Insights
Equity Market Commentary - February 2024
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Takeaways & Key Expectations
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February 08, 2024
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Equity Market Commentary - February 2024 |
Some thoughts as we commence 2024.
Just because the calendar changes, doesn't mean the trends do.
The powerful rally that kicked off in late October 2023 (right on cue in our opinion) continues into 2024.
However, we can’t help but think the market is due for a breather here:
Could the S&P 500 at 5,000 be the rest stop?
Reversion to the mean is the iron rule of the financial markets.
What could be some “reversions to the mean” in 2024?
Here are some potential scenarios that come to mind:
In that same vein, the bears were the darlings in 2022, all over the media. So naturally, they got crushed in 2023. Absolutely stampeded whenever they mounted any opposition to last year’s bull market.
Now could the bears mount a more successful campaign in 2024? I think they could, just as the uber growth stocks did when they came off the mat last year. They remain ripe for reversion to the mean.
I still believe 2024 will be a good year for equities. Yet I am respectful of the power of reversion to the mean, and the bears had about as bad a year in 2023 as uber growth managers had in 2022. The bears should have better days in 2024.
Reversion to the mean suggests significantly more volatility in 2024 with more days of the bull thesis being challenged. Additionally, it means more days for weak-handed investors to be scared out of equities.
While the economic backdrop is completely different, I suspect 2023/2024 will be like 2009/2010.
Seems like 2023 was like 2009, and 2024 could be like 2010.
To be clear, I am the first to admit I am a bit biased on this subject.
However, I would also argue that reversion to the mean is already happening in 2024:
So why the reversion?
In 2023, 62% of the S&P 500 return came from the magnificent 7. Their average return was +111% and each one of them crushed the S&P 500 return.6
Certain jurisdictions have restrictions on active management’s ability to hold these stocks both in terms of size and concentration.
Yet in classic reversion to the mean fashion, it has not been so good across the board for the magnificent 7 in 2024. Some good/some horrible. Hence, choosing the right ones and not owning all of them has mattered.
But some opinions I am more passionate about than others.
Something I have stressed recently:
The fallacy of valuation analysis.
How many times did you read in 2023 that there was no upside in stocks because the equity risk premium or the P/E was stretched?
Or that Europe was more attractive because it’s “cheaper than the US”?
These types of announcements are all predicated on somebody’s ability to accurately predict earnings.
Investors, in my opinion, take this accuracy as gospel, yet didn’t we learn last year how wrong that could be?
That brings me to 2024:
As of February 6th, 80% of the S&P 500 members that have reported beat their Q4 estimate. For MSCI Europe that number is 26%. A woeful difference.7
That is not to say there are not good opportunities for individual stocks in Europe.
It is simply that estimates for the S&P 500 are likely going up and estimates for Europe are likely heading lower.
Thereby making the S&P 500 cheaper than it looked and Europe more expensive.
Investors stop worrying when politicians start worrying.
Seems to me the Chinese authorities are starting to worry, and are taking some measures.
I have been too bullish on the recovery in China.
Although, to be fair, our largest Chinese stock in our global strategies posted a very solid year in 2023 and continues upward this year as well.
Overall, however, the Chinese market has stunk longer than I expected.
Given the added risk that government intervention could derail any of these stocks at any moment, I would not advocate a large allocation.
But I can’t help but remember that old axiom.
Andrew
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Head of Applied Equity Advisors Team
Applied Equity Advisors Team
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