Dow 5000? That is what the proponents of Dow Theory believe now that the 7000 level has breached. The talking heads on the financial networks have opined about a 500 for the S&P. That leaves us little “retail” investors and regular ma and pa public wondering; do we have another leg down? This week’s Barron’s magazine weighed in with thoughts from market maven Felix Zulauf. He believes we are in a secular bear market that began in 2000. He sees the S&P in the low 400s. For those of you who use Fibonacci numbers a 61.8% Fibonacci retracement from the top of the S&P is 573, and a 76.4% retracement comes in at 354. In accordance with the Street’s belief in a relief rally Barron’s says Felix has closed his shorts in anticipation of a rally back to 900 on the S&P before a selloff to the low. A secular bear market last from ten to fifteen years and Mr. Zulauf believes we could hit the nadir of that bear in the next couple of years. If he is right we have another one to six years in this bear. Given the amount of debt that has to be worked off we can certainly see this bear lasting a while longer. However, if we are going to see a historic bottom in the next several months one can envision someone making a lot of money. The legendary John Templeton made his fortune by buying stocks no one wanted in the midst of the Great Depression. Yet the risk to those of us just trying to hang on to our retirement savings is real and the immediate to mid-term risk is real and this bear has taken quite a bite out of our financial security.
The second thing is what in know as the Volatility Index or the VIX. The VIX is an options instrument that was invented to move inversely against the S&P 500. That is the VIX would go up as the S&P went down. The VIX is a great way for investors to hedge their portfolios against market risk, but like all financial instruments it is also a place for speculators to play. The VIX reached a historic high last fall of around 89 when the market was in a real panic and melt down. However, during the more recent melt down that found traders as depressed as they were last fall the VIX only nudged up to the mid fifties. This has puzzles a number of market pros. One answer to this is that investors have largely gotten out of the market and they are now using gold as a hedge instead of the VIX. This may square with the fact that gold, the usual save haven for financial markets, didn’t move much last fall. I have heard some speculate that investors have cried uncle to Mr. Market and are frightened by the amount of debt that Washington is taking on and have decided to go to the ultimate save haven. Gold recently approached one thousand dollars an once and has since retraced to the low 900 dollar range. The negative feed-back loop that the banks are now in has terrified the Fed so the immediate concern is deflation. Yet the long term concern remains inflation and devaluation of the dollar. Hence more investors have turned to gold. I think the markets are showing some fatigue and almost every asset class is suspect so it is natural that people would turn to gold as well as cash. The mere fact that the VIX is not spiking when the market sells off indicates something is a foot. This could be another indication of risk, but maybe risk to the up side as well as to the down side.
I was struck by Friday’s candlesticks for Apple, Master Card, and the S&P 500 Spider. It was indecisive. To complicate things neither Apple nor Master Card are trending, they are range bound while the S&P is decisively in a down trend. Does this mean that market risk is to the down side? Given market fatigue and the technical indicators it would seem risk to the up side is still met by significant risk to the down side.
This week’s big new is jobs. Barron’s take on this is that unemployment is now the main threat to the banks. They face not only mortgage defaults but also credit card defaults. GM is also looking at bankruptcy which means that too many people are employed building autos. The bottom line on this is that human capital in the developed world needs to be deployed differently which means re-training and new industries or services. I believe this has something to do with the ending of the industrial age and the beginning of an information age, but that is a topic that deserves its own discussion to itself. Suffice to say that people are losing their jobs which means they cannot service their debt which prolongs the debt crisis. In other words it is that dreaded negative feedback loop all over again.
To the Investor
Keep your powder dry and be ready for a decisive market move. Risk is real and it is to the upside and the downside. My preference at this time is trading currencies rather than equities until we can see if this market is going up or down or it will continue to trend. I would prefer it to trend because that is how I have some of my trades currently set up, but I can tell you the market never listens to me.
Market risk is reflecting geopolitical risk. The big question on our minds should be can the emerging markets pull the developed world out of this recession? Twelve months ago people were talking of “decoupling” of the BRICs from the West. That notion now seems quaint. The problem is that the export led economies need someone with a big balance sheet to buy their stuff. Now that no one has that balance sheet and it is not likely that the West will be in a position to re-leverage for a number of years where will they go? Before you answer that question know that a number of oil exporting countries need oil at 70 dollars to be able to make an acceptable profit. Even the construction of China may not be enough to bring oil up to that level without a recovery in the West. Conversely the West needs cheap oil in order for consumers to have discretionary income to spend. This question may not be as easy to answer as you might think.
Unemployment is a threat to those of us who sell our labor to make a living. Moreover our retirement savings are also at risk and the rules we were taught have changed. We are going to have to learn more than just stocks, bonds, and money funds. The new reality is that we need to look at other asset classes such as gold and other commodities and perhaps even other currencies, maybe just for capital preservation. Things are not the same and this recession is not a typical post WWII recession. Perhaps we should just have a cold one for now.