Eye on the Market
Michael Cembalest, Chairman of Market and Investment Strategy offers timely commentary on the economy, markets and investment portfolios
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Michael Cembalest’s views on what will drive markets and the economy in 2021, as well as the challenges we face that stimulus and vaccines can’t solve.
The Jan 6 Joint Session of Congress is shaping up to be a very contentious meeting. Here’s a brief 2-page primer on the rules of engagement, for those interested.
The belief in election illegitimacy is spreading faster than COVID. With field reporting from Alexander Fleming, Rutherford B Hayes, Richard III, Bob Newhart and the Attorney General of Ohio.
The Armageddonists were not rescued from underperformance purgatory by COVID, and markets are at all-time highs again with prospects for further gains in 2021. However, I can think of something that could rescue them, at least temporarily: the risk of electoral illegitimacy and Constitutional mayhem on January 6th. See pages 4-6 for a review of all the rules and procedures in play, including an update from Wayne County MI, and a hyperlink you may need this Thanksgiving.
For the first time in 100 years, a challenger unseated an incumbent President at a time of strong economic and market tailwinds. However, the election delivered a clearer referendum on the President himself than on policy issues dividing Democrats and Republicans; it looks like divided government may remain. So, in this week’s Eye on the Market, a (possibly) divided government investor playbook. To conclude, comments on this morning’s Pfizer vaccine news and the road to herd immunity (approval, distribution and acceptance).
During the President’s speech on Thursday, he made it clear that the next step in the process will be a wave of GOP litigation in an effort to invalidate votes, with a special focus on the treatment and counting of absentee ballots. In this brief note, we review the election rules, legal issues, court precedents and election permutations which all lead to one place: Pennsylvania, whose state legislature holds the key to whether the Congress will have to sort out multiple slates of electors in early January.
As the election outcome increasingly looks like a split decision (President Biden with a GOP Senate), we’re preparing for intense legal battles in the courts, and also analyzing the market-related policies under control of the Executive Branch that Presidents can implement on their own without legislative approval: energy policy, some healthcare changes, China trade policy, immigration, Iran, antitrust policies and net neutrality.
We’ve all been focused on the election recently, but there are other topics worth covering since they will affect markets regardless of the election’s outcome: The United States vs Google, Europe vs COVID, and China vs US COVID aftermath.
The problem with states that do not allow pre-election processing of absentee ballots; a COVID Rorschach test; Trump and Biden deficit explosions, equity market impacts and trends that are being priced in as Democratic Sweep odds rise; Vaccine timing & virus-sensitive businesses.
The election as referendum on America: how well does the “system” work, and for whom?
The cost of engineering a US recovery as the world waits for a vaccine; Biden agenda on taxes/spending; Tech stocks (2020 vs 1999); COVID and The Fountainhead; US election rules, dates and process in light of derogatory comments on mail-in voting by the President and Attorney General
Michael Cembalest, Chairman of Market and Investment Strategy, shares weekly insight and analyses on data covering the impacts COVID-19.
Prospects for further US employment and profits growth are improving, but the US is now running the 3rd highest infection rate in the world. In infection hotspot states, governors are relying on falling mortality as the reason to make only minor policy adjustments. This week, we look at why mortality is diverging from infections and hospitalizations, and more broadly, at whether a US scientific trust gap has played a role in the recent infection surge.
COVID temporarily reduced global CO2 emissions to 2006 levels. In our tenth annual energy paper, we examine when and how renewable energy transitions might result in more permanent reductions. We also analyze the financial, political and environmental risks to US energy independence, and whether stranded asset risk is the primary reason for the lowest oil and gas valuations in 90 years.
The US recovery; The flood of money and market returns; Globalization lives; Reducing COVID mortality through vascular treatments; Realistic timetables for never-been-done before vaccines; Sweden’s COVID experiment is not what you think
Tracking the rebirth of the US consumer with real time data as a function of infection levels and state policy. Additional topics: no evidence yet of material second waves of COVID infection, and a round-up of the latest news on vaccine trials (Moderna, Oxford, Sinovac) and anticoagulants.
In this week’s Eye on the Market, we review topics from our recent client Zoom calls. Topics include: risk of inflation, second waves of infection, the effectiveness of lockdowns and Biden’s taxation and spending agenda.
An update on the COVID-19 crisis as the US prepares to reopen despite having one of the highest infection rates in the world. Additional topics: monoclonal antibodies and anti-viral trials; the growing gap between markets and the economy; S&P 500 earnings haves and have-nots; regional equity performance (Europe loses again) and leveraged loans at a time of rising bankruptcies.
In this week’s note, we discuss the latest news on US infection trends and reopening plans, Remdesivir trial results and whether US fiscal stimulus is “enough”.
Lockdown relaxation and economic reawakening…are we there yet?
In this week's note, we take a close look at country and regional virus data, and examine the pitfalls of over-extrapolating trends that often reverse.
After the equity rally, P/E multiples are back at around 16x 2021 consensus earnings.
Virus trends and head-fakes, convalescent plasma and U.S. vs. China lockdowns.
There are things the government can try and fix during a pandemic and other things which it can't.
There are some difficult days ahead as quarantines and lockdowns grow. I want to share something with you from John Stuart Mill as we head into the unknown.
Michael Cembalest, Chairman of Market and Investment Strategy, has compiled his extensive research on coronavirus.
A lot of data is being made available on the coronavirus, but most of it requires careful analysis before drawing conclusions.
Confounding almost every forecast we saw last week, Senator Biden appears to have emerged from Super Tuesday with a sizeable delegate lead. Why might the night have turned out so differently from what was expected just a few days ago?
A Coronavirus update: severity, consequences and implications for investors.
Answers to questions on the coronavirus, US megacap stocks, the cost of Democratic Healthcare plans, the Iowa caucus and the problem with the student loan system.
Consensus reactions to the Phase I US-China deal are very skeptical, but may be missing the broader point. A brief note on what happened, and the alternatives.
After a very positive year for investors in 2019, we expect lower positive returns on financial assets in 2020 as some Ghosts of Christmas Past reappear.
How a discussion about China and Hong Kong morphed into a chart war about Trump, Hoover, Taft, Rachel Maddow and Anderson Cooper.
While recessions and bear markets are a fact of life, something peculiar happened after the Global Financial Crisis: the rise of the Armageddonists.
A close look at the Progressive Agenda, China’s deteriorating welcome mat in DC and US Tech IPOs.
Michael Cembalest analyzes the performance of over 6,700 domestic and international active equity managers and discusses the challenges they face.
A brief comment on a proposal from leading Presidential candidates to ban hydraulic fracturing everywhere, immediately.
It was a long, hot summer at the Heritage Foundation. An update from the front lines of the Trade War.
The food fight between the President and the Fed Chair could result in too much easing, and the expansion of valuations beyond sustainable levels.
Michael went on a search for Democratic Socialism in the real world, and ended up halfway around the globe from where he began.
Michael discusses how he should have taken Trump at his word on tariffs, and the impact of the widening trade war on global growth and equity markets as proposed tariffs approach pre-war levels.
The US-China trade war, prescription drug price legislation and the 2020 election.
Topics: unattainable objectives of the Green New Deal; overview of the world’s decarbonization challenges; Germany’s energy transition; Trump’s War on Science.
After a very positive year for investors in 2019, we expect lower positive returns on financial assets in 2020 as some Ghosts of Christmas Past reappear.
For the first time in 20 years, markets will have to survive without support from central banks.
There’s a global recovery under way that is broadening across regions.
Prepare for another single digit portfolio return year in 2017.
Some aches and pains are constraining the global economy, with more severe strains occurring in the emerging world.
Thanks to extra fuel from the Fed, the U.S. is running at a steady pace and should accelerate modestly in 2014.
As we head into 2011, global profits are rising, U.S. household incomes and debt burdens are improving and global services are starting to rebound.
This year's paper gets into the details of where energy comes from, how it’s used, and the de-carbonization challenges facing the world’s industrialized and emerging economies.
This year’s topics: examples of how energy transitions are gradual rather than sudden, defying the expectations of futurists: climate goals, natural gas, electric vehicles.
The cost of solar, wind and storage continues to fall, improving cost-emissions tradeoffs for electricity grids. Yet there are still many rivers to cross on the road to decarbonization.
The journey to a renewable energy future is taking longer than many analysts and agencies expected.
We look at how the individual components of the energy grid fit together in a system dominated by renewable energy, with a focus on cost and CO2 emissions.
This year’s topics: the eventual transition to renewable energy; renewable energy stocks; US energy independence, wind, solar and energy/electricity storage.
This year’s topics: U.S. energy independence, growing cottage industry, liquified natural gas, coal and Japan's reconsideration of nuclear generation.
The most important energy developments of 2012: how countries are planning for Independence Day.
