A net 39.4% of US banks say they are tightening lending standards. This started rising in late 2021. The unemployment rate looks set to follow it higher.
3/9
Treasury bills have risen from 0% to 5.45%, and it happened in a speedy manner. The next thing to head higher is initial jobless claims.
4/9
The end of Fed tightening cycles tends to point to peaks in the percentage of unemployed who are willing job leavers. These are people who chose to leave their job because they are confident that they can find another one. This is deteriorating.
5/9
The "Jobs Plentiful" question in the Conference Board survey is also falling. The boldness of the move from 56.7 to 40.3, or about 16 points, is more than the amount that was needed to trigger prior recessions.
6/9
Running a business during Covid was tough, because employees were always quitting. Companies would hire a ton of people as "insurance." This hoarding of workers has ended. The Challenger survey shows us this.
7/9
There has been a collapse in both home DEMAND and also home SUPPLY. Because the housing market is so broken, the data for the supply of New Homes has spiked due to a disappearance of buyers. The Housing Freeze is your key macro theme. Unemployment will rise.
8/9
Meantime, New Housing Starts peaked way back in Spring 2022. When building activity starts falling like this, it shows up in the labor data thereafter. This cycle should witness much of the same. Note: the right axis is inverted.
9/9
Finally, there is a notion that the Services sector will hold the economy together even though manufacturing has been in recession. The deep inversion of the yield curve tells a different story. ISM Services looks set to sink below 50 in due time, indicating contraction.
END
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2/6 Japan's Nikkei 225 ran from 8,296 in 2012 to 38,211 because of the "TINA" concept: "There Is No Alternative" to sub-2% long bonds, so buy Japanese stocks. Also, many borrowed in low-yielding yen to buy Nikkei names (the yen carry trade).
China's carry trade set-up is here:
3/6 When China's stock market peaked on October 16, 2007, stocks were at bubble prices AND long duration bonds were 4.24%. Today, the scenario is flipped upside down: many earnings machines trade for sub-10 P/E multiples and the long bond yield has fallen to just 2.38%.
2/9 A country participates in the Pension Wars when politicians and/or influential members of society push large financial institutions to direct investment toward their domestic stock market.
3/9 What triggered the latest salvo in Canada?
This letter from 90+ prominent Canadian CEOS. It made a splash two weeks ago. In it, the CEOs lamented the pensions system's ever-declining allocation to Canadian stocks, which now make up just 4% of their collective asset base.
Japan’s $1.5 trillion GPIF and Korea’s $788 billion NPS, the #1 and #3 largest global pensions by assets, kick off the Pension Wars.
THREAD
2/15
The Pension Wars are the push for money management institutions to purchase their own countries' stocks because of political pressure.
Japan and Korea are the two Pension War leaders, but there are others.
3/15
GPIF’s asset allocation is simple: 25% in four baskets. I predict an increase in the proportion allocated to Japanese equities. GPIF's AUM is equal to CalPERS, the huge California pension plan, multiplied by 3.
2/10
Unlike the central bank-led Currency Wars, the Pension Wars are fought by politicians.
The objective: force Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution retirement plans into domestic stocks.
The US, UK, Korea, Japan, Canada and Germany are all fighting the Pension Wars.
3/10
First, Britain. Years ago, UK pension funds held more than 30% of publicly-listed British equities. Insurance companies also invested heavily. In recent decades, those allocations shifted to alternatives, foreign equities and fixed income.
1/4 The sharp decline in the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) Index points to falling consumer confidence.
This is a classic lag effect. Right now, the housing debacle is just a spectacle for the vast majority of people who didn't have to buy or sell in 2022 or 2023.
2/4 They watched from the sidelines.
But another year brings more people into this housing debacle. That horrible feeling, logging into the MLS and seeing no new listings, every day.
Even worse, having your hand forced and swapping a 3% mortgage for 7% because the school stunk.
3/4 A few million people had their household finances upended in 2023 because a family event like a baby being born, a job transfer or a family death had them in a situation where they had to change houses. For many, their mortgage payment doubled, or tripled.