Equity Market Valuations

“Nothing so undermines your financial judgment as the sight of your neighbor getting rich.”

The extreme performance divergence between sectors on the receiving side of the stimulus is stunning. The businesses best positioned to benefit from spending by the upper and upper-middle class are thriving — just look at the share prices of your favorite credit card company; they are at all-time highs. Those most sensitive to interest rates and, thereby, the worst positioned for tight monetary policy are or soon will be flirting with bankruptcy. If you look at commercial real estate owners and their lending banks, you’ll see that their share prices are at all-time lows.

“Nothing so undermines your financial judgment as the sight of your neighbor getting rich.” Read More »

Men rise to great fortune “more through fraud than through force.”

Valuations are extreme, liquidity is falling, optimism is at record levels, and speculators are longer than they have been all year. The icing on the cake is that the market thinks there will be 6 Fed rate cuts this year. Policymakers at the Fed, most of whom are non-voters, think there will be 3. I think there will be none. The market is ahead of itself.

Men rise to great fortune “more through fraud than through force.” Read More »