In reflecting, over this weekend, about the markets of the last week, I wonder if we haven't seen a subtle - and subtly disturbing - shift in the markets' behavior.
Before the Fed began the taper, and even after the Fed began the taper but before we were really sure they intended to maintain it through at least mild economic wiggles, bad news was treated as good news in the markets (both stocks and bonds) because it implied more QE, or a longer QE, or a slower taper. This was lamentable because it suggested that the Fed was more important than global market fundamentals, but understandable at some level. All other forces summed to just about zero, so one big institution with a very big hammer was able to make the market vibrate the way policymakers wanted it to. So, while lamentable, this behavior was at least understandable.
But recently, as the Fed has started ever-so-slowly receding to the back pages, we have started to see behavior that is less unusual, but still not "normal." Over the last couple of weeks, despite manifestly weak data - from the Employment report to Thursday's surprisingly weak Retail Sales data and Friday's weak Industrial Production data (which would have been even weaker if it hadn't been for the utilities sector humming away) - the stock market has continued a marked rally. However, this is something we've seen before: a rally not because weak data would precipitate bullish policy, but because the weak data had a ready excuse in poor winter weather. In this sort of environment, good news is really good news, and bad news can be discounted (even if the cause to do so is sketchy).
There also is some "kitchen sinking" going on even among economists. "Kitchen sinking" refers to when a company takes advantage of a bad quarter to write off all sorts of expenses, all attributed to the "one time event" whether due to it in fact or not. This makes it far easier to score great earnings in the future. It's understandable (if of questionable legality) in corporate accounting, but when economists do it then we should look askance. Without my naming names: on Friday one well-known macroeconomic advisor told clients that cold weather in November, December, and January will lower Q1 GDP by 0.4%. I am not sure how November's weather would lower GDP in Q1...in fact, it seems to me that by lowering Q4 GDP, bad weather in December would tend to increase GDP in Q1 because it would be building from a lower base. Whatever the reason for the forecast, though, it certainly lowers the bar for the actual Q1 GDP report and increases the odds of a stock market-bullish surprise (although that's way out in April).
Much more than the former mode of taking weak data as good because it implied more liquidity from the Fed, this sort of thing - kitchen sinking by economists, and markets taking all news as either neutral or good - is a signature of unhealthy bullishness. The concern is that when the reasons to ignore bad news have passed, the market will not be priced at a level that can sustain actual bad news. And, unlike the QE-baiting, it is something we have seen before. It is a weaker signature, and it's entirely emotional rather than the twisted but at least debatable reasoning that investors employed when bad news was Fed-good.
It seems almost unfair to continue to list anecdotal signs of frothy behavior, because it's so easy to do so these days. One that sprang into view last week was the incredibly vitriolic response to the chart that has been making the rounds showing the parallel in equity market action between 1928-29 and 2012-14. For example, here was one objection, which was perhaps a reasonable objection ... but note the tone. And this was just one example among many.
Come on, is it really so horrible, such a threat to civilization, to have someone trot out this chart? I will take either side of the argument with no acrimony. Personally, I don't think it's almost ever useful to think of the past as an exact roadmap (although if I ignored this chart, and the market did crash, I hate to think of how I would explain that insouciance to my clients after-the-fact), but I also don't care if someone else does do so. Especially if it leads them to the right conclusion, and I happen to think that if investors start being cautious right now it is the right result, whether it happens because they were scared of a spooky chart or because they understand market valuation metrics.
But again: who cares? This is not a fact which is right or wrong - unlike, say, the claim that the government made a change to the CPI in the early 1980s which subtracts 5% from CPI every year. That is a verifiable statement, and it is demonstrably false. But saying "chart A looks like chart B" can't possibly be wrong...it's opinion! My concern isn't about the chart; it is about the vehemence with which some people are attacking that opinion.
It is like I tell my daughter when someone calls her a dunderhead, or whatever the 7-year-old equivalent is these days. I ask "well, are you a dunderhead?" If the answer is yes, then you have bigger problems than what they're calling you. If the answer is no, then as Feynman said what do you care what other people think? Similarly, if you're bullish, what do you care if someone runs that chart? If it's right, then you have bigger problems than the fact they're running the chart. And if it's wrong, then what do you care what they think?
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