We maintain our moderately underweight view on European equities. They have the advantage of both negative sentiment and attractive valuations, but we expect the region’s macro and earnings downturn will take time to play out.
In China, valuations and sentiment are both at rock bottom, which should cushion against further de-rating. This remains a market where the dispersion of views on our team is wide, but on balance, we think structural factors such as internal deleveraging and geopolitical uncertainty suppress the potential for the market to outperform over a 12-month horizon.
At a sector level, we prefer consumer discretionary stocks, which have the potential to benefit from disinflation and higher disposable income, as well as undervalued utilities. We think the energy sector has strong fundamentals, including high earnings and free cash flow. We have an underweight view on the telecom, consumer staples, and health care sectors. The consumer staples sector has a weaker fundamental picture with low free cash flow and negative sentiment. The telecom sector’s fundamentals are also weak, as capex to depreciation looks low. Capital needs are high for the sector and may increase its cost of capital. Health care is challenged by higher costs and lower utilization at hospitals, as well as continued poor sentiment in biotech.
Government bonds: Is the rate rally overdone?
The Federal Open Market Committee’s December meeting validated and accelerated the rally we’ve seen in rate markets since the yield on the 10-year US Treasury hit 5% in mid-October. Markets appear to have latched onto a couple of positive narratives. One is that if inflation continues to fall, then mathematically, real rates rise and become more restrictive. Therefore, the Fed will need to cut rates even if the economy doesn’t slow. Another narrative is that inflation’s decline has been driven not by a harmful decline in demand, but by supply factors, including increased labor participation and immigration, as well as a continued unwinding of supply chain distortions.
Our neutral duration stance is based on our view that slower global growth and lower inflation will bring lower rates but that the rates markets have repriced too much too fast. (As of this writing, Fed funds futures imply that the first rate cut will come in March and that we will see 150 bps of cuts by December.) Rates could go lower in a deep recession scenario or they could rise if inflation reaccelerates or the term premium expands as it did in the third quarter.
In a global context, we still prefer US and European rates to Japanese rates. Europe is flirting with recession, so the European Central Bank is likely to join or even preempt the Fed in cutting rates. Japan is unique: Amid loose monetary and fiscal policy, inflation is running hotter than target, so the central bank is under some pressure to tighten ultra-loose policy.
Credit: Attentive to the risks but also open to opportunities
The economy has been resilient and spreads have been narrowing. Inflation has come down quickly, giving central banks the room to cut rates this year. Against this backdrop, we retain a slight underweight view on spreads, but think there may be opportunities to add risk on any weakness. We believe the risks remain somewhat skewed to the downside, especially with tight spread levels, but we see an environment where spreads could remain rangebound for some time and where income could dominate returns.
Defaults began picking up in high-yield markets in 2023, but were largely concentrated in a few sectors, including technology, health care, and autos. We see some risks around the need to refinance at higher interest rates. High-yield issuers have been able to push out the impact of higher interest rates by delaying refinancing. But many issuers have debt maturing in 2025, meaning they will need to refinance within the next 12 months (Figure 3). Even with 150 bps of interest rate cuts priced in, refinancing will be at much higher rates than existing debt and could lead to higher defaults.
Meanwhile, as refinancing has been delayed, corporate balance sheets have been weakening, as issuers have spent cash rather than issuing more debt. We don’t think this risk is quite priced in. High-yield spreads are narrow at around the 30th percentile in the US.
Having said all that, we don’t see an immediate catalyst for wider spreads, and so we remain only marginally negative on the asset class in the near term. The opportunity to add on weakness may be helped by the more positive starting point for yields, which is a strong determinant of long-term returns. We prefer higher-quality credit in this environment, and therefore remain more positive on investment-grade credit relative to high yield.
Monthly Market Review — August 2024
A monthly update on equity, fixed income, currency, and commodity markets.
By
Brett Hinds
Jameson Dunn