Oil popped over $3 from the lows of the day (as much as 7%) on news OPEC has agreed to a production cut.
We’ve talked a lot throughout the year about the price of oil. When it collapsed to the $20s, it put the entire energy industry on bankruptcy watch.
Of course, oil bounced sharply from those lows of February as central banks stepped in with a coordinated response to stabilize confidence. Not so coincidentally, oil bottomed the same day the Bank of Japan intervened in the currency markets.
The oil price bust all started back in November of 2014, the evening of Thanksgiving Day, when OPEC pulled the rug out from under the oil market by vowing not to make production cuts, in an attempt to crush the nascent shale industry. At that time, oil was trading around $73.
You can see in this chart, it never saw that price again.
OPEC was successful in heavily damaging the U.S. shale industry through low oil prices, but it has damaged OPEC countries, too.
What will the news of an agreement on a production cut mean?
A policy shift from OPEC can be very powerful. In 1986, the mere hint of an OPEC policy move sent oil up 50% in just 24 hours. And as we discussed earlier in the year, the relationship between the price of oil and stocks this year has been tight. At times, stocks have traded almost tick for tick with oil.
Take a look at this chart.
An oil price back in the $60s would be a catalyst for a big run in stocks into the year end. For a stock market that has been rudderless surrounding a confused Fed and an important election, this oil news could kick it into gear.
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The debate last night was entertaining. It’s sad to see how the media manipulates facts and cherry picks quotes to fit their narrative.
But that’s what they do and it ultimately shapes views for voters, unfortunately.
Today, I want to focus on China and Trump’s comments on China’s currency manipulation. Everyone knows the U.S. has lost jobs to China. Everyone knows China has become the world’s manufacturer. But not everyone knows how they did it.
Is it just because the labor is so cheap? Or is there more to it?
There’s more to it. A lot more.
China’s biggest and most effective tool is and always has been its currency. China ascended to the second largest economy in the world over the past two decades by massively devaluing its currency, and then pegging it at ultra–cheap levels.
Take a look at this chart …
In this chart, the rising line represents a weaker Chinese yuan and a stronger U.S. dollar. You can see from the early 80s to the mid 90s, the value of the yuan declined dramatically, an 82% decline against the dollar. They trashed their currency for economic advantage – and it worked, big time. And it worked because the rest of the world stood by and let it happen.
For the next decade, the Chinese pegged their currency against the dollar at 8.29 yuan per dollar (a dollar buys 8.29 yuan).
With the massive devaluation of the 80s into the early 90s, and then the peg through 2005, the Chinese economy exploded in size. It enabled China to corner the world’s export market, and suck jobs and foreign currency out of the developed world. This is precisely what Donald Trump is alluding to when he says “China is stealing from us.”
Their economy went from $350 billion to $3.5 trillion through 2005, making it the third largest economy in the world.
This next chart is U.S. GDP during the same period. You can see the incredible ground gained by the Chinese on the U.S. through this period of mass currency manipulation.
And because they’ve undercut the world on price, they’ve become the world’s Wal-Mart (sellers to everyone) and have accumulated a mountain for foreign currency as a result. China is the holder of the largest foreign currency reserves in the world, at over $3 trillion dollars (mostly U.S. dollars). What do they do with those dollars? They buy U.S. Treasuries, keeping rates low, so that U.S. consumers can borrow cheap and buy more of their goods – adding to their mountain of currency reserves, adding to their wealth and depleting the U.S. of wealth (and the cycle continues).
The U.S. woke up in 2005, and started threatening tariffs against Chinese goods unless they abandoned their cheap currency policies. China finally conceded (sort of). They agreed to abandon the peg to the dollar, and to start appreciating their currency.
They allowed the currency to strengthen by about 4.5% a year from 2005 through 2013. That might sound good, but that was a drop in the bucket compared to the double digit pace the Chinese economy was growing at through most of that period. Still, the U.S. passively threatened along the way, but allowed it to continue.
With that, the Chinese economy has ascended to the second largest economy in the world now – on pace to the biggest soon (though it still has just an eight of the per capita GDP as the U.S.). But China’s currency is a bigger threat, at this stage, than just the emergence of China as an economic power. The G-20 (the group of the world’s top 20 economies) has had China’s weak currency policy at the top of its list of concerns for a reason.
The current global imbalances are the underlying cause of the global financial crisis, and China’s currency is at the heart of it.
And without a more fairly valued yuan, repairing those imbalances — those lopsided economies too dependent upon either exports or imports — isn’t going to happen. It’s a recipe for more cycles of booms and busts … and with greater frequency.
Are big tariffs the answer? Historically that’s a recipe for disaster, economically and geopolitically.
What’s the solution? I’ve thought that the Bank of Japan will ultimately crush the value of the yen, as the answer to Japan’s multi-decade economic malaise and as an answer to the stagnant global economic recovery. It’s an answer for everyone, except China. A much weaker yen could crush the China threat, by displacing China as the world’s exporter.
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All eyes are on the Presidential debate/face-off tonight. Heading into the event, stocks are lower, yields are lower and the dollar is lower — all a “risk-off” tone.
And the VIX (implied S&P 500 vol/an indicator of uncertainty) has popped higher from the very low levels it had returned to as of Friday. Speculators are out today making bets on a political firework show tonight, and thus betting on more uncertainty in the outcome and in post-election policy making.
If we step back a bit though, given the difficulties in getting through the legislative process, the biggest potential market influence from the election may be more about the prospects of getting a fiscal stimulus package done, rather than the many promises that are made on an campaign trail. Both candidates have been out promising a spending package to boost the economy. And on the heals of a package from Japan, and the unknown risks from Brexit, the idea is becoming more politically palatable.
As we discussed on Friday, the Fed has taken a strategically more pessimistic public view on the economy, in effort to underpin the current economic drivers in place (stability, low rates and incentives to reach for risk).
Following the Fed and BOJ events last week, the 10-year yield is back in the 1.50s and sitting in a big technical level. This will be an important chart to keep an eye on tomorrow.
If you’re looking for great ideas that have been vetted and bought by the world’s most influential and richest investors, join us atBillionaire’s Portfolio. We have just exited an FDA approval stock for a quadruple. And we’ll be adding a two new high potential billionaire owned stocks to the portfolio very soon. Don’t miss it. Join us here.
Yesterday we talked about the two big central bank events in focus today. Given that the Bank of Japan had an unusual opportunity to decide on policy before the Fed (first at bat this week), I thought the BOJ could steal the show.
Indeed, the BOJ acted. The Fed stood pat. But thus far, the market response has been fairly muted – not exactly a show stealing response. But as we’ve discussed, two key hammers for the BOJ in achieving a turnaround in inflation and the Japanese economy are: 1) a weaker yen, and 2) higher Japanese stocks.
Their latest tweaks should help swing those hammers.
Bernanke wrote a blog post today with his analysis on the moves in Japan. Given he’s met with/advised the BOJ over the past few months, everyone should be perking up to hear his reaction.
Let’s talk about the moves from the BOJ …
One might think that the easy, winning headline for the BOJ (to influence stocks and the yen) would be an increase in the size of its QE program. They kicked off in 2013 announcing purchases of 60 for 70 trillion yen ($800 billion) a year. They upped the ante to 80 trillion yen in October of 2014. On that October announcement, Japanese stocks took off and the yen plunged – two highly desirable outcomes for the BOJ.
But all central bank credibility is in jeopardy at this stage in the global economic recovery. Going back to the well of bigger asset purchases could be dangerous if the market votes heavily against it by buying yen and selling Japanese stocks. After all, following three years of big asset purchases, the BOJ has failed to reach its inflation and economic objectives.
They didn’t take that road (the explicit bigger QE headline). Instead, the BOJ had two big tweaks to its program. First, they announced that they want to control the 10-year government bond yield. They want to peg it at zero.
What does this accomplish? Bernanke says this is effectively QE. Instead of telling us the size of purchase, they’re telling us the price on which they will either or buy or sell to maintain. If the market decides to dump JGB’s, the BOJ could end up buying more (maybe a lot more) than their current 80 trillion yen a year. Bernanke also calls the move to peg rates, a stealth monetary financing of government spending (which can be a stealth debt monetization).
Secondly, the BOJ said today that they want to overshoot their 2% inflation target, which Bernanke argues allows them to execute on their plans until inflation is sustainable.
It all looks like a massive devaluation of the yen scenario plays well with these policy moves in Japan, both as a response to these policies, and a complement to these policies (self-reinforcing). Though the initial response in the currency markets has been a stronger yen.
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Since Friday of last week, there have been a lot of reports on the spike in the VIX. Today I want to talk about the VIX and the performance of major benchmark markets over the past week.
In a world where stability is king, central bankers have been very sensitive to swings in key financial markets, with the idea that confidence and the perception of stability can quickly become unhinged by market moves. When that happens, it becomes a big, viable threat to the global economic recovery and outlook. It can certainly send policy intentions off of the rails (as we’ve seen happen time and time again with the Fed).
Should they be worried?
With the above said, some might think the biggest threat to a Fed move in September (or December) isn’t economic data, but this chart.
Sources: Reuters, Forbes Billionaire’s Portfolio
First, what is the VIX? The VIX is an index that tracks the implied volatility of the S&P 500 index. What is implied volatility? It’s not actual volatility as might be measured by the dispersion of data from is mean.
Implied vol has more to do with the level of certainty that market makers have or don’t have about the future. When big money managers come calling for an option to hedge against potential downside in stocks, a market maker on the floor in Chicago at the CME prices the option with some objective inputs. And the variable input is implied volatility. When uncertainty is rising, the implied volatility value includes some premium over actual volatility. In short, if you’re a market maker and you think there is rising risk for a (as an example) a sharp decline in stocks, you will charge the buyer of that protection more, just as an insurance company would charge a client more for a homeowners policy in an area more included to see hurricanes.
So with that in mind, the implied vol market for the S&P 500 had been very subdued for the past 45 days or so, quickly falling back to complacency levels following the Brexit fears of late June. But since Friday, when market interest rates on government bonds spiked sharply (in the U.S., German, Japan), the VIX spiked from 12 to 20 (a more than 60% move).
That indicates a couple of things: 1) Stock investors were spooked by the move in rates and immediately looked for some downside protection, and 2) market makers aren’t quite as complacent as they appeared when the VIX was muddling along at low levels. They are quick to raise the insurance premium, highly spooked by the risk of a sharp decline in stocks.
But it looks like this recent spike might have more to do with market maker community that is psychologically damaged by the abrupt market moves of the past eight years. Gold is down since Friday – giving the opposite message of what the VIX is giving us about perceived uncertainty (people smell fear, they buy gold). And the S&P 500 has only lost 1.3% from its peak last Friday.
Last month we looked at 13F filings. These are the quarterly portfolio disclosures, required by the SEC, of large investors – those managing $100 million or more.
And we discussed 13D filings. These are required when a big investor takes a controlling stake in a company (ownership of 5% or more of the outstanding stock), he/she is required to disclose it to the SEC, through a public filing within ten days over crossing the 5% threshold. If it’s a passive investment, they file a form 13G. If they intend to engage management (i.e. wield influence) they file a 13D.
Bill Ackman, the well known billionaire activist investor, filed a 13D on Chipotle (CMG) yesterday. Today, we’ll take a look at this move.
In this filing, his fund, Pershing Square, disclosed a 9.9% stake in the company. Ackman thinks the stock is “undervalued” and “an attractive investment.”
Chipotle, at its peak valuation last year, was valued more like a high flying tech company. Yet this was a restaurant, albeit an innovator in the fast food business – in fact, they created a new segment in the food business, “fast casual.”
Then came the food crisis- an outbreak of e-coli cases. And the stock has been crushed – cut in half over the past year. Customers have been walking from Chipotle and into the many fast casual alternatives (competition spawned from Chipotle’s innovation).
Who tends to buy the bottom in these situations? Activists.
What’s a quick and easy fix in a sentiment crisis? Change.
To be sure, Chipotle has been drowning in a sentiment crisis. And even though Ackman thinks the company has “visionary leadership” we’ll see if he makes someone in current leadership a sacrificial lamb, in order to repair sentiment in the stock. This power to influence change is one of the few remaining edges in public stock market investing.
Ackman has said in a past letter to investors, “minority stakes in high quality businesses can be purchased in the public markets at a discount,” arising from two factors: “shareholder disaffection with management, and the short term nature of large amounts of retails and institutional investor capital which can overreact to negative short-term corporate or macro factors.” That’s how you identify value. But how do you close the value gap?
Shareholder disaffection with management is a typical qualifier to make it onto the radar screens of activist investors. There’s an opportunity to shake up management, change sentiment, and unlock value.
Last month, we talked about Mick McGuire, a protégé of Bill Ackman. He filed a 13D on Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD), and announced a plan for change, and publicly said the stock could double on his game plan — it put a bottom in the stock.
Chipotle is up 5% on the news of Ackman’s involvement. At 42% off of highs, it’s a low risk/ high reward bet to follow Ackman.
In our Billionaire’s Portfolio, we’re positioned in deep value stocks that have the potential to do multiples of the broader market—all stocks that are owned and influenced by the world’s smartest and most powerful billionaire investors. Join us today and get yourself in line with our portfolio. You can join here.
Last Thursday, everyone was awaiting the Friday Jackson Hole speech from Yellen. I suggested that, while all eyes were on Yellen, maybe Kuroda (the head of the BOJ) would steal the show: “he could conjure up some Bernanke style QE3. Not a bad bet to be long USD/JPY and dollar-denominated Nikkei through the weekend (ETF, DBJP or DXJ).”
Indeed, Yellen was short on clarity as we’ve discussed in recent days. As of this afternoon, stocks are now unchanged from Thursday afternoon (just prior to her speech). And the 10-year yield is right where it was before she spoke — and looking like a coin flip on which direction it may break. The pain is lower, so it will probably go lower.
As for Kuroda, he did indeed steal the show, at least in terms of market impact. On Saturday, Kuroda hit the wires saying its negative rate policy was far from reaching the limit and said they would act with more QE or deeper negative rates “without hesitation.” That’s a greenlight for buying Japanese stocks and selling the yen (buying USD/JPY).
The Nikkei is up 1.5% from Friday’s close, and USD/JPY is up 2.7% (yen down).
Was Kuroda telegraphing another big round of fresh QE (as Bernanke did in 2012)? Maybe. He said inflation remains vulnerable in Japan and is responding “differently” (i.e. worse) to shocks like falling oil prices.
Inflation in Japan, even after rounds of unprecedented QE, is back in negative territory and has been for five consecutive months of year-over-year deflation. The U.S. economy looks like its running hot compared to Japan. It’s not a bad bet to expect Japan to act first, with more QE, to pump asset prices, and then the Fed would have a little more breathing room to make another hike (either December) or early next year.
In our Billionaire’s Portfolio, we’re positioned in deep value stocks that have the potential to do multiples of the broader market—all stocks that are owned and influenced by the world’s smartest and most powerful billionaire investors. Join us today and get yourself in line with our portfolio. You can join here.
The Fed’s Janet Yellen was the focal point for markets for the week. She had a scheduled speech at the annual Fed conference at Jackson Hole.
When her speech was finally made public Friday morning, the response in markets was uncertainty (the most used word for the past nine years).
Stocks went up, then down. Yields went down, then up.
So what do we make of it? Let’s start with the headlines that hit the wire Friday morning.
The world was wondering if Yellen would support the messaging from some of her fellow Fed members–that a September rate hike is on the table. Or would she continue the backstepping (dovish speak) the Fed has done for the past five months. The answer was ‘yes.’ She did both.
Yellen said the case for rate hikes has strengthened (yellow marker) because the data is nearing their goals (employment and inflation–the white marker). Ah, rate hike. But then she said the Fed expects inflation to hit the target 2% in the next few years (circled)! And then talked about the strategy for more QE. Huh? And then to top it off, she said they might move the goalposts. They might move the inflation target higher, and start targeting GDP. That means they would be happy to leave conditions ultra accommodative until those higher targets are met. Clearly dovish.
As I said Thursday, they want to raise rates to get the financial system closer to proper functioning, but they don’t want to cause a recession. The Fed wants to raise short-term rates, but promote a flatter yield curve (i.e. promote expectations that the economy will continue to be soft) to keep the market interest rates low, which keeps the housing market on the rails and the economic activity on the rails.
Remember, we talked about the piece Bernanke wrote a couple of weeks ago, where he suggested exactly this type of perception manipulation from the Fed, to balance the need to raise rates, without killing the economy.
That looks like the game plan.
Have a great weekend!
In our Billionaire’s Portfolio, we’re positioned in deep value stocks that have the potential to do multiples of the broader market—all stocks that are owned and influenced by the world’s smartest and most powerful billionaire investors. Join us today and get yourself in line with our portfolio. You can join here.
Tomorrow is the big annual Fed conference in Wyoming. It typically draws the world’s most powerful central bankers. This is where, in 2012, Bernanke telegraphed a round three of its quantitative easing program.
The economy was still shaky following the escalating sovereign debt crisis in Europe, which had taken Spain and Italy to the brink of default. Draghi and the ECB stepped in first, in late July and made the big “whatever it takes” promise. This is where he threatened to crush the bond market speculators that had run yields up in the government bond markets of Spain and Italy to economic failure levels. He threatened to take the other side of that trade, to whatever extent necessary, in effort to save the future of the euro. It worked. He didn’t have to buy a single bond. The bond vigilantes fled. Yields ultimately fell sharply.
But just a month after Draghi’s threat, it was uncertain at best, that it would work. With that, and given the economies globally were still flailing, Bernanke hinted that more QE was coming at the August Jackson Hole conference.
The combination of those to intervention events ignited global stocks, led by U.S. stocks. The S&P 500 is up 55% from the date of Bernanke’s speech and the climb has been a 45 degree angle.
This time, this Jackson Hole, things are a bit more confusing, if that’s possible. The BOJ, ECB and BOE are QE’ing. The Fed has been going the other way. But in the past six months, they’ve backstepped big time.
The hawk talk went quite for a while earlier this year. Even Bernanke has written that the Fed has shot itself in the foot by publishing an optimistic trajectory and timeline for normalizing rate. It has resulted in an effect that has felt like a rate tightening, without them having to act. That’s the exact opposite of they want. They want to hike to restore some more traditional functioning of the financial system, but they don’t want to slow down economic activity. It doesn’t normally work that way, and it hasn’t worked that way.
So now we have Yellen speaking tomorrow, and people are looking for answers. We have some Fed members now wanting to dial back on public projections, as to not continue to negatively influence economic activity (Bernanke’s advice) and others getting in front of camera’s and telling us that a September hike might be in the cards.
But while everyone is looking to Yellen for clarity (don’t expect it), the show might be stolen by another central banker. Haruhiko Kuroda, head of the Bank of Japan, will be in Jackson Hole too. The agenda is not yet out so we don’t know if he’s speaking. But he could conjure up some Bernanke style QE3. Not a bad bet to be long USD/JPY and dollar-denominated Nikkei through the weekend (ETFs, DBJP or DXJ). Full disclosure: We’re long DBJP in our Billionaire’s Portfolio.
In our Billionaire’s Portfolio, we’re positioned in deep value stocks that have the potential to do multiples of the broader market—all stocks that are owned and influenced by the world’s smartest and most powerful billionaire investors. Join us today and get yourself in line with our portfolio. You can join here.
We’ve talked about the recent public portfolio disclosures that have made in recent days by the world’s biggest investors.
And as we’ve discussed, the 13F filings only offer value to the extent that there is some skilled analysis applied. Loads of managers file 13Fs every quarter. And the difference in manager talent, strategies, portfolio sizes … run the gamut.
Through our research of over 15 years, among the most predictive factors in these filings is the presence of high conviction positions. To put it simply, the bigger the position relative to the size of their portfolio, the better. Concentrated positions show conviction. Conviction tends to result in a higher probability of success, especially when the investor has a controlling stake and is influencing (or seeking to influence) management. At that stage, these positions will show up first, before the quarterly 13F filing, in more timely filings called a 13D (or 13G) filings.
Here’s a look at a specific case that fits that profile, with some detail on why it matters.
If we look across high conviction positions among the recent 13F filings, among the highest, we find Carmike Cinemas (symbol CKEC). Mittleman Brothers, a $410 million hedge fund and value investment advisor, runs a concentrated portfolio, and owns 9.6% of the CKEC.
The stake represents (as of the most recent 13F filing) more than 31% of its long U.S. equity portfolio (more than 18% of its overall portfolio). That’s a huge stake.
After fees the Mittleman Brothers have returned 17% annualized since inception (2003). So we have a manager that has doubled the S&P 500 over the 14 years, runs a concentrated portfolio, and has an ultra-high conviction stock in CKEC. And in this particular case, they have the ability to influence the outcome in CKEC.
The fund filed a 13D on Carmike back in March, which means they intended to influence management. Mittleman has since been trying to block a sale of Carmike to AMC Entertainment Holdings for a value they deem “unacceptably low.”
At the time of the first takeover offer, the stock traded at just around $25 (so a $30 takeout would be a 20% premium). The stock now trades at $31. But based on industry multiples, Mittleman argues the company should be sold for no less than $40, and as much as $47. The bid has since been raised, but remains at levels Mittleman has deemed unacceptable.
The moral of the story: As we know, management’s mandate in public companies is to maximize shareholder value, but unfortunately it doesn’t always happen (most of the time, only after their interests are maximized). That’s why siding with influential shareholders that are fighting to maximize your return on investment is critical. In the case of Carmike, you have management that is willing to give away the company for as little as 70 cents on the dollar (according to view of one of its biggest shareholders).
In our Billionaire’s Portfolio, we’re positioned in deep value stocks that have the potential to do multiples of the broader market—all stocks that are owned and influenced by the world’s smartest and most powerful billionaire investors. Join us today and get yourself in line with our portfolio. You can join here.
