Telemus Blog

All Eyes on Margins and Inflation

Written by Matt Dmytryszyn | Apr 18, 2022 1:58:33 PM

Telemus Weekly Market Review April 11th - April 15th, 2022

Stocks continued to slide marking the third straight week of declines following the market’s late March bear market rally. The S&P 500 index dropped -2.1% in the holiday shortened week. Bonds also fell as interest rates continued to rise, pressuring prices.

The economic headline for the week was the March inflationary reading, where the Consumer Price Index (CPI) spiked by 1.2% for the month, leading to an annualized inflation rate of 8.5%. This was exaggerated by higher gasoline prices. The Core CPI index, which excludes more volatile food and energy categories, was up 0.3% for the month. This was a more muted reading than prior months. Those looking for a reason to be optimistic about inflation cheered the subdued core CPI reading, with some even making the call that inflation may have peaked. While we like optimists, we’ve longed believed there will be volatility in monthly inflation readings as cyclical elements come in and out of the numbers. Our view is its way too early to make a call on inflation hitting its peak.

As the brief optimism that set into markets in late March has started to burn off, what we’ve seen is rising rates among longer maturity bonds. The yield curve, which briefly inverted in late March, is now steepening. Expounding upon this jargon, we had seen the yield on a 10-year Treasury fall below that of a 2-year Treasury in late March. Many view this as a sign that a recession may be on the horizon. Bonds have quickly reversed course and as of the market close on April 14th, the 10-year Treasury yield of 2.83% was 0.37% above the 2.46% yield on the 2-year Treasury bond.

Tying this back to stocks, we’ve seen a bit of a reversal in the equity market thus far in April. These past two weeks, higher interest rates have been putting pressure on equity prices by compressing multiples. Large cap, U.S. equities are lagging other equity categories. Since the most recent March 29th peak, the S&P 500 is down by -5.1%, whereas developed international stocks have only lost -3.4%. More impressive are emerging market equities, which have dipped only -1.5% lower over this span.

As we look forward to the remainder of April, all eyes will be on corporate earnings reports. The market is concerned about the ability of corporations to hold on to record profit margins given inflationary pressures across supply chains, labor, and commodity prices. This past week we saw a few earnings reports trickle in, largely from banks. Results were mixed and we would expect the puzzle to come into form over the next couple of weeks.

In this environment, having focus on price and earnings is important. We do believe that not all companies are going to be able to hold margins in an environment with elevated inflation. In addition, rising interest rates have historically proven to be a headwind on price-to-earnings multiples. As such not overpaying for a stock becomes more critical. A cautionary tone to the market is likely to remain as we await greater clarity on inflationary trends, how those feed into interest rates and ultimately the impact on corporate earnings.

 

 

All opinions expressed in this article are for general informational purposes and constitute the judgment of the author(s) as of the date of the report. These opinions are subject to change without notice and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual or on any specific security. The material has been gathered from sources believed to be reliable, however Telemus Capital cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of such information, and certain information presented here may have been condensed or summarized from its original source. PAST PERFORMANCE IS NOT A GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS. Investment decisions should always be made based on the client's specific financial needs, goals and objectives, time horizon and risk tolerance. Current and future portfolio holdings are subject to risk. Risks may include interest-rate risk, market risk, inflation risk, deflation risk, currency risk, reinvestment risk, business risk, liquidity risk, financial risk, and cybersecurity risk. These risks are more fully described in Telemus Capital's Firm Brochure (Part 2A of Form ADV), which is available upon request. Telemus Capital does not guarantee the results of any investments. Investment, insurance and annuity products are not FDIC insured, are not bank guaranteed, and may lose value.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures the performance of US inflation (not seasonally adjusted) which is the rate of change of consumer goods prices. It measures of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services. Indexes are available for the U.S. and various geographic areas. Average price data for select utility, automotive fuel, and food items are also available. The data is from Bureau of Labor Statistics. The value of the current month CPI is estimated by the average value of the previous two months CPI. The S&P 500® is widely regarded as the best single gauge of large-cap U.S. equities. There is over USD 11.2 trillion indexed or benchmarked to the index, with indexed assets comprising approximately USD 4.6 trillion of this total. The index includes 500 leading companies and covers approximately 80% of available market capitalization. An index is not a security in which an investment can be made, as they are unmanaged vehicles that serve as market indicators only and do not account for the deduction of management fees and/or transaction costs generally associated with investable products.

Advisory services are only offered to clients or prospective clients where Telemus and its representatives are properly licensed or exempt from licensure. No advice may be rendered by Telemus unless a client service agreement is in place. All composite data and corresponding calculations are available upon request.