recession – Page 9 – The Contrarian Investor Podcast

The New Narrative, a lot like the Old Narrative

Published February 13, 2023

Concerns about inflation and Fed rate hikes are front and center again as focus turns to January’s CPI print…

The following is an amended version of the Feb. 13 Daily Contrarian. This briefing and accompanying podcast are released to premium subscribers each market day morning by 0700. To subscribe, visit our Substack or Supercast.

It’s a big week with the Consumer Price Index supplying a fresh inflation reading Tuesday.

Last week wasn’t great for stocks. In fact, it was the worst week of the year so far. Inflation was one persistent theme to emerge from earnings, which from the looks of it is getting investors to rethink the narrative that the Fed can start cutting rates later this year.

In reality that narrative was foolish to begin with. More importantly, it wasn’t due to any tangible comments by Fed officials — some off-the-cuff hints by Powell that probably weren’t even intended as such were enough to get investors to pile into risk assets, however temporarily.

So apparently the narrative has shifted again, from ‘soft landing’ to ‘higher for longer.’ From ‘don’t fight the tape’ to ‘don’t fight the Fed.’ Which means this meme can safely be unearthed again:

Reality Check

This latest market activity is a bit of a relief to those of us who were questioning our sanity coming in to last week. Markets can stay irrational for awhile (longer than we can stay solvent, as the saying goes) but maybe this latest bout of bullish irrationality just wasn’t long for this world to begin with.

Two things we’ve been pointing out the whole way: 1) the Fed record of engineering soft landings is not good, and 2) there is a lag effect between when the Fed sets interest rates and when these are felt in the real economy.

This doesn’t make for a particularly constructive environment for risk allocation and makes the January rally look like a dead cat bounce.

Now that that’s settled, we can consider all the ways that it’s wrong. Have at it.

Podcast Excerpt

Quick highlight from today’s podcast (available in its entirety for premium subscribers) courtesy of our YouTube channel:

A Global Economy Beset by Discrepancies, With Joseph Politano (Szn 5, Ep. 3)

Published February 2, 2023

Joseph Politano of Apricitas Economics joins the podcast to discuss his views on the various discrepancies in the global economy — and how the whole thing may play out.

Content Highlights

US home prices could be due for more declines, based on how housing starts and interest rates have been trending (2:15);
How much of the strength of the labor market is due to interest rate hikes not having taken full effect yet? (4:09);
Expecting a ‘mild recession’ may be as naive as anticipating a ‘soft landing’ (8:44);
Traditional leading indicators are out of synch, with manufacturing employment dropping precipitously but the services sector going from strength to strength (13:30);
The Fed may have already overdone it with interest rate hikes (14:57);
The ‘best case’ scenario may be akin to what happened in 1995-96 (18:15);
Background on the guest (22:23);
What to (possibly) expect from Fed policy the rest of 2023 (27:29);
Watch Japan’s monetary policy as well (34:17);
What about cryptocurrencies as a systemic risk? (39:08);

Fed Pivot Hope-ium Lives, Even Without Much Pivot Proof

Published February 2, 2023

Stocks are rallying even as the Fed sticks to its hawkish tone on interest rates…

The following is an amended version of the Feb. 2 Daily Contrarian. This briefing and accompanying podcast are released to premium subscribers each market day morning by 0700. To subscribe, visit our Substack or Supercast.

The Federal Reserve yesterday raised interest rates by 25 basis points as expected and didn’t materially change the language in its policy statement, causing a brief dip in stock prices. That promptly gave way to buying even as Jerome Powell didn’t provide anything in the way of Pivot Hope-ium either. At the end of the day stocks had rallied significantly, with tech the major winner. The Nasdaq was up 2% and S&P 500 up 1%.

So much for that set up for a disappointment… Right, well at least we weren’t the only ones making that assessment…

What Dovish Commentary?

It’s hard to find anything particularly dovish about the FOMC statement or Powell’s press conference. No matter. For whatever reasons investors have decided that the Fed is not going to break stuff or hurt the market anymore. That is what yesterday’s (and last month’s) activity tells us at least. How else to explain the massive rally we’ve seen in tech stocks in particular?

Whatever happened to ‘don’t fight the Fed’? Are we missing something here or is this a massive game of denial going on right now? Or maybe the mother of all dead cat bounces?

Maybe Powell’s comment that only “a couple more rate hikes” are needed “to get to that level we think is appropriately restrictive” was enough? Perhaps this removes any uncertainty of further hikes beyond this year from the hearts and minds of investors? But then you have to ignore a ton of hawkish commentary including a line in the policy statement that “ongoing increases in the target range will be appropriate.”

Okay, so maybe investors figure this is all hot air and the Fed is going to be data dependent? Great, but what if the data forces the Fed to hike rather than cut? Is that possibility simply off the table now?

Anyway, RIP Don’t Fight the Fed. Long live Don’t Fight the Tape.

Tag: recession