1. In April, households saw incomes increase as employment and inflation contributed to nominal incomes. Alongside this increase in employment income, we also saw continued support from income on assets total incomes. Below we show the composition:
2. Personal income increased by 0.36% in April, disappointing consensus expectations of 0.4%. This print contributed to a sequential deceleration in the quarterly trend relative to the yearly trend.
3. The primary drivers of this print were Employee Compensation (0.6%) & Income on Assets (0.25%). Over the last year, Employee Compensation (3.36%), Rental Income (0.5%), & Income on Assets (0.96%). have been the primary sources of the 5.43% growth in income.
4. We zoom into employee compensation to show the industry-wise breakdown of this increase in income. Further, we break these gains down into their macroeconomic drivers, i.e., employment, real wages, hours worked, and inflation.
5. As we can see above, professional and business services continue to be the bastion of the current resilience of the consumer economy. On the other end of the spectrum, financial activities continue to see weakness, especially ex-inflation.
6. It is important to recognize that real incomes this month were weak. Our estimates indicated a -0.10% contraction; official data came up 0.10%. We show the sequential evolution of the data below. We also zoom out to offer more context:
7. Next, as previously alluded to, we show how income on assets continues to contribute to income growth, now contributing 1% of the total 5% growth in nominal income:
8. This increased income was spent on the economy, with motor vehicles seeing strong nominal and real spending. Nominal consumer spending increased 0.84% in April, surprising consensus expectations of 0.3%.
9. This print contributed to a sequential deceleration in the quarterly trend relative to the yearly trend.
10. We zoom out to show the drivers of current trends in spending. Other Nondurable Goods (0.63%), Housing & Utilities (1.49%), Health Care (1.39%), Food Services & Accommodations (0.65%), & Other Services (0.88%). have been the primary drivers of the 6.73% growth in spending.
11. This increase in spending was a drag on savings, which came alongside a decrease in mortgage borrowing, dragging on total borrowing.Overall, This nominal spending continues a trend that has been in place since last year, i.e., one of declining sustained savings reductions.
12. However, durable goods spending, home prices, and equity market prices came together to create an increase in assets, increasing household net worth.
13. According to our latest estimates for the month of April, household net worth increased by 2.9%, driven by a 2.81% and -0.08% change in assets & liabilities, respectively.
14. We show the evolution of our household net worth estimates below, which show that net worth has contracted -0.97% over the last year:
15. Over the last year, household assets have fallen by -0.97%. Below, we decompose these changes in assets into risk assets (equities, corporate credit, etc.), real assets (real estate, consumer durables, etc.), and cash assets (checking, savings, money markets funds, etc.).
16. Risk assets, real assets, and cash assets have contributed 0.29%, -0.36%, and-0.9%, respectively, to the total change in household assets over the last year.
17. Contemporaneously, household liabilities have grown by 9.73%, driven by a 7.99% rise in mortgages and a 1.73% increase in consumer credit. We show our estimates for both below, along with the official data:
18. Overall, the latest data for April suggests a more resilient consumer, supported by strong employment and income on assets. Employment remains the stronghold of the economy and an offsetting force to weak business conditions.
1/7 Despite insulating a portfolio from growth and inflation risks, it still remains exposed to risks coming from liquidity. Below we present our thoughts on the role of liquidity in an investment framework.
2/7 Recall liquidity is the flow of cash and cash-like assets that potentiates spending in the economy and markets. Every asset is exposed to liquidity risk. The less liquidity in the system, the more the drag on assets.
3/7 A balanced portfolio of assets makes money over the long term by liquidity flowing from the risk-free cash rate to risky assets to earning risk premium.
1/8 Markets have now moved to rising growth, inflation, and liquidity. This combination of market regimes probabilities is supportive of stocks and commodities, but much less so for bonds.
We dive deeper into the data driving our assessment.
2/8 Over the last week macro asset markets rose in aggregate, with the gains skewed towards commodities and gold. Bonds also saw gains, breaking their recently negative correlation to commodities.
3/8 Economic data momentum fell further this week as retail sales, industrial production, and jobless claims disappointed expectations.
1. Liquidity is the flow of cash-like assets that potentiate spending in the real and financial economy. Liquidity potentiates returns across assets, while the nominal growth environment determines the distribution of returns within assets.
2. Today, liquidity conditions are elevated but are increasingly likely to be in a topping process. Liquidity can come from three major sources: government, corporates, and intermediaries.
3. The contribution of these entities to the overall aggregate liquidity environment varies over time. However, the government's role in liquidity creation has recently risen dramatically. We visualize this below via the sheer size of government assets supply:
1. Prometheus Asset Allocation is our long-only portfolio that starts with diversified exposure to Stocks (SPY), Bonds (TYA), and Commodities (DBC).
2. Using our systematic macro process, our strategy looks to add Alpha to assets in this diversified portfolio, by side-stepping negative macro regimes. To illustrate the value-add of our macro approach, we visualize the “implicit alpha” in our asset allocation strategy.
3. We show the result of simply going long our preferred allocation, while going short a passive beta portfolio. As we can see above, this Alpha Overlay has been significantly value additive over time.
A retrospective on last weeks macro & market moves.
1/ Over the last week, markets moved to price disinflationary outcomes, with the odds of falling growth rising. Inflationary pricing has now grown to dominate cross-asset pricing on a trending basis.
2/ Over the last week macro asset markets rose in aggregate, however, the distribution of gains was once again shifted to disinflationary assets. Treasuries led to gains, while gold saw meaningful losses.
1/ Until very recently, the clearest alpha trade to us was to be long stocks vs bonds. That opportunity set has faded significantly. The question is, as always, what’s the next trade?
Some thoughts…..
2/ Starting with the fundamental backdrop:
- Growth looks fine, with some slowing likely ahead
- Inflation is stable, and likely to stay above 2%
- Liquidity is elevated, and will likely see some flatlining from here
Feel free to replace these inputs with your preferences…
3/ Relative to these current + forward conditions, markets are pricing in:
- Earnings expectations that have improved significantly
- Modestly higher inflation
- Policy rates consistent with a mild recession/insurance cuts
- A yield curve that remains inverted