Macro conditions prevail over company events.
It is important to recognize that macro events are pressing valuations lower that they have been in decades. When I entered the brokerage business in the late 1970’s we had high inflation (Money markets rates hit 18%) and price earnings ratios (P/E) in the market were very low. Six to eight P/E ratios were common.
Looking backwards, we see that by the late 1990’s P/E’s went in the opposite direction. Coca Cola (KO) was trading at 80 times earnings in the late 1990’s. Many large cap companies were trading above 40 times earnings.
The decade between 2001 and the present is the lost decade for stock returns. It has been the worst decade since the great depression and in some respects even worse.
Big gains in markets are when valuation changes from historical undervaluation to historical over valuations. P/E’s going from 8 or 9 to between 30 & 40 combined with corporate growth. Anyone remember the press articles of ten years ago about how smart Warren Buffet was with his Coca Cola (KO) purchase at 8 times earnings in the late 1970’s and twenty years later it was trading at 80 times earnings? Earnings going from $1.00 per share to $3.00 per share compounded the return. Do the math – it is astounding.
There are three legs to the American growth engine – government, corporations and the public. Today corporations are the strongest of the three entities mentioned. They are performing the best of any of the three entities and they are priced at historically low valuations.
Major companies like Microsoft (MSFT) and Intel (INTC) are reporting record results, are cash rich and at historically low valuations – nine times trailing earnings.
While timing the turn is difficult if not impossible, we are in the area from which mega-wealth is created from the stock market. It might take twenty years – perhaps it will be quicker and happen in five to ten years.
Example: Gold has been running for ten years ($250 to $1900). Very few were excited about gold at $250 back in 2002. I was not. I thought it was a good deal but did not act on it. How about you?
Our financial problems are well known and talked about. When issues are well known and discussed it is usually a bottoming point. The risk today is a singular event that breaks the financial system. This could happen but it is also a potential event that is high on everyone’s awareness list and therefore priced into the market. There is a lot of cash on the sidelines.
On a risk reward basis and a longer-term time line, we are set up for major gains in the stock market. True we have some structural problems to solve. There is work being done behind the scenes to make these changes.
Example: The pentagon is in discussion to shift to a 401K type retirement plan Vs the current defined benefits plan.
Look back to the 1980’s &1990’s. Government is going through now what corporate America when through then. We will come through this financial crisis. There is history of success in corporate America to look back to as an example. We will come through this stronger and better. We are Americans.
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Pros offer advice on volatile market
What should average investors do with the market’s volatility?
Evaluate your risk appetite: David Chalupnik, head of equities for Nuveen Asset Management, hopes investors took a cue from 2008 and have already rejiggered their portfolios to match their risk tolerance.
Don’t sell: “Unless you’re retiring or need money in six months, it’s the exact worst thing you can do,” said David Joy, chief market strategist for Ameriprise Financial. On the other hand, if you are heading into retirement or are retired, he suggests having three years’ worth of living expenses in cash. Likes stocks that pay dividends: “The dividend yields are very competitive vis-a-vis bonds,” Joy said. Plus “large cap stocks tend to hold up better anyway” in uncertain markets.
Don’t open your account statements: “We’ll look back and say, ‘Oh, do you remember those days in August?’ and the market will be higher two years from now,” said Beth Lilly, small-cap fund manager for Gabelli Woodland Partners.
Rally the Federal Reserve to raise rates: Steve Leuthold, founder of the Leuthold Group, says the Fed keeping interest rates so low is a “great disservice” to individuals, who have no income-producing safe haven and lack access to some of the attractive fixed-income opportunities available to institutions or the super wealthy.
Believe: “At the of the day, if we really believe in our heart that the U.S. is not going away and that we’re open for business … you want to find good assets,” said Brian Belski, chief investment strategist for Oppenheimer Asset Management. He suggests that investors look for companies that consistently grow, even if slowly, that are in tangible, understandable businesses.
Source — Minneapolis Star Tribune
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Real Estate instead of Gold?
Seth Setrakian partner at First New York Securities in a Bloomberg interview thought real estate today is a much better hedge of inflation than gold. His view is that gold has moved higher for ten years while real estate is bouncing along a low price trough with little downside risk remaining. Based on his method of making risk reward analysis, he would much rather be buying publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT’s) today than gold.
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Large Cap Value:
One of my favorite global strategists is Barton Biggs of Traxis Partners. Biggs was bullish prior to the past five weeks and remains bullish. His favorite companies include large cap technology companies such as Microsoft (MSFT) and Intel (INTC). He believes these are still viable growth companies trading at value bargain prices.
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Diagnostic tests should double within two to three years:
LOTM daily newsletter is adding a new sector focus. Small Cap Molecular Diagnostic companies. Roche Holding over the weekend stated that:
Roche Holding AG (ROG) expects government austerity measures to boost its medical-diagnostics unit in the next three to five years thanks to broader use of tests to see which patients should use expensive treatments.
The number of tests to help single out the patients who will benefit most from Basel, Switzerland-based Roche’s medicines should double within two to three years, Roche Diagnostics Chief Operating Officer Daniel O’Day said in an Aug. 23 interview.
Many small molecular diagnostic companies trade publicly. It is our view that the larger companies like Roche Holding will acquire many of these small molecular diagnostic companies in the next two to four years. Valuations are compelling. Opportunities abound.