CLIENT TALKING POINTS
OIL
WTI crude crushed (-1.6% this morning) to $84.42 and finally signals immediate-term TRADE oversold within a very bearish TREND; XLE (Energy Stocks) are now -4.3% for 2014 year-to-date and look quite deflationary.
CONSUMER DISCRETIONARY
The XLY has been (and continues to be) one of the worst places to be in S&P Sector allocation terms in 2014, down hard again yesterday and -2.6% year-to-date. Our call remains that at least 2/3 of the U.S population is experiencing max cost of living pain - the deflation might help, but on a big lag to expectations.
UST 10YR
UST 10YR Yield of 2.32% continues in crash mode (yield is -23% year-to-date) and continues to signal that U.S. GDP will be lucky to be ½ of what consensus had it at the start of 2014. We still can’t believe consensus has 2015 U.S. GDP up at 3.1%; expectations, as our boy William wrote, can be the ‘root of all heartache’.
TOP LONG IDEAS
EDV
The Vanguard Extended Duration Treasury (EDV) is an extended duration ETF (20-30yr). Now that we have our first set of late-cycle economic indicators slowing in rate of change terms (ADP numbers and the NFP number), it's time to really think through the upcoming moves of this bond market. We are doubling down on our biggest macro call of 2014 - that U.S. growth would slow and bond yields fall in kind.
TLT
Fixed income continues to be our favorite asset class, so it should come as no surprise to see us rotate into the Shares 20+ Year Treasury Bond Fund (TLT) on the long side. In conjunction with our #Q3Slowing macro theme, we think the slope of domestic economic growth is poised to roll over here in the third quarter. In the context of what may be flat-to-decelerating reported inflation, we think the performance divergence between Treasuries, stocks and commodities may actually be set to widen over the next two to three months. This view remains counter to consensus expectations, which is additive to our already-high conviction level in this position. Fade consensus on bonds – especially as growth slows. As it’s done for multiple generations, the 10Y Treasury Yield continues to track the slope of domestic economic growth like a glove.
RH
Restoration Hardware remains our Retail Team’s highest-conviction long idea. We think that most parts of the thesis are at least acknowledged by the market (category growth, real estate expansion), but people are absolutely missing how all the pieces are coming together to drive such outsized earnings growth over an extremely long duration. The punchline of our real estate analysis is that a) RH stores could get far bigger than even the RH bulls seem to think, b) Aside from reconfiguring 66 existing markets, there’s another 19 markets we identified where the spending rate on home furnishings by people making over $100k in income suggests that RH should expand to these markets with Design Galleries, and c) the availability and economics on large properties for all these markets are far better than people think. The consensus is looking for long-term earnings growth of 28% -- we’re looking for 45%.
Asset Allocation
| CASH | 68% | US EQUITIES | 0% | |
| INTL EQUITIES | 6% | COMMODITIES | 2% | |
| FIXED INCOME | 24% | INTL CURRENCIES | 0% |
THREE FOR THE ROAD
TWEET OF THE DAY
There's only one 2014 LONG I kept on in Real-Time Alerts pre yesterday's swoon, $TLT #timestamped
@KeithMcCullough
QUOTE OF THE DAY
The vision of a champion is someone who is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion when no one is watching
-Anson Dorrance
STAT OF THE DAY
Natural Gas from shale formations accounts for 40% of all U.S. natural gas produced, and this is expected to increase to 53% by 2040 according to EIA estimates.
