Dance, Dance, Dance?

“When the music stops, in terms of liquidity, things will be complicated. But as long as the music is playing, you’ve got to get up and dance. We’re still dancing.” Chuck Prince, Citigroup CEO - July 2007.

The non farm payrolls came out stronger than forecast last Friday & also confirmed that the US unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.8%. This means that it remains below its moving average and therefore we can ignore the signal from the timing indicators for now and remain invested. In any event as discussed in my last post the headline indices have turned positive in this regard again after the strong first quarter from equity markets around the world.

This has come on the back of the US Federal reserve calling a halt to further rate rises and possible unwinding of QT for now. The recent IMF Q1 update to their outlook is quite useful in this regard as it suggests a slowdown this year in Global Growth to 3.3% followed by a recovery to 3.6% for 2020 and thereafter, although they do acknowledge the downside risks & policy priorities to avoid these. See here for full details and the graphic below.

Thus investors heaved a sigh of relief and piled back in after the Q4 wobble. Whether this is maintained and markets push onto new highs or fail at or below the previous peak will be data dependant form here. If we see some recovery in the economic data and perhaps a resolution to the China trade issue then In that event, may be this could just be the mid cycle slow down that was mentioned in the Cycles research I highlighted recently, which could then lead onto a record breaking economic expansion into the 2020's perhaps?

I suspect markets, perhaps after an interim swoon (sell in May type thing), could then resume their upward progress as defensively positioned investors and those sitting in cash might them feel compelled to pile back in for fear of missing out or FOMO as it is called. I saw some good stuff about these type of short term market dynamics etc here: https://fat-pitch.blogspot.com/2019/03/weekly-market-summary.html
 
While on the other hand if weak economic data continues or get worse then I suspect we may see the market have a setback to retest the Q4 lows in that instance. If we then slide into recession then we will be into a bear market, although so far most of the data does not suggest that's likely in the short term at least. It does however remain a risk for the medium term into 2020 I suspect. Unless of course the Central Banks can keep economies and markets going by cutting rates, keeping QE in place and making the correct policy responses if they see weakness as the IMF suggests.

For now it seems that we need to stay on the dance floor as market technical and the economic background remain constructive. You do however need to be aware of the risks you are running given high valuations in the US, although as I mentioned before maybe we are less exposed in the UK given valuations here? That may of course be a triumph of hope over experience and the apparent cheapness may just reflect the damage done to the UK by our incompetent handling of the BREXIT process?

Any way if you have the time it is worth reading the following post from John Hussman for some longer term context on the current situation we find ourselves in. Even though he is often seen as a perma bear, he too is dancing along while the music plays and the market set up remain "constructive" as he calls it.  https://seekingalpha.com/article/4253224

If not then enjoy the appropriate titled song  from dear old Steve Miller, because if you keep on Dancing you never grow old and you never stop Compounding either!