CLIENT TALKING POINTS

VIX

We repeat the front month VIX has never held below 10 – NEVER is a very long time. Watch that line of complacency. If you take a look at the long term chart of the VIX this morning you will see what we mean. The last time the VIX hit this level was actually January of 2007. Thereafter, volatility made a steady climb before peaking in October 2008 at ~60.

OIL

Oil price is ripping to the upside. What you have is called TAIL risk to the upside and TAIL risk to the downside on U.S. growth. Our immediate-term risk range for WTIC Oil is 103.21-105.67, we remain bullish trend.

INDIA

Fantastic news in India regarding their success with rate hikes. Inflation is under control. India had the only stock market that was really up. Strong currency, strong policy equates to stronger policy and stronger consumption.

TOP LONG IDEAS

HOLX

HOLX

Hologic is emerging from an extremely tough period which has left investors wary of further missteps. In our view, Hologic and its new management are set to show solid growth over the next several years. We have built two survey tools to track and forecast the two critical elements that will drive this acceleration.  The first survey tool measures 3-D Mammography placements every month.  Recently we have detected acceleration in month over month placements.  When Hologic finally receives a reimbursement code from Medicare, placements will accelerate further, perhaps even sooner.  With our survey, we'll see it real time. In addition to our mammography survey. We've been running a monthly survey of OB/GYNs asking them questions to help us forecast the rest of Hologic's businesses, some of which have been faced with significant headwinds. Based on our survey, we think those headwinds are fading. If the Affordable Care Act actually manages to reduce the number of uninsured, Hologic is one of the best positioned companies.

OC

OC

Construction activity remains cyclically depressed, but has likely begun the long process of recovery.  A large multi-year rebound in construction should provide a tailwind to OC shares that the market appears to be underestimating.  Both residential and nonresidential construction in the U.S. would need to roughly double to reach post-war demographic norms.  As credit returns to the market and government funded construction begins to rebound, construction markets should make steady gains in coming years, quarterly weather aside, supporting OC’s revenue and capacity utilization.

LM

LM

Legg Mason reported its month ending asset-under-management for April at the beginning of the week with a very positive result in its fixed income segment. The firm cited “significant” bond inflows for the month which we calculated to be over $2.3 billion. To contextualize this inflow amount we note that the entire U.S. mutual fund industry had total bond fund inflows of just $8.4 billion in April according to the Investment Company Institute, which provides an indication of the strong win rate for Legg alone last month. We also point out on a forward looking basis that the emerging trends in the mutual fund marketplace are starting to favor fixed income which should translate into accelerating positive trends at leading bond fund managers. Fixed income inflow is outpacing equities thus far in the second quarter of 2014 for the first time in 9 months which reflects the emerging defensive nature of global markets which is a good environment for leading fixed income houses including Legg Mason.

Asset Allocation

CASH 15% US EQUITIES 0%
INTL EQUITIES 10% COMMODITIES 20%
FIXED INCOME 30% INTL CURRENCIES 25%

THREE FOR THE ROAD

TWEET OF THE DAY

$LULU CFO is out. I couldn’t care less what the comp is. This is so positive. What a great event to get more bullish on.

@HedgeyeRetail

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Order and simplification are the first steps towards mastery of a subject”

-Thomas Mann

STAT OF THE DAY

The World Cup has been held every four years since 1930 with the exception of 1942 and 1946, when it was canceled because of World War II. This will be the 20th World Cup.