Characterised by such slogans such as “sell in May and go away”, the third quarter of any financial year is often expected to be cautious. This year saw a mild confirmation of that view – the main UK indices in Q3 fell by +/- 2% compared to Q3; year on year there was an increase of around 2% leaving shares year-to-date down marginally (-0.25%). This is something of a relief in view of the political noise that irritates us on a daily basis but we should note that the US S&P is +8.5% year-to-date.  Whether it is the combination of tax cuts and trade deals or something else, the US is showing either where we could be going or what we are missing, depending on your view. US government bond yields are still inching rather than exploding upwards. US 10 year treasuries are now hovering just above 3% and 10 year gilts are just above 1.50%. These started the year at 2.4% and 1.2% respectively. Perhaps this is a trend. But we should not forget that although there are plenty of Britons who remember inflation, it is 25 years since it was last a problem. I think that wage inflation is worth keeping an eye on but there again it seems that so many of today’s new jobs are relatively unskilled – the more that technology leaps ahead the more we seem to need people who can drive a car or ride a bicycle. When pricing power reaches sellers of that kind of labour then inflation might be off to the races. At the end of the quarter there was another bout of panic about Italy being rebellious against the decrees of the EU/ECB. The premium of 10 year Italian yields over Bunds is climbing. If it continues it will politically disruptive in Europe and could conceivably affect the Brexit deal, though whether it would make the EU negotiators more conciliatory or more obstinate is anyone’s...

5 Jul 2018

In Q1 the main UK indexes fell by between 6% and 8%. In Q2, they rose by 7% to 8%. The chart of the first six months is a “V” or perhaps a two-fingered salute to all the financial commentators who claim knowledge of the future. Bond yields again did almost nothing.   I have written elsewhere about the prevailing mood that seems to try to put a pessimistic spin on everything. As a result I would imagine that most people would be amazed to know that shares were so strong in Q2. How could they be in the turmoil of the imminent collapse of international trade, courtesy of the hardball tactics of Mr Trump and M Barnier, l’homme who loves to say “non”? The sole purpose of trade rules is to prevent trade from taking place and that these two gentlemen are both happy to use that threat as what I suppose we must call a negotiating tactic, if we could only tell what it is that they are trying to negotiate. Never mind that. The stock market doesn’t seem very concerned about it. Last quarter I listed thirteen everyday UK shares with markedly high dividend yields. Unsurprisingly, in view of the market performance, you would have done quite nicely if you had bought them. Not a single one of them went bust between April and June, I am pleased to say and the shares of none of them declined. It is better to look at valuations and to ask what they are telling us than to listen to what commentators are actually telling us. How about the yields on government bonds? I have said that there was little change in Q2 (despite innumerable predictions of falling prices) but are there trends and what do the absolute levels tell us? Germany is the benchmark bond for the EU. The ECB will continue its asset buying programme until the end of this year. It is still boosting asset prices by its own version of QE, implying that the crisis that started in 2008 continues. A year ago, 10 year Bunds yielded 0.5%. Now they yield 0.3%. Not many signs of imminent recovery there. Bond yields...

30 Mar 2018

In my report on Q4, I wrote that “for the third successive quarter, the markets were mysteriously calm.” The calm was disrupted in Q1 for sure: the main UK indexes fell by between 6% and 8%. The German DAX was -6.3%. Supported by a falling dollar, the US markets, though volatile, did better with the DJIA -2.5%. I hinted before that the stock markets might be vulnerable to rising interest rates or, more specifically, rising bond yields. In February it started to look as if this was happening; the US 10 year treasury yield had risen from 2.40% to 2.94%; but by the end of the quarter it was back to 2.74%. A similar pattern played out elsewhere. The 10 year gilt yield rose from 1.20% to 1.69% but ended the quarter back at 1.34%. It would seem that the wait for inflation goes on. Aside from the usual nonsensical white noise about “uncertainty” it is hard to escape the conclusion that the stock market is truly concerned about the ability of large corporations that feature in our lives daily to invest capital, service debt and pay dividends. Here is your day described in terms of dividend yields: you are woken by the ringing of the house phone (BT: 6.8%) and switch on the light (National Grid: 5.6%); you turn up the central heating (Centrica: 8.5%) and clean your teeth (Glaxo: 5.7%); you decide to go into town but your car has no petrol (BP: 6.0%, Royal Dutch Shell: 5.8%) and needs a new rear light (Halfords: 5.4%) so you decide to take the bus (Stagecoach: 9.0%, Go-Ahead: 5.8%); you do some shopping in Currys PC World (Dixons Carphone: 6.0%, Vodafone: 6.7%) and M&S (Marks & Spencer: 6.9%) before treating yourself to a pub lunch (Marstons: 7.4%, Greene King: 7.0%). Is it the end of the world as we know it? Yet, against this rather sinister background something quite different has been happening. Companies who want to buy each other seem to like these prices very much. On 22 December GVC announced its intention to buy Ladbrokes plc. On 17 January, Melrose bid for GKN; on 30 January UBM agreed to be taken over;...

4 Jan 2018

For the third successive quarter, the markets were mysteriously calm. Long term government bond yields barely stirred again. Bunds yielded 0.44% in September and they yield 0.44% today. The range, if that word applies, of gilts has been almost as tight. The UK stock markets slow-marched upwards in step in Q4: FTSE 100 +4.4%, FTSE 250 +4.5%, FTSE All Share +4.4%. It would seem that behind the blizzard of infantile stories about Bitcoin and Brexit, there were no events of substance.  The US has been much more exciting. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 24% last year and by 10% in Q4 alone. Almost all the reporting in the UK mocks Donald Trump and strains to suggest that he is incompetent and dangerous. Given that Trump campaigned on the basis that “good people don’t go into government” it is, to put it mildly, understandable that many people are keen, not to say desperate, to see him fail. It may turn out to be the only major legislation that he ever delivers but the tax reform is certainly a thing and the stock market seems to like it. Cutting the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% is clearly beneficial for business and has been naturally portrayed as Trump helping out his true personal constituency but it is interesting that the balancing reduction of allowances is causing some huge short term hits in reported earnings ($5 billion for Goldman Sachs alone).    As soon as the bill was passed a raft of companies announced immediate $1000 cash bonuses for every employee. This looked suspiciously coordinated but I don’t suppose the 200,000 AT&T or 100,000 Comcast recipients mind. And the US consumer has been in celebratory mood with spending over the holiday period up by around 5%. The overall effect of the tax cuts has been reported as if they are a straight transfer of money from the poor to the rich. This is a question of whether you think that the lower taxes will promote economic growth (the classical capitalist view) or whether you think that they will merely drain government coffers (a more left wing attitude of course). The undeniable fact that individual...

3 Oct 2017

In the Q2 report I said that the stock market had been amazingly calm. The amazement intensified in Q3. Political and economic commentators are so certain of impending collapse that they can hardly get the words out quickly enough. The politicians themselves are cringing in response, like the invertebrates that most of them sadly appear to be. You can be sure that if the fear gets to investors they will panic but, rightly or wrongly, they are not doing so. It has usually been a sound investment policy to say that if it’s reached the front page of the news, it’s probably in the price. In other words, the perceived risks have been accounted for.  Obviously perceived risk is a moving target and securities will continue to trade accordingly. To take a singular example, the Labour party wants to nationalise Royal Mail, probably at its issue price of 330p. The shares are down 17% this year to 385p, just a further 14% above Labour’s assumed confiscation price. The company just raised the dividend again and they yield 6%. That looks to me as if the price is discounting the risk quite efficiently. (Given that the competitors to Royal Mail are “gig economy” delivery companies I cannot imagine why Labour hates it so much). Labour’s wider threat is that it proposes to confiscate privately owned assets (starting with anything that has ever been state-owned which is pretty much everything that existed before the internet). This is potentially catastrophic (defined by Dr Johnson as “A final event; a conclusion generally unhappy”). The wing of the Labour party that hates capitalism would be delighted because capital would flee to the land of Anywhere Else. The stock market tells us that, specific victims like Royal Mail aside, it thinks that Corbyn’s electioneering pledges are hot air on which he would never be able to deliver. But the closer he comes the more frightening he will get. So watch that space.        In the quarter, the FTSE 100 was +0.9%, the All Share + 1.3% and the 250 + 2.8%. 10 year gilt yields rose from 1.26% to 1.33%. A big yawn, even if it was a nervous...

5 Jul 2017

The UK stock market was on a rollercoaster ride to nowhere in Q2. The FTSE 100 fell by -0.3% and the 250 managed a rise of +1.8%. Given that we had a shock election, a shock result, a hung parliament and that the shadow Chancellor thinks that democracy has failed, you could say that the stock market has been amazingly calm. Likewise the government bond market. The 10 year gilt yield was 1.23% at the end of Q1 and 1.26% at the end of Q2. This is the dog not barking in the night time. We are widely told that the pale imitation of austerity that has been attempted for the last eight years is to be abandoned but the bond market is not panicking yet. Here is a picture of gilt yields since 2007.    One of the lessons of the election was that voters under the age of fifty or so are not frightened of the things that made the 1970s rather messy. Inflation, double digit interest rates and labour unions challenging the government’s right to run the country to name but three. It remains the case that the return of inflation is what bears warn about most frequently. In the 1970s the best way to protect oneself against inflation was to buy property. House prices rose by 492% over the decade. I wouldn’t advise the same strategy now. In fact I would consider doing the opposite. The world still seems pretty deflationary to me. You can choose your own explanation and file it under “uncertainty” but it still seems to me that listed companies are still being very cautious about capex and expecting their shareholders to approve of this caution. Here are five domestically exposed UK companies that have reported March or April year-end results recently. Halfords cut capes by 11% and raised its dividend by 3%. Dairy Crest cut capex by 62% and raised its dividend by 2%. M&S cut capex by 25% and kept its dividend unchanged. Stage Coach cut capex by 18% and raised its dividend by 4%. Royal Mail cut capex by 16% and raised its dividend by 4%. All these are behaving in a risk averse...

1 Apr 2017

The UK stock market had a sound quarter with the post Brexit vote devaluation effect fading. The FTSE 250 resumed its customary outperformance. It rose by 5.1% in Q1 compared to 2.9% for the FTSE. This is typically a sign that people are feeling less defensive or fearful. Given the somewhat alarmist nature of news headlines in the last months this might seem strange but as ever when something is on the front page of the news it is generally already absorbed by the stock market.          The rollercoaster performance of gilts continued. Having risen to 1.41% in December 2016, the 10 year gilt yield has sunk again to 1.23%. Many financial commentators talk as if the return of inflation is a certainty but the bond market apparently does not believe it. I was thinking seriously about investing modestly in long-dated gilts if the 10 year yield went above 1.5% but it didn’t happen and for now that ship is sailing away. In January I wrote about investing with a view to changing demographics and the rapidly growing elderly population. I recommended three shares. McCarthy & Stone – which builds retirement homes – has done quite well. It has risen 17% from 162.5p to 190p. Saga – which offers insurance and other services tailored for the over 50s – is up by 6% (to 203p) and the share price appears to be recovering nicely from the trauma of having 68% of its stock drip fed through various placings over a period of less than two years. The disappointment has been Pets At Home which delivered a somewhat bleak trading update due to its failure to increase sales of merchandise in its stores. There was a better story from the services (vets and grooming) part of the business (which is where the growth is supposed to be). The shares are down by 24% to 180.5p where they yield 4.4%. All three shares continue to be suggested by me as long term investments.      In December 2016 I wrote about Five False Truths, one of which was that “EVERYONE LOVES THE NHS”. Here is an extract: The brutal truth is that if you give something away...

13 Jan 2017

The UK stock market continued to climb the wall of fear or crawl forward in the sea of uncertainty or whatever you will in Q4. The FTSE 100 outperformed the FTSE 250 for the third time (out of four quarters) in 2016. Rising interest rates helped the UK banks index rise by 16% in the quarter. Some people think that lending margins will improve as interest rates “normalise”. Good luck to them. I will not be making that trade. Over the year as a whole the FTSE 100 rose by 13.9% having fallen by 4.8% in 2015. The FTSE 250 was up by 3.5% after +8.4% in 2015. The bond market was a bigger story in many ways with the 10 year gilt yield falling from 1.93% in December 2015 to 0.58% in August and then back up to 1.41% in December 2016. That is quite a rollercoaster dip. Many people believe (or hope) that the rise in interest rates will continue.  In many ways it would be helpful if they did (to help savers rather than borrowers) but I am not convinced that it is going to happen. The trading statements that January has seen have mostly been very encouraging. Marks & Spencer actually sold more clothes. I must admit I didn’t see that coming. I was less surprised that Morrisons sold more food. That has been a slow burner for me but it has started to come good. Let me say that I bought both these shares because of their financial strength (M&S’s cash flow, Morrison’s balance sheet) on the assumption that they would have the time to sort out their retailing problems. I know next to nothing about retailing but I can see that burdensome debt must make it much harder (eg Tesco). I was also amused and pleased to see that Sainsbury is now being helped by its acquisition of Argos. That stock (Home Retail Group) was my one attempt to take a view on a retail model and I just got away with it. The post that is most often called to mind at present is Four kinds of bias from May. The selective use of facts is all...

5 Oct 2016

The second quarter ended just after the Brexit vote and the stock markets were in a state of shock. The FTSE 100, which is where frightened investors go to hide, had one of its rare periods of outperformance over the FTSE 250 in Q2. (The FTSE 100 includes large multinational businesses, the FTSE 250 is a better reflection of the UK economy). In Q3, the FTSE 100 rose by 6.4% and the 250 by 10%, a strong indication that investors recovered their nerve during the summer. Mark Carney would probably claim that this was the result of the Bank of England’s interest rate cut and expansion of QE on 4 August, though much of the stock market recovery had happened by then. European government bond yields have remained low but have had a fairly quiet quarter as people begin to question how much further central banks can go. The consequences of central banks’ actions were addressed by Crowknows in Q3. First in a post called “QE: a wrecking ball to crack a nut“, I suggested that, whatever its ultimate outcome, the predictable side effects of QE are quite disturbing. I looked at the widening of the wealth gap, the rising cost of pension liabilities (see the Tesco half year results on 5 October) and the piling up of the debt burden to be dealt with by future generations. The Bank of England does not print free money: it draws relentlessly on an excellent credit facility better known as the UK economy and its tax receipts of the future. The second post was about how QE plays out. This suggested that shares and arguably only shares are cheap relative to other investable assets. (Never forget thatvalue is always relative and never absolute, unless you believe that there is an investment god). It then suggested that if your house is your pension, then cashing it in is going to become what investment wonks call a “very crowded trade” one day. I don’t know when that will be but included in the possible dates is tomorrow. The third conclusion was that national debt will continue to grow (confirmed by the new Chancellor this week) and that the...

6 Jul 2016

On the face of it, the quarter was dominated by the UK Brexit referendum decision on 24 June though, in the main, trends were consistent throughout the quarter. The FTSE 100, which delivers its rare moments of outperformance in times of nervousness, had continued to do better than the FTSE 250 up to 23 June. After the referendum result this trend was dramatically extended, partly fuelled by the sharp fall of sterling against the US dollar. At the close of business on 30 June, the 100 was up by 4.9% in the quarter and the 250 was down by 4%, a huge difference in fortunes. (Despite this, over the last 5 years the 250 is +35% and the 100 just +8%). If this signalled nervousness about the future viability of the UK there was no sign of that in the performance of gilts. 10 year gilts yielded c.1.50% three months ago. Now they pay just 0.80%. What this seems to tell us that a prolonged depression is more likely than either a renewal of inflation (normally a probable result of currency devaluation) or a default by the UK government (even though we don’t really have a government at present). The message from elsewhere, especially the EU, is the same. 10 year bund yields were 0.14% three months ago. They are now, as predicted, negative (-0.17%). In Switzerland, even 30 year government bonds yield less than zero. This seems to be confusing aversion to risk with a disinclination to continue to remain alive. The future is unknown. Get over it. I sold some shares ahead of the referendum result on the mistaken view that we would probably vote to Remain. I think that the EU economy is burdened by many problems – unreformed labour markets, burdensome state pension liabilities, unfavourable demographics and ailing banks. European politicians have been allowing the ECB to carry the burden with its “whatever it takes” monetary policy. As I wrote before, “QE looks desperate and desperation does not promote confidence”. It is the banks that really concern me. The share prices of some of Europe’s best known banks are trading near or even below their financial crisis lows. Deutsche Bank...

8 Apr 2016

Following a nervous rally in Q4, in Q1 the UK stock market was merely nervous. For the first time in seven quarters, the FTSE 100 (-1.2%) outperformed the FTSE 250 (-3.0%). This is a small indication that investors were becoming more worried about the outlook for earnings, I suppose. Since the Fed made the first tiny upward move in rates (0.25% in December), the economic smoke signals have deteriorated. Janet Yellen has publicly backtracked on the outlook for more rate rises this year. The ECB has signalled that more stimulus may be needed. Then there is China, Brexit and, most particularly, blah blah.      As usual, market commentators think that equity prices should reflect their view of the world. As usual, they miss the fact that equities are merely assets that compete with the value on offer elsewhere. The implicit secondary purpose of QE (the primary purpose was to bail out the banks) is to make the value of every other investment so unattractive that people begin to invest directly in riskier ventures that are more likely to help the economy. That’s the theory on which, despite its having the weight and robustness of a Twiglet, the world seems to be relying. How’s it going? Well, the price of “safe” investments has climbed to yet more prohibitively unattractive levels. The yield on German 10 year Bunds was 0.63% on the 30th December 2015 and 0.14% on 30th March 2016 and is thought by some to be heading negative. Well, why not? The Bank of England started its QE purchases of gilts in March 2009. At the time, the average UK dwelling cost £157,500 (its low point of the last ten years). In March 2016, the average dwelling cost £224,000 a nifty rise of 42% or 5.2% compound over seven years. No wonder that most Britons think that housing is the best possible investment and that we must have a housing shortage. Memo to everyone: house prices have been inflated by a deliberate and unprecedented policy of monetary easing, not by supply shortage. This is not going to end well. How about the next stage? Are people helping the economy by making riskier investments? Today’s...

5 Jan 2016

Following a very wobbly third quarter, we saw a nervous rally in Q4. As usual, the FTSE 250 (+4.5%) did better than the All Share (+3.5%) and the FTSE 100 (+3.1%). As a reminder, over ten years the 250 has performed more than ten times as well as the 100, yet index trackers continue to offer the 100 or the All Share (than which the 250 returned 5x over 10 years) as the default choice. Quite by chance today I read this from Ross Clarke in the Spectator blog. Jeremy Corbyn wants to get rid of the British Empire Medal and David Cameron wants to ditch the Human Rights Act. But I have a different nomination for the national institution most desperately in need of abolition: the FTSE 100 index. It is harming our economy by consistently underplaying the returns to be made on stock market investments and encouraging us all to invest in property instead. Despite the first nudge higher in the Federal Reserve interest rate government bond markets were quiet. The 10 year Bund yield slipped fractionally from 0.61% to 0.58%. Ten year gilt yields nosed up from 1.8% to 1.9%. The weakness in commodity prices is making people nervous about global GDP growth and the next cycle of rising interest rates seems no closer than it did this time last year or this time the year before…. One of the features of Q4 was the relative scarcity of actual bad corporate news and the relative abundance of negative opinions. The latter seem to suit the spirit of the times. Stock market analysts invariably provide opinions for which there is a demand – don’t be hard on them, it’s the nature of what’s left of the job – and if investors wanted bullishness they would get it. At the moment, anyone putting the view that China is going to be ok, that global demand will eventually underpin commodity prices and allow investment in production again, that middle-Eastern politics are ultimately pragmatic and that the effects of terrorism are statistically trivial would be accused of being naive, stupid or wilfully misleading. This is interesting because one would normally expect Cassandras prophesizing doom to...

2 Oct 2015

According a chap on Bloomberg TV, $11 trillion was lost from the value of global equities in Q3. The FTSE 100 fell by 10.2% and the FTSE 250, as usual doing better, fell by 5.8%. In the three years since I set up this website, the FTSE 100 is up by just 5.6% and the FTSE 250 by 42.2% which is a shocking disparity. The FTSE 100 is the top 100 companies by market capitalisation and contains many international banking, pharma, oil, mining and commodity businesses. The FTSE 250 is companies ranked from 101 to 350 and contains more domestic household names. I suspect that these companies are of a more easily manageable size and have more scope for growth. That may be a story worth looking at more closely but there is an interesting question to ask at once: if you own a tracker fund (as I do in a small way) what is it tracking? Most UK tracker funds follow the FTSE 100 or the FTSE All Share. Over the last five years, the FTSE 100 is cumulatively +8.4% and the All Share is +15.2%. These returns exclude dividend payments. The tracker fund should retain the dividends (after it has taken its fee) to boost the fund performance, so tracker funds should really beat the index (shouldn’t they?). These performance statistics indicate that the question of what your fund is tracking is rather important. And guess what? Over the last five years the FTSE 250 is up by 57.5%, an amazing outperformance of the other two indices. Over the last ten years it looks like this: FTSE 100 + 11%, FTSE 250 + 110%, FTSE All Share +21%. These are remarkable numbers. You might wonder why there are so few 250 trackers on offer. It might be because it’s much easier and cheaper to track an index that consists of 100 large shares rather than 250 medium-sized ones.  Or you might prefer your own conspiracy theory. Government bond markets did not share the sense of near-panic that infected equities. German 10 year Bund yields fell from 0.84% to 0.61%. UK 10 year gilt yields from c.2.1% to 1.8%. Nothing much to smell...

6 Jul 2015

In Q2 the FTSE 100 fell by 3.3% but the FTSE 250 was up by 2.8%. In the first half year of 2015, the FTSE 100 was flat but the 250 was +9.2%. This divergence is probably indicative of two factors. The FTSE 100 is heavily weighted with banks and resource and mining stocks, few of which have looked like attractive investments for some years. The 250 is more reflective of UK PLC. Second, despite nervous headlines about (in no particular order) Greece, China, the interest rate cycle and the various consequences of terrorism, large companies have not benefitted from any move to perceived safe havens. Blue chip oil and pharma companies yield 5%+ but the average investor doesn’t seem to care. To put it another way, investors are not particularly nervous. European bond markets have normalised to some extent. The UK 10 year gilt yield has risen from 1.6% to 2.1%. Way back in September 2103 I recommended (and bought) a gilt, UNITED KINGDOM 1 3/4% TREASURY GILT 22. It was trading at 92. Having touched 103 in Q1 it now trades at just under 99, yielding 1.9%. This is not yet tempting me to get back in but it’s movement is worth following. Very little happened to the share prices of the major food retailers in Q2. They have all begun to tackle their structural problems. My view is that the market is now ignoring a trickle of good news. While Tesco is taking small steps at the start of a very long road – because Tesco needs to overhaul its financial structure – Sainsbury reported that the performance in its large stores had improved in June. It implied that the appeal of discount stores like Aldi and Lidl was waning slightly. Wishful thinking, perhaps, but Sainsbury is making an effort and its new joint venture with Argos is interesting. Morrisons has a new chief executive, David Potts, who seems to be making the right noises. When the (dull) Q1 numbers were released he said: “My initial impressions from my first seven weeks are of a business eager to listen to customers and improve“. He seems to be as good as his...

30 Mar 2015

In Q1 the FTSE 100 rose by 3.3% and the FTSE 250 by 6.4%. The FTSE 250 is probably more sensitive to the domestic economy (or at least to how investors are feeling about it). The FTSE 100 has larger more global businesses including, of course, oil companies and banks, which received another kicking in the recent budget. That last point is a salutary reminder that investors will have to judge political risk in Q2 as the general election arrives 7th May (though the formation of a government may take weeks if the polls are correct in suggesting that no party will win a majority). I strongly doubt whether the economic outlook will be materially changed regardless of who wins. There is very little room for manoeuvre and it is painful to watch politicians trying to pretend otherwise. But where the banks have been led others could follow, particularly if the next government includes Labour. Utility companies have already been singled out to be sacrificed to the mob. No politician appears to understand that electricity supply is a very long-term and expensive commitment. It may be true that utilities are greedy cash cows but they will not invest the vast sums needed in next generation energy supply if they are treated like political footballs. Labour also wants to limit the profits available to companies who provide services to the NHS. I have no idea what they mean by this (drug companies? nursing agencies? hospital retail concessions?) but I am pretty sure that they don’t either. The point to bear in mind that stupidity is no bar to persecuting businesses that can be successfully vilified. Gilts had a relatively quiet quarter with yields falling from 1.72% to 1.57%. Last week I took profits on 25% of my gilt holdings. This was a small insurance against the political scene, but looking across the sea and seeing Irish 10 year bonds yielding 0.76% it is clear that most of us are missing something. Core eurozone bonds i.e. those of Germany saw 10 year yields fall from 0.54% to 0.18% and as I write the seven year German bonds have a negative yield. ECB QE now looks even...

5 Jan 2015

In a confusing financial and political world in Q4, the UK stock market offered small but notable evidence of calm in as much as the FTSE 250 (+4.5%) easily outpeformed the FTSE 100 (-0.9%), reversing the trend seen in Q2 and Q3. Normally, larger shares perform better in nervous times as they are seen as safer havens. In the case of this quarter, the collapse of oil and oil sensistive shares (including other resource and energy related companies) may have delivered a particular blow to the FTSE but I am still inclined to take the 4% gain in the FTSE 250 at face value. For 2014 as a whole, the FTSE fell by 2.7% following a rise of 13.9% in 2013. Once again, major governmrnt bond yields provided a supportive background. German 10 year Bund yields fell in the quarter from 0.93% to 0.54%. A year ago they were 1.96%. 10 year Gilt yields have fallen from 2.88% to 1.72%. While these seems incredibly low to anyone who has followed gilts over the years, it could be seen as high when compared to the equivalents in Spain (1.62%) and Ireland (1.25%) and France (0.83%). Last quarter I wrote that “bond markets are shrieking the news that global growth has made a long-term shift to lower levels”. The fall of nearly 30% in the oil price in Q4 appears to confirm this view, though it can be argued that a cut of this scale in the price of such a key commodity will ultimately benefit the economies of all countries that do not depend on oil revenues.Initially, though, the effect is more likely to be felt by oil producers and will play out as generally negative in the short term. See my next blog post for more discussion on this. In the UK, the political future appears more important than usual. But it does not seem likely that a change of government would result in a great expansion of government spending. Nor does it seem probable that a referendum would result in a vote for the UK to leave the EU. Most of the political outcomes that frighten investors are highly unlikely and their probability...

4 Oct 2014

The stock market remained nervous, reportedly seeing below-average turnover in Q3. The trend that began in Q2, of the shares of smaller companies performing worse, continued. The FTSE 100 fell by 1.7% and the FTSE 250 by 2.9%. For the third quarter in a row, yields on European government bonds fell to previously unimaginable lows. German 10 year Bund yields have fallen below 1% (now 0.93%). To put this in some context, 10 year Japanese bond yields were around 1.9% before the financial crisis bit in 2008. Japan is considered to be the reference case of a country suffering from long-term deflation. Its 10 year yield is now 0.53%. Since June 2008, Japanese yields have declined by 72% and German by 80%. As I have noted before, the bond markets are shrieking the news that global growth has made a long-term shift to lower levels. Many will argue that this is bound eventually to be reflected in lower corporate profits. It is hard to argue with that but wrong to assume that share prices are consequently too high. When yields on all financial assets are falling, investors are paying higher prices for them. A dollar of corporate profit literally becomes more valuable than it used to be. Many stock market commentators, seemingly obsessed with short-term news and the aphrodisiac of growth, appear to be incapable of understanding this. Given that the cloud of deflation continues to hang over the world (see above), the traditionally nervous month of October will probably produce plenty of gloomy headlines. In my post about the supermarkets, I pointed out that, when operating leases are included as liabilities, Morrison was much cheaper that Tesco and Sainsbury. Well, the gap has reduced but not necessarily as anticipated. Morrison’s price has fallen but the others have fallen further. Tesco’s accounting practices have caught up with it and I must say that, as yet, there is no price at which I would buy it. At last I have noticed the beginning of a backlash in the press against Lidl and Aldi – our nostalgia for the 1970s must surely be limited. Sainsbury has promised a strategic review, a development that appears to have...

3 Jul 2014

I have noted before that it is generally the case that smaller companies’ share prices are relative beneficiaries of improving confidence. Large blue chips do better when investors are seeking protection. In Q2, the FTSE 100 rose by 2.2% but the FTSE 250 (companies 101-350) fell by 3.4%. There has been widespread profit taking from the shares where much of last year’s good stock market performance was concentrated. This is evidence that nervousness is about. As was evident in Q1, the prices of assets regarded as safe continue to rise and the definition of “safe” to become less demanding. I mentioned the marked fall in European government bond yields in my Q1 report and returned to the theme in June. Irish 10 year bond yields fell from 3.43% to 2.83% in Q1 and have since declined to 2.37%; Portuguese from 5.9% to 3.73% and now to 3.66; French from 2.46% to 1.99% to 1.61%; and so, it seems, it goes on. Nervousness among equity investors is generally a good thing. Complacency is dangerous but very hard to spot. (An interesting philosophical question is: can one simultaneously be complacent and recognise one’s complacency?) It is only when nervousness turns to panic and rout that it becomes destructive. There is a stock market saying to the effect that a bull market climbs the wall of worry. I find this quite wise. There is another well-known traditional piece of advice – “Sell in May and go away” with its less famous follow up – “Come back on St Leger’s day”. The St Leger is a horse race which falls this year on 13 September. I have always felt that this is suspiciously convenient for City types who want to go to Wimbledon, Lords, Henley and the south of France. Certainly share volumes fall in the summer and market moves can be exaggerated. It’s a nasty thought that your portfolio might misbehave if you are not there to look after it. So, by all means, make up a little rhyme to justify some profit taking. I have certainly questioned the level of my shares that have done well and have taken profits in some. But I have failed...

22 Apr 2014

The FTSE 100 fell by 2.2% in the quarter. The FTSE 250 (that’s companies from 101 to 350) rose by 2.1%. I wrote in the Q4 report that it is generally the case that smaller companies’ share prices are relative beneficiaries of improving confidence. Large blue chips do better when investors are seeking protection. It is worth noting that in the first three weeks of April, FTSE 250 shares have become more jittery, falling by 2.2% compared to a modest 0.4% recovery in FTSE 100 stocks. It looks as if there has been plenty of profit taking in the best performing shares of the past year, many of which are those of FTSE 250 companies. These were relatively trivial ups and downs in UK equities. Of more consequence for relative valuations is the continued strength of major government bonds. Yields on US, German and UK 10 year bonds have continued to fall, despite much talk of stronger economic data and falling unemployment. More impressive still has been the rebirth of demand for the bonds of Greece (yield on 31 December 2013, 8.41%; today, 6.12%), Portugal (5.9%; 3.73%), Ireland (3.43%; 2.83%) and even France (2.46%; 1.99%). Cash continues to chase yield and is becoming less fussy. At a time when the price of assets regarded as safe continues to rise, it would seem irrational to turn negative on the shares of established and financially sound companies. On that basis, this year’s flat equity market is probably resting rather than expiring. Turning to shares that I have recommended, in December I highlighted four companies with long-term strategies. UBM, whose share price is nearly unchanged since then, has just acquired a new CEO. I must admit that I had missed the declared intention of the CEO David Levin to retire in 2014. He has now been replaced by Tim Cobbold, ex-CEO of De La Rue. There is no reason to think that this will change the company’s long-term strategy. UBM raised its dividend slightly in 2013 and, with its low capex requirements, is confident of maintaining its “progressive” dividend policy. But, there is inevitably a risk that a new CEO will surprise investors (new managers are usually...

7 Jan 2014

The FTSE 100 rose by 4.4% in the quarter for a full year gain of 13.9%. The FTSE 250 (that’s companies from 101 to 350) performed twice as well in 2013, rising by 28.8%. There are never truly hard factual reasons why share prices move but it generally remains the case that smaller companies’ share prices are relative beneficiaries of improving confidence. Large blue chips do better when investors are seeking protection. It is also probably the case that smaller companies are less well known and consequently deliver more surprises. Note that in bad times they typically deliver more bad surprises which point takes us back to why large stocks do better when investors are nervous. It is reasonable to conclude that confidence improved in 2013. The mood implied by the yields offered by government bonds rose from clinically depressed to merely grumpy – in the case of the UK this was from 2.0% in January 2013 to 3.0% now. In the US the rise was slightly sharper, from 1.8% to 3.0%, but it was much the same story. The bond markets are suggesting that we are looking at a fairly gentle, low inflation recovery. Analysts sometimes name this “Goldilocks” (not too hot, not too cold) and it feels like a very comfortable investment environment. Comfort eventually causes complacency and this is exactly why it is wrong to commit one’s investment strategy to an opinion about the future, no matter how tempting. Investment is always about how probability is priced. Consensus rarely offers compelling value. I am pleased though not surprised to say that my satellite index of companies with female executives quite dramatically extended its outperformance against the FTSE 250. After the first nine months of 2013, the FTSE 250 was +25% but the 27 companies with female executives had risen by 35%. After the full twelve months, those numbers were +29% and +46% respectively. As for the shares that I recommended this year, in Q3 I wrote that I was surprised that Enterprise Inns rose by 40% in Q3. In Q4 it was much quieter, rising by 6.5%. I am not attracted by the value of the company now and I don’t...