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Perspectives from Above the Noise -- Week of February 11th, 2019

Perspectives from Above the Noise -- Week of February 11th, 2019

February 11, 2019

Another Week of Equity Gains

February 4 - 8, 2019 Recap

Stocks Edge Higher. U.S. stocks pared intra-day losses on Friday as positive quarterly earnings data offset lingering concerns whether the U.S. and China can reach a trade deal before the March 1 tariff truce deadline. The S&P 500 has risen over 15% since its Christmas Eve low on December 24.

Weekly Performance. For the week, the S&P 500 eked out a 0.11% gain, the Dow Industrials gained 0.32% and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.53%. The Dow Industrials and Nasdaq Composite posted their seventh straight week with gains.

Earnings Reaction Surprise. Thanks in part to low earnings expectations, the average stock performance reaction to earnings results for S&P 500 companies has been a gain of 1.12%. According to Bespoke Investment Group, that’s the best such performance in nine years.

Sector Performance Split. Five of the 11 major sectors ended positive last week, with Utilities (+2.10%), Technology (+1.90%) and Industrials (+1.59%) up the most. Energy (-2.94%), Materials (-1.55%) and Financials (-1.50%) led the laggards.

Treasury Prices Rally. Treasury prices extended gains on safer-haven buying, sending the yield on 10-year bonds down to 2.632%. The U.S. Dollar Index strengthened for a sixth consecutive session.

What We’re Reading

Another Shutdown Looming?

U.K. Growth Slowing

China/U.S. Trade Talks

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Week’s Economic Calendar 

Monday, February 11: None Scheduled;

Tuesday, February 12: NFIB Small Business Index, Job Openings, Household Credit;

Wednesday, February 13: Consumer Price Index, Core CPI, Federal Budget;

Thursday, February 14: Jobless Claims, Producer Price Index;

Friday, February 15: Import Price Index, Empire State Index, Industrial Production, Capacity Utilization.

Market Watch

Stocks1-WkMTD3-MonthYTD1-Year
Dow Jones0.17%0.43%-4.14%7.63%5.23%
S&P 5000.11%0.21%-3.00%8.24%7.05%
NASDAQ0.53%0.29%-2.81%10.10%8.90%
Russell 30000.18%0.35%-2.69%8.97%7.00%
MSCI EAFE-1.38%-1.44%-2.47%5.04%-8.24%
MSCI Emerging Markets-1.34%-1.31%4.65%7.34%-8.74%
Bonds1-WeekMTD3-MonthYTD1-Year
Barclays Agg Bond0.38%0.13%3.89%1.20%3.22%
Barclays Municipal0.30%0.27%3.54%1.02%3.79%
Barclays US Corp High Yield0.17%0.29%1.02%4.83%3.24%
Commodities1-WeekMTD3-MonthYTD1-Year
Bloomberg Commodity-1.06%-0.76%-3.26%4.64%-6.05%
S&P GSCI Crude Oil-4.33%-1.71%-12.97%16.42%-13.43%
S&P GSCI Gold-0.27%-0.51%7.41%2.90%-0.04%
Source: Morningstar

Chart of the Week

U.S. Service Sector Activity Dips in December

View larger image »
 

The ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI, which measures services activity in the United States, dropped to 56.7 in January from 58.0 in December. A reading above 50 indicates expansion. This is an important leading indicator because services activity accounts for roughly two-thirds of the U.S. economy. The Non-Manufacturing Index has trended lower in recent months after hitting a cyclical peak in 2018. For now, services activity remains at a healthy level and is supportive of continued economic growth. However, it is a concern if the Non-Manufacturing PMI weakens from here and approaches contraction territory, which historically has been a red flag for a potential economic recession. We still anticipate the economy growing at a solid pace over the first half of the year and other indicators including industrial production and job gains are contributing to solid economic growth domestically.

 
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The Bloomberg Barclays US Aggregate Bond Index, which was originally called the Lehman Aggregate Bond Index, is a broad based flagship benchmark that measures the investment grade, US dollar-denominated, fixed-rate taxable bond market. The index includes Treasuries, government–related and corporate debt securities, MBS (agency fixed-rate and hybrid ARM pass-throughs), ABS and CMBS (agency and non-agency) debt securities that are rated at least Baa3 by Moody’s and BBB- by S&P. Taxable municipals, including Build America bonds and a small amount of foreign bonds traded in U.S. markets are also included. Eligible bonds must have at least one year until final maturity, but in practice the index holdings has a fluctuating average life of around 8.25 years. This total return index, created in 1986 with history backfilled to January 1, 1976, is unhedged and rebalances monthly.

The Bloomberg Barclays US Corporate High Yield Index measures the USD-denominated, non-investment grade, fixed-rate, taxable corporate bond market. Securities are classified as high yield if the middle rating of Moody's, Fitch, and S&P is Ba1/BB+/BB+ or below, excluding emerging market debt. Payment-in-kind and bonds with predetermined step-up coupon provisions are also included. Eligible securities must have at least one year until final maturity, but in practice the index holdings has a fluctuating average life of around 6.3 years. This total return unhedged index was created in 1986, with history backfilled to July 1, 1983 and rebalances monthly.

The Bloomberg Barclays US Municipal Bond Index covers the USD-denominated long-term tax exempt bond market. The index has four main sectors: state and local general obligation bonds, revenue bonds, insured bonds, and pre-refunded bonds. Many of the subindicies of the Municipal Index have historical data to January 1980. In addition, several subindicies based on maturity and revenue source have been created, some with inception dates after January 1980, but no later than July 1, 1993. Eligible securities must be rated investment grade (Baa3/BBB- or higher) by Moody’s and S&P and have at least one year until final maturity, but in practice the index holdings has a fluctuating average life of around 12.8 years. This total return index is unhedged and rebalances monthly.

The Bloomberg Commodity Index is a broadly diversified index that measures 22 exchange-traded futures on physical commodities in five groups (energy, agriculture, industrial metals, precious metals, and livestock), which are weighted to account for economic significance and market liquidity. No single commodity can comprise less than 2% or more than 15% of the index; and no group can represent more than 33% of the index. However, between rebalancings, group weightings may fluctuate to levels outside the limits. The index rebalances annually, weighted 2/3 by trading volume and 1/3 by world production.

The CBOE Volatility Index® (VIX®) is a key measure of market expectations of near-term volatility conveyed by S&P 500 stock index option prices. Introduced in 1993, the VIX Index has been considered by many to be the world's premier barometer of investor sentiment and market volatility.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is a price-weighted average of 30 significant stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ.

The MSCI All-Country World Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization weighted index that is designed to measure the equity market performance of developed and emerging markets. The SMCI ACWI consists of 46 country indexes comprising 23 developed and 23 emerging market country indexes. The developed country indexes include: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the Uninted States. The emerging market country indexes included are: Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Eygpt, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Russia, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and United Arab Emirates.

The MSCI EAFE Index is designed to measure the equity market performance of developed markets (Europe, Australasia, Far East) excluding the U.S. and Canada. The Index is market-capitalization weighted.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index is designed to measure equity market performance in global emerging markets. It is a float-adjusted market capitalization index.

The MSCI Europe Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization index that is designed to measure developed market equity performance in Europe.

The MSCI Pacific Index captures large and mid-cap representation across five Developed Markets (DM) countries in the Pacific region. With 470 constituents, the index covers approximately 85% of the free float-adjusted market capitalization in each country.

The NASDAQ Composite Index includes all domestic and international based common type stocks listed on The NASDAQ Stock Market. The NASDAQ Composite Index is a broad based index.

The Russell 2000 Index measures the performance of the small-cap segment of the U.S. equity universe and is a subset of the Russell 3000 Index representing approximately 10% of the total market capitalization of that index. It includes approximately 2000 of the smallest securities based on a combination of their market cap and current index membership.

The Russell 3000 Index measures the performance of the largest 3,000 U.S. companies representing approximately 98% of the investable U.S. equity market.

The Russell Midcap Index measures the performance of the mid-cap segment of the U.S. equity universe and is a subset of the Russell 1000 Index. It includes approximately 800 of the smallest securities based on a combination of their market cap and current index membership. The Russell Midcap represents approximately 31% of the total market capitalization of the Russell 1000 companies.

The S&P 500 is an index of 500 stocks chosen for market size, liquidity and industry grouping (among other factors) designed to be a leading indicator of U.S. equities and is meant to reflect the risk/return characteristics of the large cap universe.

The S&P GSCI Crude Oil Indexis a sub-index of the S&P GSCI, provides investors with a reliable and publicly available benchmark for investment performance in the crude oil market.

The S&P GSCI Gold Index a sub-index of the S&P GSCI, provides investors with a reliable and publicly available benchmark tracking the COMEX gold futures market.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) is a crude oil stream produced in Texas and southern Oklahoma which serves as a reference or "marker" for pricing a number of other crude streams. WTI is the underlying commodity of the New York Mercantile Exchange's oil futures contracts.

The U.S. Dollar Index is a weighted geometric mean that provides a value measure of the United States dollar relative to a basket of major foreign currencies. The index, often carrying a USDX or DXY moniker, started in March 1973, beginning with a value of the U.S. Dollar Index at 100.000. It has since reached a February 1985 high of 164.720, and has been as low as 70.698 in March 2008.