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Sunday, March 30, 2008

U.S. Week Ahead: ISM and Employment Steal the Show

Looking back to last week, as we expected the market was unable to maintain the upward momentum it experienced the week prior. This was due to weaker than expected data from the consumer sector and financial related news. The Dow and S&P500 ended the week down 1.17% and 1.08%, respectively, and we could have more bad news this week.

There is a significant chance we could see the probability of a 50bp cut rise this week after the ISM and employment data are released

Source: Cleveland Fed

This week has its fair share of important data releases; underscored by Tuesday’s ISM release and Friday’s pivotal employment report. We believe both of these indicators have considerable downside risks as the economy moves further into a recession. Here’s why, the charts below show the performance of the ISM and the change in nonfarm payrolls over the last 50 years (recessions highlighted in gray). As you can see from the charts, we haven’t begun to touch the lows for these indicators during a recession. In fact, over the past 50 years the ISM has averaged 42.6, while the change in payrolls has averaged -154K during recessions. To make matters worse, in nearly every case the ISM moved sub-40, while in every case the net change in payrolls broke -300K. As these indicators continue to deteriorate, it will become more apparent, that this crisis isn’t solely contained in the financial economy. However, we believe the Fed’s response up to this point has been the correct one for a slowdown in the real economy. This should help curtail long-term sustained losses in these indicators when compared to past recessions. Nevertheless, things will get worse before they get better.


ISM performance over the past 50 years (recessions highlighted in gray)

Source: BBerg

Change in nonfarm payrolls over the past 50 years (recessions highlighted in gray)

Source: BBerg


Let’s take a look at the some of the important indicators coming out this week in the US :

Monday March 31st:
9:45AM: NAPM-Chicago (Risk: Downside)- According to the consensus survey the market is expecting a reading of 46.0, compared to 44.5 the previous month. We believe the NAPM will continue to deteriorate as the economy moves into a recession.

TBD: Annual Crop Planting Report- The Department of Agriculture’s annual crop planting report is something I have never really looked at in much detail. However, this year investors are using it as an indicator towards the commodity. The report is considered a bellwether for farming in the year ahead. In any case, this report will likely have an impact in the commodities market, so keep an eye out. This report outline’s farmers intentions to plan crops; the USDA will release actual numbers in June.

Tuesday April 1st:
10:00AM: ISM Manufacturing Index (Risk: Downside)- The BBerg consensus survey is anticipating a release of 48.0 versus 48.3 the previous month. As we outlined in the text above we believe there are considerable downside risks to this indicator, given it has averaged 42.6 during recessions over the last 50 years.

10:00AM: Construction Spending (Risk: Neutral)- The consensus survey is anticipating a change of -1.1% m/m vs. -1.7% m/m last month. What will be important to look at in this release is the change in non-residential construction. Non-residential construction has remained resilient during the current crisis, but it has begun to falter. Last month private non-residential construction spending moved negative for the first time during this crisis, and we believe this may be the start of a trend.

Wednesday April 2nd:
8:15AM: ADP Employment Report (Risk: Downside/Neutral)- This release will be used to help gauge the change in Friday’s employment report.

10:00AM: Factory Orders (Risk: Neutral)- The consensus survey is anticipating a release of -0.6% m/m compared to -2.5% the month prior. Factory orders should continue to slow-down as the economy cools down.

Thursday April 3rd:
8:30AM: Jobless Claims (Risk: Neutral)- According to the consensus survey the market is expecting weekly jobless claims of 366K. This number should remain within recession territory (+350K), which does not bode well for the overall employment situation.

10:00AM: ISM Non-Manufacturing Index (Risk: Neutral)- The consensus survey is anticipating a reading of 49.0 compared to 50.8 the month prior.

Friday April 4th: Employment Day!
8:30AM: Employment Report (Risk: Downside)-
The BBerg consensus survey is expecting a 50K decline in non-farm payrolls and an unemployment rate of 5.0%. We believe there is significant downside risk for both of these indicators, and believe it is possible we could see a large spike in both (as we outlined in the text above).


Friday, March 28, 2008

Short Interest Ratio NYSE Top 100

I was looking at an interesting article on Seeking Alpha regarding short interest. I decided to extend the analysis slightly and calculate the Short Interest Ratios for the top 100 NYSE stocks. Unfortunately, the NYSE charges for the entire time series so I was only able to use the data from the most recent release. Here are the results with the % change from the previous period:


Stock Name SIR Change
TOC THOMSON CORPORATION 89.6 20.7%
NYT NEW YORK TIMES CO 20.9 -8.3%
KMX CARMAX, INC. 16.7 12.0%
CBB CINCINNATI BELL INC. 16.3 7.4%
ACF AMERICREDIT CORP 14.7 -4.1%
BZH BEAZER HOMES USA INC 14.0 3.6%
IMB Indymac Bancorp, Inc. 13.9 -3.6%
CDL CITADEL BROADCASTING 12.2 10.3%
SPF STANDARD PACIFIC 11.8 -0.5%
BE BEARINGPOINT, INC. 11.8 9.5%
MAS MASCO CORP 10.3 4.7%
EK EASTMAN KODAK CO 9.7 1.5%
CNB COLONIAL BANCGROUP 9.7 10.2%
MIR Mirant Corporation 9.2 -3.3%
IPG INTERPUBLIC GROUP 8.7 1.2%
MCO MOODY'S CORPORATION 8.2 2.4%
BBI BLOCKBUSTER INC 7.8 16.0%
NYB NEW YORK COMMUNITY 7.6 4.1%
CC CIRCUIT CITY GROUP 7.1 11.2%
CSE CAPITALSOURCE INC. 6.8 5.0%
Q QWEST COMM INT'L INC 6.8 1.9%
GGP GENL GROWTH PROPS 6.8 19.2%
THC TENET HEALTHCARE 6.5 9.9%
RAD RITE AID CORP 6.3 -17.3%
CBS CBS Corporation CL-B 5.8 -8.4%
MBI MBIA, INC. 5.7 8.8%
BX The Blackstone Group L.P. 5.7 18.4%
BSX BOSTON SCIENTIFIC 5.5 13.1%
USU USEC INC 5.5 -1.2%
HST Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. 5.4 15.2%
SNV SYNOVUS FINANCIAL 5.3 23.1%
RF Regions Financial Corp. 4.9 18.5%
LEN LENNAR CORP 4.8 2.3%
DIS WALT DISNEY-HLDG CO. 4.7 8.9%
BBT BB&T CORPORATION 4.6 2.2%
MYL MYLAN INC 4.6 5.8%
MU MICRON TECHNOLOGY 4.5 -4.7%
LSI LSI LOGIC CORP 4.5 5.4%
HAL HALLIBURTON CO-HLDG 4.5 2.6%
BBY BEST BUY CO., INC. 4.2 -2.7%
PHM PULTE HOMES, INC 4.2 14.1%
F FORD MOTOR COMPANY 4.2 8.9%
WMB WILLIAMS COMPANIES 4.2 3.9%
NWSA News Corporation CL-A 4.1 19.0%
NCC NATIONAL CITY CORP 4.1 15.1%
AMD ADVANCED MICRO DEV 4.0 6.4%
COF CAPITAL ONE FINANCL 3.9 15.5%
GM GENERAL MOTORS CORP 3.9 29.1%
CHK CHESAPEAKE ENER (OK) 3.8 0.4%
TGT TARGET CORPORATION 3.7 -4.7%
LUV SOUTHWEST AIRLINES 3.7 -2.7%
ALU Alcatel-Lucent 3.7 4.8%
HD HOME DEPOT INC 3.6 -0.3%
DHI D.R. HORTON INC 3.6 3.3%
CFC COUNTRYWIDE FINANCIA 3.4 9.0%
DYN Dynegy Inc. 3.3 18.0%
DUK Duke Energy Corporation (Holdi 3.2 12.1%
CVS CVS CAREMARK CORP 3.0 10.7%
WFC WELLS FARGO& CO 2.9 8.0%
USB U.S. BANCORP 2.9 24.6%
KFT KRAFT FOODS INC. 2.9 11.1%
SLM SLM CORPORATION 2.8 11.6%
FCX FREEPORT-MCMOR C&G-B 2.5 13.8%
AMR AMR CORP 2.5 12.1%
CVX CHEVRON CORPORATION 2.5 9.3%
LOW LOWE'S COMPANIES 2.4 -0.1%
PG PROCTER AND GAMBLE 2.3 15.7%
WM WASHINGTON MUTUAL INC 2.3 10.4%
WB WACHOVIA CORPORATION 2.3 2.1%
T AT&T Inc. 2.3 3.7%
CDE COEUR D'ALENE MINES 2.3 8.5%
TXN TEXAS INSTRUMENTS 2.3 2.9%
FRE FREDDIEMAC VOTING 2.2 10.9%
VZ VERIZON COMMUNICATNS 2.2 3.0%
EMC EMC CORP 2.1 8.4%
FNM FANNIE MAE 2.1 17.2%
HPQ HEWLETT-PACKARD (DE) 2.1 -6.1%
MO ALTRIA GROUP, INC. 2.0 12.1%
RIO COMPANHIA VALE DO RI 2.0 6.6%
CCU CLEAR CHANNEL COMMUN 1.9 12.4%
WMT WAL-MART STORES INC 1.8 -6.2%
AIG AMERICAN INTL GROUP 1.7 19.2%
TWX Time Warner Inc. 1.6 -5.4%
ABK AMBAC FINL GROUP INC 1.6 -2.1%
MOT MOTOROLA INC 1.6 14.0%
BAC BANK OF AMER CORP 1.5 23.2%
PFE PFIZER INC 1.5 4.9%
LEH LEHMAN BROTHERS HLDG 1.4 7.7%
XOM EXXON MOBIL CORP 1.3 1.3%
S Sprint Nextel Corporation 1.3 66.8%
MER MERRILL LYNCH & CO 1.1 17.6%
NLY ANNALY MORTGAGE MGMT 1.0 104.3%
JPM J.P. MORGN CHSE & CO 1.0 13.2%
C CITIGROUP INC 1.0 5.9%
GE GENERAL ELECTRIC CO 0.8 6.1%
IWM iShares Russell 2000 Index Fun

EEM iShares, Inc. Emerging Mkts In

IYR iShares Trust US Real Estate

EWJ iShares, Inc. MSCI Japan

EWT iShares Inc. MSCI Taiwan


*I am not sure if the Thomspon Financial data is accurate, but it is what the NYSE is reporting.

According to my calculations excluding the securities with no average daily volume data the NYSE top 100 has a SIR of 2.8 days, up 8.1% from the previous month .

Why is this important? Well besides giving investors an idea of market sentiment on specific securities or sectors; it also creates the opportunity for a potential short squeeze. A short squeeze is when investors cover their short positions in order to stop losses by purchasing the equities on the open market, in theory bringing up the securities price. So, the higher the SIR the higher the potential magnitude of a short squeeze.

In any case here is the data. I hope you find it useful.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

A simple quick explanation as to why US gasoline prices will continue rising rapidly

Consumers around the world are being indirectly taxed through record high gas prices. This of course hurts consumers’ pockets and can raise inflation fears. We wanted to take a look at the crack spread between WTI crude prices and US petroleum prices as measured by the Energy Information Agency. We outline the results below.

The February reading of the U.S. all grades all formulations retail gasoline prices per gallon was $3.078 verses a WTI price of $95.35/barrel for the month. Why is this important? First off, gasoline is produced by applying a refining process to crude oil, so factoring out crude previously purchased at a lower price and hedging activities, gasoline has to be more expensive than crude. For comparative reasons we broke the WTI/barrel price into a WTI/gallon price, so we could compared it to gas prices. The results were not surprising, that is until recently. The average spread over the last 15 years of WTI to gasoline prices per gallon has been $0.53; never going below $0.25, that is until October of 2007. As you can see from the chart below the Gas/WTI spread has remained fairly constant over the years until the recent convergence. We currently estimate the spread for March 2008 stands around -$0.15 after a reading of 0 in February. What does this mean? Well it means eventually, and likely sooner rather than later, the US will experience a sharp rise in gasoline prices, at least without an offsetting drop in WTI prices. If you were to apply the historical spread to current WTI/gallon prices US gasoline prices would total $3.96/gallon. This number seems quite realistic to me.

This chart shows the spread between WTI and gas prices has collapsed, meaning WTI prices will need to experience a sharp decline or gas prices need to catch up…

Source: Energy Information Agency & my calculations

Investment Relevance: Crack spreads are used as a measurement of the profit margins for oil companies, such as XOM. In fact, recently, we have seen a drop in both the spread and XOM’s share price. If this spread reverts to its historical level, then we would expect to see higher margins, which should be reflected in share prices. However, the current zero to negative spread does not bode well for the industry, but as we mentioned above we do not imagine that will last for long. One concern however, is that there tends to be a lagging relationship between the two variables. As you can see from the chart below there does in fact appear to be a correlation between the 4 month lagged XOM price and the Gas/WTI spread. This implies that the recent drop-off in the Gas/WTI spread could place some downward pressure on XOM. However, this is a very simplistic model, and I would strongly discourage anyone from trading on it without significant refinements. There is a lot more than one variable that will affect price; this is simply meant to be a demonstration.


4-Month lagged XOM price vs, Gas/WTI spread shows that XOM stock price could face some downward pressure in the coming months

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Week Ahead: The Potential to be a Downer

As I expected the Fed cut rates by 75bp. However, we did see Governor Plosser and Fisher dissent on the decision, both wanting smaller cuts. This is interesting news because I now believe we may be closer to the end of the current rate cut cycle than I originally thought. This may be good news for the Fed. Recently, there has been a lot of chatter in the markets over the US encountering a possible liquidity trap, like that in Japan. However, with the two dissentions on Tuesday’s vote markets are now pricing in a lower probability of more significant rate cuts at April’s meeting, meaning the Fed may have found a way to reduce or end the current rate cut cycle, before rates became low enough to invoke a liquidity trap, and importantly, without disappointing market expectations. You can see from the chart below that after Tuesday’s announcement market expectations shifted to a 2.00% fed funds rate vs. 1.50% prior to the announcement.


The Cleveland Fed's Implied Probabilities for the April meeting outcomes as shown that the magnitude of the expected rate change has declined significantly

Source: Cleveland Fed

This week has the potential to bring some negative consumer focused news to the market place. It is likely GDP will be revised downwards, housing numbers will continue to disappoint, and PCE will help convince a few more people a recession has arrived. We are not sure if the market will have enough upside momentum to keep up last week's gains through-out this week. For those of you looking at global markets, make sure you keep an eye on Taiwanese markets which are set to rally after the big victory of the ‘China friendly’ party in the country’s Presidential elections.

Let’s take a look at the some of the important indicators coming out this week in the US :

Monday March 24th:
10:00AM: Existing Home Sales (Risk: Downside) The Bloomberg consensus survey indicates the market is currently anticipating a reading of 4.85mn units, this would be slightly lower than last month’s 4.89mn reading. There hasn’t been much good news in any of the housing market indicators, and considering the difficulty in acquiring home loans I do not see much upside. We should continue to see inventories increase, and prices falling.

Tuesday March 25th: Fed Day!
10:00AM: Consumer Confidence (Risk: Neutral)- According to Bloomberg.com the market is currently expecting a reading of 73.0 vs. 75.0 last month. We have already seen a substantial drop in the confidence numbers and imagine it will stay around these levels for some time. Minor changes in the Consumer Confidence numbers are not overly important. However, what is important is large swings, such as the major drop we have experienced at the beginning of this year.

Wednesday March 26th:
8:30AM: Durable Goods Orders (Risk: Downside)- According to Bloomberg.com the market is currently expecting a reading of 0.7% m/m vs. -5.3% m/m previously. We have seen continued weakness in the manufacturing sector and imagine this weakness will be reflected in the durable goods number.

10:00AM: New Home Sales (Risk: Downside)- According to Bloomberg.com the market is currently expecting a reading of 575K vs. 588K previously. For the same reasons as Existing Home Sales outlined above.

Thursday March 27th:
8:30AM: GDP Final (Risk: Downside)- According to the consensus survey the market is expecting a reading of 0.6%q/q SAAR, or no change from the preliminary reading. However, I believe there could be more downside in this number than upside and thus believe there is a chance the number could somewhat disappoint.

8:30AM: Jobless Claims (Risk: Neutral)- According to the consensus survey the market is expecting a new jobless claims of 370K,vs. 378k last week. I still continue to monitor this release as one of the most important for the employment situation.

Friday March 28th:
8:30AM: Personal Income and Outlays (Risk: Downside)-
According to the consensus survey the market is expecting 0.3%m/m and 0.1%m/m for personal income and personal outlays, respectively. Rising energy and food prices in February will likely eat into the consumer spending figures out pacing the rise in personal income. Remember, about 70% of US GDP is based on consumer spending.

10:00AM: Consumer Sentiment (Risk: Neutral)- According to the consensus survey the market is expecting a reading of 70.0 for consumer sentiment vs. 70.8 last month. After experiencing a large downward swing at the beginning of this year I expect sentiment to stay around this level for the time being.