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Fools and the Market Are Soon Parted
By Mike Shedlock
8/6/11 

Wall Street is unwavering in its outlook that the S&P will hit 1400 this year. That is nearly a 17% rally from here. 

Please consider Strategists Sticking With 17% S&P 500 Rally by Year-End on Rising Profit 

Wall Street has never been more sure that the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will rally in 2011, even after speculation the U.S. economy is heading for a recession prompted the biggest plunge since the bull market began. 

Chief strategists at 13 banks from Barclays Plc (BARC) to UBS AG (UBSN) see the benchmark measure of American equity surging 17 percent through Dec. 31, the average estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Their projection that the index will reach 1,401 hasn’t budged in four weeks, while mounting concern U.S. growth is slowing drove the S&P 500 down 11 percent since July 22, including yesterday’s 4.8 percent tumble. 

Strategists say earnings growth will fuel gains. S&P 500 profit will rise 18 percent in 2011 and 14 percent in 2012, according to the average per-share analyst estimates in a Bloomberg survey. More than 75 percent of corporations in the index have exceeded earnings estimates for the second quarter, with total income topping projections by 5.2 percent. 

Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) and HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) advised investors to buy equities today. Andrew Garthwaite, a London- based strategist at Credit Suisse, reiterated an “overweight” recommendation on stocks even as he cut his year-end forecast for the S&P 500 to 1,350. 

“Our economists are not forecasting a recession and, indeed, are looking for U.S. growth to accelerate in the second half,” Garry Evans, global head of equity strategy at HSBC in Hong Kong, wrote in a note today. “Investors should look to raise equity risk gradually over the summer.”

Foolish Comments of the Day 

The foolish comment of the day award is a tossup. 

Garry Evans, global head of equity strategy at HSBC in Hong Kong, said “Our economists are not forecasting a recession and, indeed, are looking for U.S. growth to accelerate in the second half”. 

Even if that preposterous statement was true, stocks are priced for perfection here. 

Jonathan Golub, the chief U.S. market strategist at UBS in New York said: “I’m reluctant to overreact to some shorter-term weakness, no matter how real it is, because the market has proven to be unbelievably resilient. If you would have been acting that way for the last two years, you would have gotten killed by this market.” 

Wonderful. That same ridiculous philosophy would have gotten you killed in 2008. 

“Beat the Street” Bullsweet 

I mock the statement “more than 75 percent of corporations in the index have exceeded earnings estimates for the second quarter”. Quite frankly it is total bullsweet. 

Nearly every quarter, even in 2008 and 2009 the majority of firms beat estimates. Here is the way the process works: 

Corporations give analysts “tips” regarding profit expectations. Those profit expectations are purposely low. Wall Street analysts lower estimates, if necessary, as the quarter progresses such that corporations can “beat the street”. 

If corporations are going to miss and need an extra penny, they change tax assumption or make other “one time” adjustments as necessary. 

Corporations beat the street by a penny with “pro-forma” (after adjustment) reporting. 

When they miss they often miss big, throwing everything but the kitchen sink into the open so they can handily “beat the street” the next quarter. 

That is not true with every corporation and every analyst but it is true in general. Thus most corporations, no matter what the market, recession or not, “beat the street”. 

Optimism in the Face of Market Plunges is Seldom Rewarded 

Wall Street analysts sticks with targets that make no fundamental sense. They also call for second-half recoveries instead of recessions. 

If you are a bull, optimism in the face of a sinking market is the last thing you want to see. Such optimism is seldom rewarded. 

Markets rally after people throw in the towel and there are few bulls left. Judging from this group, there is much more decline to come. 

In fact, the U.S. may already be in a recession that the maket is just finding out about. 

I commented on the services ISM Business Activity number on Wednesday in ISM says “Business Conditions Flattening Out”; Why Services Number Worse Than It Looks; Unsustainable Conditions. 

Unsustainable Conditions 

Production [business activity] is +2.7 while new orders, employment, and deliveries are down. Also note that backlog of orders has plunged over the past two months. Meanwhile new export orders is not only in a free-fall, but also in contraction for the first month as the global economy cools. 

Supplier deliveries are on the verge of contraction, and inventories were +3 points to 56.5. 

In short, one of these numbers does not make sense in relation to the others, in relation to the manufacturing ISM, in relation to the financial industry, and in relation to the global economy. 

That 56.1 production reading at +2.7 simply does not fit in, and is not sustainable if the other conditions remain in current “slowing” condition. 

The possibility of a much bigger decline next month seems very real. In fact, that is my call in advance.

Real GDP Percent Change From Year Ago 

Nearly every time Real GDP dips below 2%, the economy was either in recession or headed for recession. 

Services ISM confirms as do many other data points including consumer spending and jobs. This chart suggests we are headed for recession if not already in one. 

More Than Meets the Eye 

I wrote the above several days ago. There was so much other immediate news that I never got around to publishing it. Since then I read an article by John Hussman essentially saying essentially same thing. 

Please give Hussman’s post More Than Meets the Eye a well-deserved look. 

The components of our recession warning composite might be called “weak learners” in that none of them, individually, has a particularly notable record in anticipating recessions. The full syndrome of conditions, however, captures a critical “signature” of recessions. That signature of “early warning” conditions is based on financial market indicators including credit spreads, equity prices and yield curve behavior, coupled with slowing in measures of employment and business activity. Every historical instance of this full syndrome has been associated with an ongoing or immediately impending recession. 

The components (which I’ve reordered for simplicity) are: 

1: Widening credit spreads: An increase over the past 6 months in either the spread between commercial paper and 3-month Treasury yields, or between the Dow Corporate Bond Index yield and 10-year Treasury yields. 

2: Falling stock prices: S&P 500 below its level of 6 months earlier. This is not terribly unusual by itself, which is why people say that market declines have called 11 of the past 6 recessions, but falling stock prices are very important as part of the broader syndrome. 

3: Weak ISM Purchasing Managers Index: PMI below 50, or, 

3: (alternate): Moderating ISM and employment growth: PMI below 54, coupled with slowing employment growth: either total nonfarm employment growth below 1.3% over the preceding year (this is a figure that Marty Zweig noted in a Barron’s piece many years ago), or an unemployment rate up 0.4% or more from its 12-month low. 

4: Moderate or flat yield curve: 10-year Treasury yield no more than 2.5% above 3-month Treasury yields if condition 3 is in effect, or any difference of less than 3.1% if 3(alternate) is in effect (again, this criterion doesn’t create a strong risk of recession in and of itself). 

At present, both measures of credit spreads in condition 1 are widening, the S&P 500 is within about one percent of its level 6 months ago, the Purchasing Managers Index is at 55.3%, total nonfarm payrolls have grown by only 0.8% over the past year, the unemployment rate is up 0.4% from its March 2011 low, and the Treasury yield spread is just 2.7%. From the standpoint of this composite, we would require only modest deterioration in stock prices and the ISM index to produce serious recession concerns. 

Wells Fargo’s senior economist Mark Vitner reiterated the point last week, noting that since 1950, year-over-year growth in real GDP has dipped below 2% on 12 occasions. In 10 of those instances, the economy was already in recession or quickly entered one. The exceptions were 1956 and 2003. 

For our part, we’ve always believed that the strongest evidence is obtained by combining multiple data points into a single “gestalt.” So I have difficulty concluding that the U.S. is on the verge of recession simply because the year-over-year growth rate has stalled. At the same time, we are closely monitoring a much broader set of data, because the deterioration has been very rapid. I should be clear - the evidence is not yet convincing that a recession is imminent, but it is also important to recognize that the developing risks are greater than most investors seem to assume at present. 

Definition of Recession 

The NBER, which is the official arbiter of recessions describes recessions this way. 

The NBER does not define a recession in terms of two consecutive quarters of decline in real GDP. Rather, a recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales.

“Sufficient” Does Not Mean “Necessary” 

Two declining quarters of GDP is a “sufficient” recession condition, however, not even one quarter of declining real GDP is a “necessary” condition. 

The recession that started in November of 2007 did not have one full quarter of declining Real GDP growth. 

Those waiting for contraction before they concede the US is in recession may wake up one day and discover, just as happened in 2008, that the recession was 1/3 over before they saw it “coming”. Indeed, some recessions may not be spotted until they are already over. 

Might the US be in recession now? 

One thing is for sure: At a minimum, the US is certainly on the border of one. Economist Dave Rosenberg raised his odds of recession this week from 99% to 100%. That is how certain he is. 

For the average guy on the street out of work and unable to find any job, the last recession never ended. 

Read it with graphs at Townhall Finance