenty twenty three's
(27:20):
gains first are not historically unprecedented. They're too short to
be historically unprecedented. We had a longer period of concentrated
gains in both twenty two thousand as well as twenty twenty.
But secondly, they do come off of unprecedented historic losses
in twenty twenty two. That's the one thing that makes
this story very different than twenty twenty or two thousand.
(27:44):
Tech had a horrible year twenty twenty two. This space
underperformed the market for twelve straight months last year, and
I think that's really important for setting the background for
why they're outperforming now, different characteristic than has existed in
past experiences.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
I want to ask you about one other hot topic,
which is cash, which basically became its own acid class
last year because so many people were putting we're going
into cash. I think in June money market funds saw
a record high level. There's all these different ways to
measure people favoring cash over the last year or so.
(28:38):
But if we're thinking about five percent yields on cash,
how does that compare now seeing a fourteen percent rise
in the S and P five hundred thirty seven percent
rise and then Nazak one hundred and what is the
possibility of some of that cash actually starting to move
into the equities market.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
I think this is a great question, and this is
one area where I have had a minor amount of
success and creating a shortcut description. I call this Tara
instead of Tina. We all remember Tina. There are there
is no alternative in tarra is. There are reasonable alternatives,
and some people are adopting this one, so we'll go
with that.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Let's make it happen. Yeah, let's make Tara.
Speaker 4 (29:14):
Tara has definitely changed the game for equities. And it's
not just cash, but it's also bond yields are much
much higher, So the relative value of equities in a
multi asset portfolio is quite different than it was for
much or the last cycle. The way that I think
about this, the equity risk premium in comparison to bonds
is probably the most relevant. I think cash is and
(29:38):
is not competitive with equities. I think people save in
cash with a different outlook than they save inequities. First
of all, I think most people think of equities as
a long term asset for savings, whereas putting money in
a money market pun fund still makes it quite accessible
to you for you to utilize. It's kind of a
different savings mechanism, but nonetheless, yield across the border higher.
(30:01):
And that's the story which makes the equity risk premium
much lower than it used to be and equities much
less attractive relative to bonds than they have been at
least for the most of the last cycle from two
thousand and nine to twenty nineteen. Most of that period
of time, equities were in the fourth quintile of history
(30:22):
in terms of the equity risk premium relative to bonds.
That meant you were really getting pushed into equities as
an asset class. Your expected returns in that kind of
climate for equities are eleven percent annualized. It's fantastic. It
was just one of the best periods of time ever
to be an equity investor, justified by very, very low
relative yields. You were just forced in. Now equities risk
(30:45):
premium is closer to the third quintile of history, which
implies your return expectations for equities are much more limited.
Your average return per year in that environment, on average,
would anticipate closer to six percent annualized returns to equities.
And it really is just a function of math. You know,
when you're thinking about allocating assets, you can consider now
(31:06):
yield oriented investments. As a long term investor, you can
yield actually contributes to your portfolio, and equities have very
little yield. Even if you look at the dividend yield
relative to the tenure treasury, it's just not particularly fun.
It's two percent on the S and P five hundred.
You're just not going to get a lot. So add
that to the earnings yield and that's your all out yield.
(31:28):
You could get really stretchy and add buy back yield
to it too, and it's still Equities are not that
attractive relative to bonds anymore.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Gina, you do all these great models, this great quantitative work.
I want to take you out of that comfort zone
a little bit and talk about the things that really
I think cause a sharp correction in equities is when
there's something unforeseen, something non predicted or very few predicted.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
And I get go back.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
To the notion of the FED. We have seen this
aggressive tightening from the FED. We did see the shoes
with Silicon Valley Bank and a few other First republic
that duration risk problem they all had. I just wonder,
the way you look at the universe, is there a
way to sort of model kind of a black Swan
(32:14):
thing or something from the FED tightening that's yet to come.
I think even Jerome Pow this week said there's a
lot of tightening that still has to work. Its way
through the economy and the financial system. Is that work
you can do? I mean, is there another shoe to
drop from this aggressive rate height campaign? Is there any
(32:34):
way to predict that or at least prepare for it
and sort of viewer the way you look at the world.
Speaker 4 (32:40):
I don't think there's a way to model it. I
think there's a way to think it through. And the
way to think it through is identify the sectors or
the space in the economy that benefit most from interest
rates at zero percent and acknowledge that there probably are
segments of that group or industry or investment or whatever
(33:03):
it might be, that are built upon a foundation of
interest rates remaining low forever and therefore when interest rates
go higher, will experience some degree of distress and default.
And so it's not a modeled approach, it's just more logical.
The question you have to ask yourself as an investor
is when interest rates were for a very short period
(33:23):
of time at zero percent in twenty twenty and twenty
twenty one, where did that money go? Where was the
most borrowing, How did that manifest itself? And did that
borrowing result in excess supply of something that is going
to be subject to a shortfall of demand, like did
(33:45):
we plan too much for these low interest rates to
persist in perpetuity? This cycle is particularly difficult on this
I think that the most frequently presented sort of areas
of risk are the least likely to be the candidates
to create the downdraft. And I say that because everyone,
I think, is looking at things like office and commercial
(34:05):
real estate. They're looking at residential real estate. They're looking
at the perpetuators of the last crisis because that's the
easy spot, and they're thinking, Okay, I live through the
Great Financial Crisis, and therefore I know what happens when
interest rates go higher and squeeze off growth, and therefore
I know that it's going to be residential and commercial
real estate that are the areas of most risk. I think,
(34:26):
because we went through the Great Financial Crisis, those are
the areas of most likely, not the areas of greatest
risk in the economy. Instead, it's somewhere else that low
interest rates we're fueling excess borrowing, fueling excess investment that
was unsustainable. And if there's one area where I think
(34:48):
that was the case, it probably is private credit, private equity.
And I don't know how this ultimately works its way
through the financial markets, how it ultimately works its way
through the economic to me, because I just don't know
if those losses will forever be paper losses or will
be real losses. I think some of them will be.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
I think they're there.
Speaker 4 (35:09):
Yeah, exactly, I just don't. I don't know how this
is going to work itself out. But there was not
a ton of housing activity when it creates for zero percent,
So why would we point our finger there? There wasn't
We weren't building offices like crazy in twenty twenty. We
have a shortage of demand of offices for sure, and
probably it's some excess supply that will ultimately go into
(35:30):
distress and default. But this is not a phenomenon like
two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight. So that's
the way that I think about it. Long story short,
find those areas of excess, because those are the areas
that are most in.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Yeah, yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Well, Gina Martin Adams, chief equity strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence,
So great to have you on the show. We can't
let you go just yet, though we do have the
tradition on the show to discuss the craziest things we've
seen in markets. But Donna, what do you have?
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Okay, this is a Bloomberg Store worry. It's about an
apartment that's listed for sale in New York City. It's
listed for sale for four million dollars, which apparently is
a bargain because it comes with a huge catch. There's
somebody already living in the apartment, has been living there
for decades, and I don't think has plans to leave.
(36:21):
And so this tenant pays two three hundred and forty
six dollars a month and can continue renewing their lease
even if you know the apartment gets new ownership. It's
a five thousand, eight hundred square foot apartment oh Manhattan.
It's rents stabilized, and until the tenant leaves, if you
(36:43):
own the apartment, you're actually operating at a huge loss
because just the taxes alone, the monthly taxes are five
five hundred dollars, and there's common charges of two eight
hundred dollars, which is more than the tenant pays to
live there.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
That is wild, but apparently.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
So like in that same building, another apartment went for
almost eleven million. Another one went for nine point four
seven five million in February, so you'd be getting a bargain.
Speaker 4 (37:12):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
Well yeah, you got to eat those that loss for
however many years. But that is pretty fascinating. All right,
that's a good one, Bill, don I'll give you that.
Mine is has to do with the IPO market, which Gina,
as you know, has not exactly been the hottest market
this year. This was not an IPO of a company.
It was an IPO of a painting, so three courtesy
(37:36):
of Quartz, and I think they've done this in crypto
fractional ownership of paintings, but this is more of a
regular traditional approach to it. It's Francis Bacon's masterpiece, three
Studies for a Portrait of George Dyer, finished in nineteen
sixty three, going IPO, I think in a few weeks
(37:57):
at a specialty exchange that was just created Liechtenstein, of
all places, Liechtenstein, Liechtenstein. One hundred dollars a share is
the offering price. I'm not going to tell you how
many shares are being offered though, because it's time to play.
The price is precise. Your favorite game show, what do
you think the total value of Francis Bacon's masterpiece Three
(38:20):
Studies of a Portrait of George Dyer, the first ever
painting to be ip oed. And the way this will
work is you'll buy your share in the painting, but
then it's going to go be hung in a museum somewhere.
Speaker 3 (38:34):
They don't know which museum yet.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
And basically what you're hoping for is a takeover, a
hostile takeover of it at a higher level than the
market cap.
Speaker 3 (38:44):
And as they always say, art.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
Has a pretty reliable fine art has a pretty reliable
return profile if you believe all these art hucksters.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
I don't know, but name that price.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
What do you think the total market cap is of
three Studies for a Portrait of George Dyer. I'll tell
you this, it's not going to make it into the
magnificant Magnificent seven as far as market cap.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
That's the only hint I'll give you.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
Okay, that's not a very good hint because would billions.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
Right, it's not gonna be a trillion dollars trillions?
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Okay, So you don't even get to own this painting.
You can't take it home, No, you can.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Go visit it in the museum, so you own a
share of it, so that if the hope I guess
is that some private collector says, wait a minute, this
thing's a bargain.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
I'm going to go. But you can share.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
If there's a frenzy for the shares in this painting,
they'll trade like a stock.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
So I see the value will go up and down.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
You could you could unload your shares at a profit, presumably,
And I got to say, I bet you, I bet you.
These shares do pretty well, just for the novelty of it.
Be kind of cool to own ten shares in a masterpiece.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
I'm gonna go with twenty eight million.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
Twenty eight million, all right, Gina, how about you.
Speaker 4 (39:54):
I have no idea how to value art. I'll say
one hundred million.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
One hundred million, actually fifty five million.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
I thought I was so close. I really thought I
was so close. Wait, but I still win went over.
Speaker 4 (40:08):
Yeah, I'm sorry, Gina, what I'm talking about. I'm fully
willing to admit it.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
All right, Well, I think that is all the time
we have. Unless, Gina, you have a crazy thing you
want to share.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (40:24):
I do not I don't have a really crazy thing.
The only thing that I think is really crazy right
now that's actually an investible theme is the heat. I'm
blown away by the fact that we are going to
face terrible air quality conditions again in the Northeast as
a result of these wildfires that we've got. Yeah, people
actually dying in Texas of overheating. And it's only June.
(40:48):
So I think this summer is going to be interesting.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
I was wondering if that at some point this smoke
starts to become macro influential, if it starts having an
impact on something. I don't know, whether it be crap
or travel, I don't know. Do you think that's there's
a potential for that, Well.
Speaker 4 (41:04):
I think it's possible. Remember when the volcano erupted in
Iceland and all of that volcanic ash in the air
shut down European travel for a while. It's definitely possible
because all of this terrible sediment in the air can
create really big problems. And remember they did have to
(41:24):
very short term on that terrible air quality day in
New York, they did have to shut down the airports.
Speaker 3 (41:29):
Yeah, just a short.
Speaker 4 (41:31):
Period of time, but it's so it's certainly possible.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
Yeah, or even that the health effects, you know, if
there's an uptick in asthma, you know that sort of thing.
That's something to keep an eye on, for sure. I'm
surprised it hasn't, you know, started influencing some prices somewhere
on something.
Speaker 3 (41:47):
I'm sure it has, I just haven't noticed.
Speaker 4 (41:48):
I think it has. I think it will continue to
influence for sure.
Speaker 2 (41:52):
Or even if people getting getting lunch being too afraid
to step outside to buy lunch.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
Yeah, yeah, well that's a good crazy thing off the
top of your head.
Speaker 4 (42:02):
I don't know. I don't know. I'm going to read
up next time for crazy things before I come.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
I thought you meant the Miami Heat since you're from Florida.
Speaker 4 (42:08):
Oh yeah, I know. You know, I wasn't talking about Miami.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
That after that that last finals performance. They're short shirt
that team anyway. Gina Martin Adams, chief equity strategist at
Bloomberg Intelligence. Always such a treat to catch up with
you and hear how you're thinking about things. I encourage
all Terminal subscribers go out and read that mid year outlook.
It's chock full of really a lot of interesting studies
(42:35):
and outlook for the rest of the year.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
Thank you so much to thank you, Thank.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
You, Gina. What Goes Up. We'll be back next week.
Until then, you can find us on the Bloomberg Terminal,
website and app, or wherever you get your podcast. We'd
love it if you took the time to rate and
interview the show so more listeners can find us. You
(43:02):
can find us on Twitter, follow me at Goldana Hirich.
Mike Reagan is at Reagan Oamous. You can also follow
Boomer Podcasts at podcasts. What Goes Up is produced by
Stacey Wong and our head of podcast is Stage Bauman.
Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.