“Peek of the Week”
Market Commentary
August 12, 2019
The Markets
Global
selloff. Quick comeback.
Investors
boomeranged from stocks to safe havens and back as trade tensions between the United
States and China intensified last week. The
Economist reported:
“On August
1st President Donald Trump warned that he would soon impose a 10 percent levy
on roughly $300bn-worth of Chinese goods that have not already been hit by the
trade war. Four days later China responded by giving its exchange rate
unaccustomed freedom to fall. The yuan weakened past seven to the dollar, an
important psychological threshold, for the first time in over a decade. And
stock prices in America duly fell...”
Asia Times explained, “Beijing has signaled that it is prepared
to endure a long and debilitating trade war with the United States…A reported
directive to Chinese companies to refrain from buying U.S. farm products seems
an in-your-face challenge to the U.S. president.”
The
possibility of a prolonged trade war triggered worries about global recession and
set off a selloff. Global stock markets experienced the biggest one-day decline
since February 2018, according to Bloomberg,
and U.S. stocks delivered the worst one-day performance of 2019, reported MarketWatch.
Stocks
staged an impressive recovery on Tuesday. Then, central banks in India,
Thailand, and New Zealand announced unexpected rate cuts. The moves incited
concern about the health of the global economy and stocks dropped again – and
recovered again. By the end of the week, nearly all losses in U.S. stock
markets had been erased.
If
recent volatility has triggered a desire to change your investments, please get
in touch with us before you do.
Data as of
8/9/19
|
1-Week
|
Y-T-D
|
1-Year
|
3-Year
|
5-Year
|
10-Year
|
|
Standard & Poor's 500 (Domestic Stocks)
|
-0.5%
|
16.4%
|
2.3%
|
10.2%
|
8.6%
|
11.2%
|
|
Dow Jones Global ex-U.S.
|
-1.3
|
6.3
|
-7.7
|
2.9
|
-0.5
|
2.7
|
|
10-year Treasury Note (Yield Only)
|
1.7
|
NA
|
2.9
|
1.6
|
2.4
|
3.8
|
|
Gold (per ounce)
|
3.9
|
16.9
|
23.3
|
3.8
|
2.8
|
4.7
|
|
Bloomberg Commodity Index
|
0.3
|
0.9
|
-8.8
|
-2.6
|
-9.5
|
-5.0
|
S&P 500, Dow Jones Global ex-US, Gold,
Bloomberg Commodity Index returns exclude reinvested dividends (gold does not
pay a dividend) and the three-, five-, and 10-year returns are annualized; and
the 10-year Treasury Note is simply the yield at the close of the day on each
of the historical time periods.
Sources: Yahoo! Finance, MarketWatch, djindexes.com,
London Bullion Market Association.
Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
Indices are unmanaged and cannot be invested into directly. N/A means not
applicable.
can you believe it? The global bond market deserves a spot in a believe-it-or-not
museum, right next to the bathythermograph, radioactive vodka (brewed with
Chernobyl grain), and 526 extra teeth recently removed from a youngster’s jaw.
Here’s
why: Approximately one-fourth of all bonds issued by governments and companies
around the globe are trading at negative yields, according to an index cited by The Economist.
Just
imagine. You want to borrow money. An acquaintance agrees to lend you the money
and then offers to pay you for borrowing it.
It
sounds like a Monty Python skit, right?
It’s
not. All over the world, bonds issued by governments and companies are offering
negative interest rates. Investors who purchase the bonds are paying governments
and companies to borrow their money. For instance, in Germany, investors are
paying one-half of a percentage point annually for the assurance their money
will be returned when the bond matures.
Why
are so many bond yields in negative territory?
Strangely
enough, retirement and longevity may play a role. Joachim Fels of PIMCO theorized a ‘savings glut’ could
be the reason for low and negative yields. He explained:
“…it
can be argued that in affluent societies where people can expect to live ever
longer and thus spend a significant amount of their lifetimes in retirement,
more and more people demonstrate negative time preference, meaning they value
future consumption during their retirement more than today’s consumption…they
are thus willing to accept a negative interest rate and bring it about through
their saving behavior.”
We
live in interesting times.
Weekly Focus – Think About
It
“Why do you go away? So that you can come
back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra
colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you
started is not the same as never leaving.”
--Sir Terence David John Pratchett,
English author
Best regards,
Leif M.
Hagen
Leif M. Hagen, CLU ChFC
LPL Financial Advisor
Leif M. Hagen, CLU ChFC
LPL Financial Advisor
P.S. Please feel free to forward this commentary
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Securities
offered through LPL Financial Member FINRA/SIPC.
*
These views are those of Carson Coaching, and not the presenting Representative
or the Representative’s Broker/Dealer, and should not be construed as
investment advice.
*
This newsletter was prepared by Carson Coaching. Carson Coaching is not
affiliated with the named broker/dealer.
*
Government bonds and Treasury Bills are guaranteed by the U.S. government as to
the timely payment of principal and interest and, if held to maturity, offer a
fixed rate of return and fixed principal value.
However, the value of fund shares is not guaranteed and will fluctuate.
*
Corporate bonds are considered higher risk than government bonds but normally
offer a higher yield and are subject to market, interest rate and credit risk
as well as additional risks based on the quality of issuer coupon rate, price,
yield, maturity, and redemption features.
*
The Standard & Poor's 500 (S&P 500) is an unmanaged group of securities
considered to be representative of the stock market in general. You cannot
invest directly in this index.
*
All indexes referenced are unmanaged. Unmanaged index returns do not reflect
fees, expenses, or sales charges. Index performance is not indicative of the
performance of any investment.
*
The Dow Jones Global ex-U.S. Index covers approximately 95% of the market
capitalization of the 45 developed and emerging countries included in the
Index.
*
The 10-year Treasury Note represents debt owed by the United States Treasury to
the public. Since the U.S. Government is seen as a risk-free borrower,
investors use the 10-year Treasury Note as a benchmark for the long-term bond
market.
*
Gold represents the afternoon gold price as reported by the London Bullion
Market Association. The gold price is set twice daily by the London Gold Fixing
Company at 10:30 and 15:00 and is expressed in U.S. dollars per fine troy
ounce.
*
The Bloomberg Commodity Index is designed to be a highly liquid and diversified
benchmark for the commodity futures market. The Index is composed of futures
contracts on 19 physical commodities and was launched on July 14, 1998.
*
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), commonly known as “The Dow,” is an
index representing 30 stock of companies maintained and reviewed by the editors
of The Wall Street Journal.
*
The NASDAQ Composite is an unmanaged index of securities traded on the NASDAQ
system.
*
International investing involves special risks such as currency fluctuation and
political instability and may not be suitable for all investors. These risks
are often heightened for investments in emerging markets.
*
Yahoo! Finance is the source for any reference to the performance of an index
between two specific periods.
*
Opinions expressed are subject to change without notice and are not intended as
investment advice or to predict future performance.
*
Economic forecasts set forth may not develop as predicted and there can be no
guarantee that strategies promoted will be successful.
*
Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investing involves risk,
including loss of principal.
*
You cannot invest directly in an index.
*
Stock investing involves risk including loss of principal.
* The foregoing information has
been obtained from sources considered to be reliable, but we do not guarantee
it is accurate or complete.
*
There is no guarantee a diversified portfolio will enhance overall returns or outperform
a non-diversified portfolio. Diversification does not protect against market
risk.
*
Asset allocation does not ensure a profit or protect against a loss.
*
Consult your financial professional before making any investment decision.
*
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Sources:
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2019/08/05/why-a-weakening-yuan-is-rattling-markets (or go to https://peakcontent.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/+Peak+Commentary/08-12-19_TheEconomist-Why_a_Weakening_Yuan_is_Rattling_Markets-Footnote_1.pdf)
https://www.barrons.com/articles/dow-jones-industrial-average-whipsawed-by-trade-tensions-finishes-week-down-modestly-51565396072?mod=hp_DAY_3 (or go
to https://peakcontent.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/+Peak+Commentary/08-12-19_Barrons-The_Dow_Whipsawed_by_Trade_Tensions_Finishes_the_Week_Down_Modestly-Footnote_5.pdf)
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2019/08/08/as-yields-turn-negative-investors-are-having-to-pay-for-safety (or go to https://peakcontent.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/+Peak+Commentary/08-12-19_TheEconomist-As_Yields_Turn_Negative_Investors_are_Having_to_Pay_for_Safety-Footnote_7.pdf)
https://www.barrons.com/articles/how-this-market-will-end-51565369599?mod=hp_DAY_1 (or go
to https://peakcontent.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/+Peak+Commentary/08-12-19_Barrons-How_This_Bull_Market_Will_End-Footnote_8.pdf)
