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.

RSS View Leo Haviland's LinkedIn profile View Leo Haviland’s profile




RISING GLOBAL INTEREST RATES AND THE STOCK MARKETPLACE BATTLEFIELD © Leo Haviland October 5, 2021

In “Life During Wartime”, the Talking Heads sing: “This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco, this ain’t no fooling around.”

****

CONCLUSION

Looking forward, United States Treasury yields probably will continue to rise. So will yields for government debt in Germany and other advanced nations. In general, yields of emerging market sovereign debt securities probably will keep climbing as well. US dollar-denominated corporate debt yields also will ascend. Substantial inflation and massive government debt are important variables for this rising interest rate outlook. Increasing yields for this array of debt securities around the globe probably have created (led to) an important top around early September 2021 for the American stock battlefield (S+P 500 high 9/2/21 at 4546) and related advanced nation and emerging marketplace stock arenas, or will soon do so. There is a significant probability that the S+P 500 and related equity domains have commenced or soon will begin bear trends.

FOLLOW THE LINK BELOW to download this article as a PDF file.
Rising Global Interest Rates and the Stock Marketplace Battlefield (10-5-21)

FINANCIAL MARKETPLACES: CONVERGENCE AND DIVERGENCE STORIES © Leo Haviland April 6, 2021

“Honest to goodness, the tears have been falling
All over this country’s face
It was better before, before they voted for What’s-His-Name
This was supposed to be the new world…
All we need is money
Just give us what you can spare”. X the Band’s 1983 song, “The New World”

****

Financial observers often seek to ascertain a relationship between apparent trends involving stock, interest rate, currency, and commodity marketplaces. This involves subjective historical reviews as to the extent to which the price and time trends (patterns) of two or more marketplaces tend to converge or diverge. Some viewpoints may indicate that trends for a given marketplace tend to lead (or lag) those of another. For example, people investigate linkages between two United States technology stocks. Or, traders and analysts seek to establish the relationship (extent of convergence or divergence) between emerging marketplace stocks “in general” and the S+P 500.

The marketplace arenas studied are not necessarily the same. To what extent do significant increases in United States Treasury interest rates precede (lead to) eventual noteworthy declines in the S+P 500?

****

Since cultural (subjective) perspectives, arguments, predictions, and actions regarding marketplace and other phenomena and their interrelations diverge (and converge) to various extents over time, emerging stock marketplaces “as a whole” and the S+P 500 do not necessarily trade identically or even very closely in price direction and timing terms. Of course marketplace history is not marketplace destiny, either completely or partially. Relationships within and between financial fields can shift or transform, sometimes dramatically. And these stock theaters have their own supply/demand situations and intertwine with other financial realms and assorted variables in diverse ways. However, over the past couple of decades, important price highs (and lows) and related trend shifts for the overall emerging stock marketplace and the S+P 500 have tended to occur at around the same time, sometimes within a few days, generally within a couple of months.

In first quarter 2020, prices for emerging stock marketplaces began to fall shortly before the S+P 500. They thereafter collapsed and reached a major bottom “together” in late March 2020. Over subsequent months, ferocious bull moves emerged in both districts.

However, since around early March 2021, prices for emerging stock marketplaces have diverged somewhat from the S+P 500. The emerging stock theater stands around seven percent beneath its mid-February 2021 top, whereas the S+P 500 has marched relentlessly to record heights. Will this divergence persist for an extended period?

FOLLOW THE LINK BELOW to download this article as a PDF file.
Financial Marketplaces- Convergence and Divergence Stories (4-6-21)

TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES: RISING AMERICAN INTEREST RATES © Leo Haviland March 9, 2021

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” “Requiem for a Nun” (Act 1, Scene 3), by William Faulkner

CONCLUSION

Faith in the appealing proverb “don’t underestimate or fight the Federal Reserve Board” has become increasingly deep and widespread in recent years, and especially within stock investment congregations. This dogma underlines that mighty guardian’s powers and its willingness to employ them, not only to assist and even rescue the economy, but also to eventually halt substantial stock declines in the S+P 500. The Fed’s past successes have built and reinforced reliance by economic players as well as political leaders on it.

The Fed has other central banking allies in its noble efforts. Also, at times efforts by national political leaders in the United States and elsewhere, when dangerous and terrifying situations threaten, enact major assistance packages (such as avalanches of deficit spending).

If underestimation of the Fed is possible, then so is overestimation of it. The Fed of course is not the only performer on the economic and political stage, and marketplace and other cultural conditions can evolve, change significantly, or become extreme. Therefore, the great confidence in the Fed nowadays has an implicit corollary. Fed devotees and marketplace watchers “should not overestimate the Fed and its powers.” For example, the revered Fed probably does not have unlimited power to keep Federal Funds rates and United States Treasury yields repressed.

Not only may inflation propel interest rates higher than currently expected or desired. So can massive deficit spending and huge debt, especially if created by the US federal government.

The major yield increase trend in the United States Treasury marketplace (enlist the UST 10 year note as a benchmark) which commenced with 3/9/20’s .31 percent low probably will continue. A notable target for the UST 10 year is around the 3.26 percent top attained on 10/19/18. Even if over the so-called long run the UST 10 year yield does not eventually ascend to 2007’s seemingly ancient high (5.32pc; 6/13/07), attaining such an elevation is considerably more probable than most marketplace preachers proclaim.

Marketplace history of course is not marketplace destiny. Assorted variables in addition to interest rate levels and trends influence stock prices. However, many times over the past century, significantly increasing United States interest rate yields have preceded a noteworthy pinnacle in and the start of bear trends for key stock marketplace signposts such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S+P 500. The yield rise in the UST 10 year note since its March 2020 bottom probably signals that the S+P 500 has established a significant top or soon will do so.

FOLLOW THE LINK BELOW to download this article as a PDF file.
Truth and Consequences- Rising American Interest Rates (3-9-21)

ADVENTURES IN MARKETLAND: HUNTING FOR RETURN © Leo Haviland October 6, 2020

In the movie, “The Hustler” (Robert Rossen, director), a character stresses: “Look, you wanna hustle pool, don’t you? This game isn’t like football. Nobody pays you for yardage. When you hustle you keep score real simple. The end of the game you count up your money. That’s how you find out who’s best. That’s the only way.”

****

CONCLUSION

 

During the era of sustained global yield repression engineered by America’s trusty Federal Reserve Board and its central banking comrades, “investors” and other traders generally have engaged in enthusiastic hunts for adequate return (“yield”) in assorted financial fields. These territories include United States and other stocks, US corporate bonds, lower-grade foreign dollar-denominated sovereign debt, and commodities “in general”.

Convergence and divergence (lead/lag) relationships between realms such as the S+P 500, American corporate debt, and the petroleum complex are a matter of subjective perspective. The connections and patterns are complex and not necessarily precise; they can shift or even transform. Nevertheless, within this accommodative policy yield environment, often involving monumental money printing (quantitative easing) strategies and other generous monetary schemes, price trends in the S+P 500 and these other marketplaces frequently have been similar. Prices in these benchmark stock indices, lower-grade interest rate instruments, and commodities often have risen (or fallen) at roughly the same time They have climbed in bull markets (and fallen in bear markets) “together”. For example, the magnificent bull moves for US stocks and these “related” financial areas peaked in early to mid-first quarter 2020. Their subsequent bloody bear crashes intertwined, ending at around the same time. The ensuing price rallies in these assorted key districts generally embarked around late March 2020, and their subsequent bullish patterns thereafter interrelated. The S+P 500’s attained its record high on 9/2/20 at 3588.

“Marketplace Maneuvers: Searching for Yield, Running for Cover” (9/7/20) concluded: “various phenomena indicate that these marketplaces are at or near important price highs and probably have started to or soon will decline together.” Noteworthy interconnected price falls followed the S+P 500’s September 2020 summit. Even if Congress answers widespread fervent prayers and enacts another large deficit spending (stimulus) package, the S+P 500’s 9/2/20 peak probably will not be broken by much, if at all.

What bearish factors did “Marketplace Maneuvers” identify? They include the probability of a feeble global recovery (the recovery will not be V-shaped), the persistence of the coronavirus problem for at least the next several months, and lofty American stock marketplace valuations (and the substantial risk of disappointing late 2020 and calendar 2021 corporate earnings). The Democrats probably will triumph in the 11/3/20 American national election, which portends a reversal of the corporate tax “reform” legislation as well as the enactment of increased taxes on high-earning individuals and the passage of capital gains taxes. Also on the US national political scene, fears are growing of a political crisis if President Trump disputes the November voting outcome.

Other warning signals of notable price falls in the S+P 500 and various related marketplaces are vulnerable US (and other) households (reduced consumer spending) and endangered small businesses, massive and rising government debt, a greater risk of rising US interest rates (at least in the corporate and low-quality sovereign landscapes) than many believe (even with ongoing Fed yield repression), and the weakness in the US dollar.

FOLLOW THE LINK BELOW to download this article as a PDF file.
Adventures in Marketland- Hunting for Return (10-6-20)