Andy West Profile picture
Dec 20, 2022 9 tweets 5 min read Read on X
PREPARE FOR HIGHER VOLATILITY:

Important 🧵:

We’ve had a bear mkt rally which has now failed and partially unwound. Brief Santa rally or not, the following chart pack tells a clear story of impending volatility:

#macro #stocks $SPY $QQQ
Financial conditions:

This chart isn’t a mirror image - it’s the GS Fin Cond index against the #SPX. I’ve been tweeting updates on this for 6 mths because when conditions tighten, #stocks roll. Once again the Fed and now BoJ have triggered the tightening needed for inflation 🧯
Yields:

10 year yields are on the rise again with added fuel from the BoJ pivot yesterday. As the benchmark the risk free rate, this is negative for #SPX in the near term
Yield curve & volatility:

Perversely, with long rates rising but the short end not, the yld curve is flattening atm. People may think that’s good given inversions signal recession, so flattening must be the opposite?

For #stocks, a flattening has preceded a VIX spike this yr:
FX Volatility:

Markets are linked. Part of HedgQurters risk mgt philosophy is to monitor for vol spikes in macro sensitive mkts as signal for equity vol which often lags. FX rebounding post BoJ surprise:
Bond Vol:

Similarly, early signs that bond volatility will rebound as it’s been asleep for the last couple months but bounces off the current level regularly. If so will bleed into stocks:
Credit Spreads:

Corporate Spreads have cooled over the last couple months but the high yield and BBB spreads are at levels where theyve found a floor and may be showing early signs of rebounding which would be expected with higher bond market volatility
Putting it all together:

Hawkish msgs from #Fed, the #ECB and now BoJ are stoking volatility in macro sensitive mkts. Yields are rising again, credit spreads are likely to follow and all this tightens financial conditions which the first chart in 🧵 showed are critical…
for the performance of $SPY, $QQQ and #stocks generally

A flattening yld curve driven by a rise in the 10 year yield has shown to precede equity volatility spikes

Time to hedge up.

hedgquarters.Com

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More from @HedgeQuartersHQ

Apr 18, 2023
1/ Time for a comprehensive thread on current Labor market conditions incl some key indicators to watch closely:

These charts look under the hood of payrolls & unemployment to see how conditions are shifting

We know employment is still increasing:

#macro #stocks $SPY $QQQ Image
2/ But less well understood is that under the payroll strength is both falling Hires and Separations.

With labor demand still strong, Quits remain elevated and Layoffs low. But Hires & Separations have both already normalized back to 2019 levels. Image
3/ From here, we may well see Separations flatten (already apparent) with reducing Quits as conditions soften (people hold onto jobs) offset by rising Layoffs.

However Hires are likely to continue to fall based on 2 things shown below: Employment intentions & Sales expectations
Read 20 tweets
Mar 7, 2023
1/ $AUD ALERT

The RBA today raised expectations it may follow the BoC & pause hikes soon despite inflation still high (but falling).

With the rate spread between AU & US one of the key determinants of the AUD & the #Fed expected to hike 3 more times, this is material...
#macro
2/ On the back of this, we have flowed through a scenario of an AU rate pause to the HQ AUD model, with US rates still rising to 5.3%

This scenario, if it eventuates, knocks >3c off the HQ fair value target for the AUD (Dec 23) to $0.6314 vs FV $0.6680 prior to today...
The prior model had the #RBA hiking in lockstep with the #Fed.

It is by no means certain that an imminent pause is the outcome the RBA settles on & it has said it will be data dependent.

However, opening the door to this scenario is likely to see a probability weighted impact
Read 4 tweets
Mar 6, 2023
CYCLICALS vs DEFENSIVES:

Renowned investors like Stanley Druckenmiller routinely monitor the performance of Cyclicals vs Defensives as a signal for #stocks, $SPY and #macro economy.

At HQ, we use the following monitor (chart). Whats it telling us now? a 🧵
2/ Lets focus on whats happened, before future expectations

The top panel of the chart shows the relative performance of Cyclical sectors over Defensive sectors ("CDR")

Panel 2 is the #SPX

Panel 3 is the Z-score of the 13 week move in the CDR with 2 std dev movements marked...
3/ The final panel (4) shows the rolling cumulative performance of the CDR mapped against HQ's leading economic leading index ("HQLEI", rolling 13 week chg).

From mid '21, the HQLEI fell for the first time in a yr & this preceded the CDR peaking in Nov 21, signaled by...
Read 10 tweets
Mar 1, 2023
HedgQuarters S&P500 EPS Forecast Model Update:

1/ In Oct 22 we released our S&P 500 multi factor earnings forecast model based on data releases up to Sept 22. Now with 4-5 months more data we have updated the model and highlight the interesting changes

$SPY $QQQ #macro #stocks
2/ As always we present 2 scenarios. With variable lags to the impact of rate hikes, these models map out 2 assumption sets:

A. the impact on FUTURE EPS of the latest leading econ data, by extending current settings of leading indicators into the future unchanged "STATIC MODEL"
3/ B. "RECESSION MODEL": the impact on future EPS of both current econ data and a forecast assumption set that maps out a possible recession scenario in the US (assumptions at end)

These 2 models allow investors to assess (1) what a recession may look like to earnings and
Read 17 tweets
Feb 13, 2023
INTERPRETING THE CPI NOWCAST & how it works - a 🧵:

I, like many, have seen the rise in the CPI Nowcast over the last month & used it as a basis for expectations for Tuesday's #CPI release.

But how accurate is it at times like these. See chart:

#macro #inflation $SPY $QQQ #SPX
2/ The chart shows that as inflation rose, the Nowcast underestimated it and as it falls, theres been overestimation. Why?

Well the CPI Nowcast is based on an econometric model specified here: clefed.org/40Um5DE

I summarize how it works below and draw conclusions
3/ The Nowcast is computed from 3 core inputs, each of which is based on its own estimation process:

1. Core CPI Nowcast
2. Food CPI Nowcast
3. Gasoline CPI Nowcast

In simple terms, Core & Food are actually based on moving averages from the past 12 months of data...
Read 9 tweets
Feb 10, 2023
Have #Fed rate hikes led to the slowdown in #inflation we've seen so far?

That's the conventional wisdom anyway. BUT, the San Francisco Fed's own index actually says "NO"!

Why & implications. A thread...
#macro #Stocks #SPX $QQQ

1/8
2/8

This chart (YoY before & MoM below) breaks out Core PCE #inflation into cyclical & Acyclical components

Cyclical are those influenced by the eco cycle, Acyclical are those that have had a statistically insignificant relationship w/ past cycles

Cyclical inflation...
3/8

hasn't declined yet - at least on YoY basis with MoM measures only recently starting to cool. The real cooling so far has been in the Acyclical parts!

This is because, if you look at what heated up first and to the greatest extent in the first chart, it was typically...
Read 8 tweets

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