Notes on the Week Ahead

I have never been blessed with any skill in golf. However, I do have some imagination and so I can imagine a situation in which I am lining up a long and difficult putt. With well-justified humility, I wince as I strike the ball, knowing it will miss. However, even two or three seconds after sending it on its way, I realize that, surprisingly, I’m still not sure how it will miss – I can’t quite tell if it’s going to miss to the right or to the left. And so, of course, the ball trundles its zig-zaggy way up to the lip of the hole, pauses, and then topples in. Last week’s GDP report ignited angst on both sides. Some worried that the economy was slowing too much, with recession in the offing. Others saw too much inflation, requiring an even more aggressive Fed campaign to squash it before it begins to reaccelerate in a serious way.

Since the advent of modern financial markets, bonds have always had the reputation of being conservative – rather like an elderly family lawyer in a leather-bound chair frowning at more jumpy and excitable stocks. Bonds would never make you rich. However, they would provide you with a moderate, steady and dependable income. This reputation was challenged in the 1970s and 1980s by Treasuries yielding more than 10%, in the wake of high inflation, and the explosive growth of the high-yield market. In the decades that followed, yields drifted down in parallel with inflation but investor excitement was maintained by a steady stream of capital gains as well as income. However, once monetary easing hit its peak in the days following the Great Financial Crisis, high-quality bond yields fell to levels that promised very little income and, at best, modest capital losses, assuming yields eventually recovered.

Growing up in New England, our sons had a privileged childhood as sports fans and particularly as football fans. Between 2001 and 2020, the New England Patriots, coached by Bill Belichick and with Tom Brady at quarterback, competed in nine super bowls and won six of them - a truly extraordinary performance in a league of 32 teams. It is all the more impressive because of the NFL’s efforts to make the league competitive. These include the salary cap, which forces all teams to spend roughly the same on their rosters, and the draft, which awards the top picks to the worst teams from the year before. And yet the dynasty continued for almost two decades, with the Patriots winning many games that they should have lost due to their own confidence and their opponents doubts. And the supposedly eroding effects of low draft picks seemed to have little impact on the team, as relatively unknown players found a way to win.

Next Monday, I once again get to lace up my shoes and join my friends from the Dana-Farber team in running the Boston Marathon. This year will be particularly special, as both of our sons are also running the race. One of the advantages of being an older member of the team, (and I can testify to plenty of disadvantages), is that you accumulate advice that you can share with younger members, particularly those who are running their first marathon. One such piece of advice is to drink before you are thirsty and to eat before you are hungry. By the time you are thirsty, when running a marathon, you are likely severely dehydrated and low on electrolytes, causing, at best, a sharp deterioration of your performance. By the time you are hungry, your blood sugar will probably be too low, making the rest of the race slow and painful. In short, in long-distance running, one key is to make decisions before it feels like you need too.

When I was nine, my father was elected to the Irish parliament and joined the new government. Not long after that, my history teacher, a man of the opposite political persuasion, was expounding on the Norman conquest of Ireland and the attempts of the local Irish clans to wage war against them….”not like the “wage war” we have with the current government” he said, finding humor in a rather dull subject. I, being an overly sensitive child, took this as a terrible insult to my father and promptly burst into tears, whereupon he sent me out into the hall for disturbing the peace.

This week, investors will be focused on the Fed’s second Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting of the year. They are widely expected to make no change in interest rates. However, Fed communications will provide guidance on two important subjects: First, they will update their summary of economic projections and their “dot-plot” forecast for the federal funds rate. Second, and particularly in Chairman Powell’s press conference, they will likely provide some further hints on when and how they could begin to phase out quantitative tightening. While their messaging will likely continue to point towards monetary easing in the months ahead, the implied timing and extent of that easing could have major impact on markets.

Financial reporters and market strategists often argue about whether we are “early-cycle”, “mid-cycle” or “late-cycle”. However, these perspectives are based on an outdated model of how the U.S. economy behaves. In a pure “business-cycle” paradigm, the U.S. economy would, today, be in the late innings of an economic expansion that must naturally end rather soon. However, a more realistic model of today’s economy suggests that this expansion could continue for some time more and that, when it ends, it will be because of some financial, environmental or geopolitical shock rather than the inevitable result of the age and stage of the expansion. This doesn’t negate the need for diversification. However, it does suggest that a portfolio should be stress-tested mostly against how it would react to a downturn triggered by non-economic shocks.

On Friday, December 29th, 1989, the Nikkei 225 stock index hit an all-time high of 38,957. It then began to fall and it took until February 22nd of this year, more than a third of a century later, to reach this level again. Today, for the first time, it closed above 40,000. This ultra-long bear market in Japanese stocks was accompanied by the collapse of a colossal property bubble and was followed by decades of economic stagnation, rising government debt and periodic deflation. While Japan still faces many challenges today, there are signs that it is turning a corner from both an economic and financial perspective. However, decades of Japanese economic and financial malaise provide some powerful lessons for Japan itself and for governments, monetary authorities and investors around the world.

In last week’s article and podcast, I looked at the potential path for the U.S. economy over the next two years, noting that the outlook suggested a very tight labor market throughout. This would be a generally healthy outcome for the country, boosting economic growth and productivity and supporting solid wage growth. To the extent that it maintained pressure on profit margins and limited monetary easing, it would be less favorable for investors. However, a number of readers asked the very reasonable question of whether my analysis took account of the recent migration surge at our southern border.

I spent most of last week fighting with a model. Before anyone starts googling “Nerdy Economist in Fashion Week Brawl”, I should clarify. I was fighting with a macroeconomic model that insisted on telling me something I didn’t believe. To be precise, it was projecting that, given the recent and projected pace of U.S. economic growth, the unemployment rate would slide to 3.0% by the end of 2025. This I don’t believe for reasons I’ll explain. But the changes in assumptions necessary to produce a more reasonable answer can tell us a lot about the likely path of economic growth, inflation, interest rates, corporate profits and the dollar over the next two years with significant implications for financial markets and investing.

I think of myself as a pretty punctual person. I get impatient when others are late and I don’t give myself much time to spare when catching a flight. But sometimes, like when spending time with family, it’s OK to run a little behind schedule. One month into 2024, the economic slowdown appears to be running behind schedule. Growth is stronger than expected, the labor market is tighter and our forecast for inflation to hit 2% by the end of the year looks less certain. But for investors, it should be all good. Our 2.0.2.4. forecast of 2% growth, 0 recessions, inflation falling to 2% and unemployment at around 4% is now looking a little more like 2+.0.2+.4-. But it still rounds to 2024, leaving plenty of opportunity for long-term investors.

This Friday, the groundhog will emerge unwillingly from his lair, examine the available evidence, that is to say, the presence or absence of his shadow, and, in all probability, reject any speculation about an early spring - at least for the next six weeks. According to USA Today, this has been the groundhog’s prediction in 107 of the last 127 years, or 84% of the time. That being said, the weather channel is forecasting “considerable cloudiness” over Punxsutawney, PA on February 2nd, so we might still get lucky.

Last Friday, as much of America was settling in for the coldest weekend of the year, the University of Michigan released its preliminary January reading on consumer sentiment. The numbers were a pleasant surprise – the consumer sentiment index jumped 9.1 points to a reading of 78.8 – the best number seen since July 2021. This confirmed other signs of a thaw in the public mood. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index rose 9.1 points in December to its second highest reading in two years while even the perennially negative Gallup survey on “satisfaction with the way things are going in the U.S.”, showed some improvement in December.

Every January, firms throughout the financial industry, including our own, hold annual training meetings or conferences. One of the highlights of these meetings is an award for salesperson or sales team of the year. These titles are hard-earned and well-deserved. At least for our own firm, I can say that the winners are always those who, not only achieve impressive revenues for the firm, but do so through very hard work, understanding the investment environment and, most of all, understanding the needs of our clients.

Among the many comments on inflation in the minutes of the last FOMC meeting was the following, rather gloomy, prediction: Several participants assessed that healing in supply chains and labor supply was largely complete, and therefore that continued progress on reducing inflation may need to come from further softening in product and labor demand with restrictive monetary policy continuing to play a central role. Translating from Fedspeak: Several Fed officials worried that they might still have to trigger a recession to get inflation all the way down to their 2% target. This perspective gained some support in Friday’s jobs report which showed a stalling out in a long trend of falling wage growth. However, a broader analysis suggests that non-labor-market factors will continue to reduce inflation in 2024, giving the labor market time to normalize without the pain of recession. While there are plenty of shocks or policy mistakes that could disrupt this path, the mostly likely scenario is a continued slide in inflation to the Fed’s 2% target without a near-term recession – an outcome that should support both U.S. bonds and stocks.

As one year ends and another starts, I often think about a personal balance sheet for the year gone by and make some resolutions for the year ahead. For myself and our own family, 2023 was a pretty good year, particularly relative to the pandemic-scarred years at the start of this decade. As for resolutions, apart from the usual healthy-living aspirations, I am determined to spend less time looking at screens and more time looking at faces. This is also a good time for investors to review the balance sheet of economic and investment performance for 2023 and make some resolutions for the year ahead.

As winter weather envelops the homes of New England, our thoughts naturally turn to warmer days and maybe a beach house on Cape Cod. Of course, if you intend to rent such a house for a week next summer, it’s pretty much a roll of the dice. You could get lovely weather or it could rain every day. However, if you plan to buy a beach house on Cape Cod, you really only need to understand the climate. The sunny summer days will far outnumber the wet ones.

One of the least pleasant aspects of winter is driving on icy roads as the snow piles up in front of you. Long experience has taught us that winter driving is possible. But it is slower, with a narrower margin for error, and a greater chance of sliding off the road. Similarly, if we extend the economic forecast horizon to encompass not just 2024 but also 2025, it’s still possible to trace out a “soft-landing” scenario, whereby the economy keeps growing even as inflation returns to the Fed’s 2% target. However, it would be, at best, slow-going and, like driving into a worsening snowstorm, there is a rising risk of the economy sliding into recession.

Last Wednesday, the University of Michigan released its final reading on consumer sentiment for November, with the index coming in at 61.3, up from its flash reading but down from October and worse than 92% of monthly sentiment readings since 1978. Meanwhile, the “misery index” for October, calculated as the sum of the unemployment rate and the year-over-year CPI inflation rate, came in at 7.1%, better (or that is to say, lower) that it has been 79% of the time over the same period. We continue to have a bottom decile attitude about a top quartile economy. This general gloom may account for part of the recent buildup in retail money-market funds which have risen by almost 50% over the past year to over $2.2 trillion. While some of this is the result of outflows from bank deposits, much of it represents long-term savings that investors are unwilling to commit to long-term investments.

If you do a quick google search on the phrase “tensions rising”, you get 230,000 hits. If you search the phrase “tensions falling” you get 3,700 hits. One of the cardinal rules of journalism is to only report on rising tensions and never improvement. However, in recent weeks, there has been a quiet decline in tensions across a number of dimensions. This is being matched by falling inflation pressures and signs of moderating economic growth. After a turbulent few months, the economy seems to be back on the soft-landing track, a path that should support both the stock and bond markets and also allow the dollar to resume its stalled out decline.