GLOBAL ECONOMICS AND POLITICS
Leo Haviland provides clients with original, provocative, cutting-edge fundamental supply/demand and technical research on major financial marketplaces and trends. He also offers independent consulting and risk management advice.
Haviland’s expertise is macro. He focuses on the intertwining of equity, debt, currency, and commodity arenas, including the political players, regulatory approaches, social factors, and rhetoric that affect them. In a changing and dynamic global economy, Haviland’s mission remains constant – to give timely, value-added marketplace insights and foresights.
Leo Haviland has three decades of experience in the Wall Street trading environment. He has worked for Goldman Sachs, Sempra Energy Trading, and other institutions. In his research and sales career in stock, interest rate, foreign exchange, and commodity battlefields, he has dealt with numerous and diverse financial institutions and individuals. Haviland is a graduate of the University of Chicago (Phi Beta Kappa) and the Cornell Law School.
Subscribe to Leo Haviland’s BLOG to receive updates and new marketplace essays.
Yet despite these economic rescue and repair programs, the continued substantial overall weakness in the US real estate marketplace reflects and warns of trouble. In particular, what do the housing sector and its consequences for the consumer balance sheet suggest? One should view real estate in the context of consumer confidence. The foundation for and structure of the recovery fabricated by the homespun policies of the Fed and the political herd is fragile. Although progress has been made, the shattering damage of the international economic disaster that commenced in 2007 has not been fixed. Though the worldwide economic recovery that emerged in spring 2009 is not entirely a house of cards, it’s also not entirely built on solid ground.
Nominal GDP growth is better than none at all, right? All else equal, money printing does not over time breed permanent real GDP growth. Also, deficit spending borrows from the future to spend in the present; it may boost current output, but at the end of the day, this factor primarily involves a shift of money between players and across time. All else equal, even if a slump in the broad real US trade weighted dollar benefits the US economy, that tends to undermine those of many of its trading partners. Holding policy interest rates such as Fed Funds low does not preclude higher yields later. Don’t those substantially in debt or suffering injury to their net worth often endorse easy money policies? Despite optimism indicated by rosy prices in the S+P 500 and lofty corporate profits, US real economic growth probably will be mediocre looking forward from now. What happens to American real estate still matters a great deal for the global economy.
Given the still-weak home and commercial real estate marketplaces, the net worth of many banking institutions probably is vulnerable to marking-to-market of existing real estate loan portfolios. Renewed economic weakness of course would worsen that problem. In any event, banks nervous about their capital strength will not hurry to significantly expand their overall lending.
FOLLOW THE LINK BELOW to download this market essay as a PDF file.
American Real Estate (The Money Jungle, Part Two)
Many intertwined factors of course influence economic and stock marketplace levels and trends. Both Wall Street and Main Street know United States consumer spending greatly affects United States economic growth and significantly influences that elsewhere. In general, won’t happy and confident consumers tend to spend more freely? As Memorial Day weekend beckons, why not remember key consumer confidence measures? The Conference Board asserts that its “Consumer Confidence Index ® (CCI) is a barometer of the health of the U.S. economy from the perspective of the consumer.” (“Technical Note- February 2011”).
A review of the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index over the past four decades reveals that this measure sometimes can provide helpful guidance regarding the identification (confirmation) of major highs, lows and trends in US equity benchmarks such as the S+P 500. Given the close ties between stock and overall commodity marketplace trends in recent years, commodity players should monitor the Confidence Index.
FOLLOW THE LINK BELOW to download this market essay as a PDF file.
US Consumer Confidence and Stocks
The S+P 500 is at or near an important high in price and time terms. Watch the major resistance of 1440 (the May 2008 final high before the acceleration of the worldwide economic crisis), plus or minus five percent. Commodities “in general” likewise have achieved or soon will make a noteworthy top. Suppose these reversals haven’t begun yet. What is a guideline for the latest time for them? At the risk of being attacked by hunters armed with hindsight wisdom, let’s climb out on a limb and say midsummer 2011. However, the Federal Reserve and its allies will rush to the rescue and strive to prevent any sustained major fall in equities.
What about the broad real trade weighted dollar (“TWD”)? For the near term, its April 2011 level of 81.3 represents a low or is close to one, with its timing linked to that in stocks and commodities. The United States 10 year note yield will continue to meander sideways. However, yields eventually will move higher and attack the four percent barrier.
In recent years, the linkage between equities, commodities, the broad real trade weighted dollar, and interest rates has been close.
Focus first on price and time notes for these arenas in the period of the dismal depth of the worldwide financial crisis.
Timing may not be everything, but it’s pretty important in both music and marketplaces.
What does this forest of data for stocks, commodities in general, and the broad real trade weighted dollar portend for their current and future environment? There have been two alternating marketplace songs in recent years. Strong stocks/strong commodities/weak dollar has been one clear tune, with sagging stocks/cratering commodities/strong dollar the alternative one. It is very likely that a major or any very significant high in stocks and commodities will occur around the same time (within a couple of months). That peak probably will happen around the time of an important low for the dollar.
FOLLOW THE LINK BELOW to download this market essay as a PDF file.
The Money Jungle (Part One)
Not only does recent Middle East political turmoil flood the news. Actual supply interruptions, as well as conjectural ones, of course influence petroleum and other trading and hedging behavior.Increasing petroleum consumption in non-OECD (developing) nations, though it is challenging to measure, is a bullish factor. There’s probably been a shift within the petroleum industry from a rather confident “just-in-time” orientation to a more fearful “just-in case” bias regarding preferred levels of inventory holding. Moreover, keep in mind the continued bullish effects of the weak United States dollar, low policy interest rates in America and many other OECD nations, noteworthy quantitative easing (money printing), and the global economic recovery story in general and associated rallies in stock marketplaces. Moreover, to many soothsayers onWall Street and beyond, commodities (particularly petroleum) are a new asset class. This faith inspires “alternative investment” (buy and hold for the long run) in that universe, thus tightening petroleum free supply and pushing prices higher.
By around calendar 1996, US petroleum statistics suggest a move to lower inventory holdings in days coverage terms, probably at least due to widespread faith in the appropriateness of just-in-time inventory management.
So the longer that US (and OECD) holdings such as those of March 2011 remain high relative to the 1996-10 period, the more it seems that there has been a partial shift (by at least some industry members) to a just-in-case approach. Given what may happen in the oil world, why not hold a bit more around “than usual”. Players may grab an three or four days extra now relative to just-in-time needs, as versus say 10 or more days in the distant past.
Both the 2008 and 1987 eras hint that any major (final) high in the petroleum complex will be fairly near in time (within a few months, either before or after) one in United States equities.
FOLLOW THE LINK BELOW to download this market essay as a PDF file.
Inside the Petroleum Jungle (Desperate Housewives, Episode 10)
View Leo Haviland’s profile