CLIENT TALKING POINTS

#EARNINGS

With the busiest week of Q1 Earnings for S&P 500 companies, we’ll have some concrete evidence of pending earnings deterioration. Thus far, 66 companies have reported from 7 sectors. 4 of 7 have comped down bottom line. S&P earnings have comped down -10.8% in aggregate, with materials and financials leading decliners. The trend of late cycle reporting strength in healthcare and consumer discretionary carries on, for now. Again we would ask the question, can the market continue to trade-up with the possibility of two more quarters of poor earnings? We’ll see.  

EUR/USD

The ECB holds its monetary meeting in Frankfurt tomorrow. We expect no great “waves” from President Mario Draghi as he already delivered the “Drugs” in the form of both interest rate cuts and the expansion of QE (by €20 billion to €80 billion/month) in last month’s meeting. We continue to suggest trading our immediate term TRADE risk range of $1.12 - $1.14. We have a neutral outlook on the currency cross over the intermediate term TREND.

#TIGHTCHINA

The Shanghai Composite Index dropped -2.3% overnight despite the PBoC injecting 250B of liquidity into the banking system, which represents the largest such injection since February 26th. Weighing on sentiment was a Xinhua report that monetary policy will likely be more prudent in 2016 than it was last year, according to sources close to the PBoC, as well as PBoC Chief Economist Ma Jun commentary about future monetary policy needing to guard against financial risks. With Chinese corporate leverage high and getting higher (166% of GDP) and property prices running up 30% YoY in first tier cities, we expect the PBoC to rein in the liquidity provision meaningfully from here now that economic stabilization is in the rear view mirror. 

*Tune into The Macro Show with Darius Dale live in the studio at 9:00AM ET - CLICK HERE

TOP LONG IDEAS

MCD

MCD

McDonald's (MCD) is reporting 1Q16 results on Friday, and we will have a more thorough update following the release. Current consensus estimates are projecting system-wide same-store sales (SSS) growth to be +4.6%, and +4.6% in the United States. Given another full quarter of All Day Breakfast, and ever evolving value proposition that MCD is providing, we feel confident in their ability to perform at or above expectations.

MCD continues to be a great LONG stock to hold during turbulent times in the market given their attributes of being large-cap, low beta, and aligns with our macro teams view of going LONG lower to middle income food providers.

CME

CME

With the largest Capital Markets operation reporting results last week, JP Morgan's numbers continue to relay the business-to-business (B2B) shift in both bond and equity markets. With capital hamstrung by Financial Crisis era regulation, and fixed income desks running tight as a drum, brokerage activity continues to shift over into the exchange traded derivative markets. JPM's FICC, or fixed income trading, results hit $3.5 billion in revenue in 1Q16, down 13% year-over-year.

Conversely, the daily reporting of CME Group's (CME) bond volumes finished at 8.2 million contracts per day in 1Q, up +9% from last year. On a revenue basis, CME's results are actually a little stronger, with fixed income rate per contract up +2% year-over-year. The shift in equities is more balanced, with JPM's equity trading revenues up +6% y-o-y according to their latest report.

CME's stock volumes, however, still outflank the big brokerage desk with futures and options volume up +9% y-o-y for the forthcoming quarterly report on April 28th. This activity shift is secular in our view and CME Group has a strong upward bias in earnings power which makes its stock one of the few to own in Financial Services.

TLT

TLT

We remain the bears on the U.S. economy and the corporate profit and credit cycles - we’re long growth slowing via Long Bonds (TLT) and Pimco 25+ Year Zero Coupon U.S. Treasury ETF (ZROZ) and short risky corporate credit via Junk Bonds (JNK) as the profit cycle rolls over.

High yield bonds have experienced meaningful relief in price terms with the move in reflationary assets. Again, we reiterate that once credit spreads move off their cycle lows, they don’t typically revert in the same cycle, which is why we are sticking with our sell recommendation on junk bonds (JNK).

Any time corporate profits decline for two consecutive quarters, the S&P drawdown has had a peak to trough decline of at least 20%. Dissecting the likely direction of earnings in Q1 and Q2 of this year, we could be facing 4 consecutive quarters of declining corporate profits, and we question the market's ability to slap higher earnings multiples on the S&P 500.

Asset Allocation

CASH 65% US EQUITIES 0%
INTL EQUITIES 0% COMMODITIES 5%
FIXED INCOME 25% INTL CURRENCIES 5%

THREE FOR THE ROAD

TWEET OF THE DAY

4 Videos On Why We Remain https://app.hedgeye.com/insights/50370-4-videos-on-why-we-re-bearish… @KeithMcCullough @HedgeyeDDale @HoweGeneration $SPY #Fed

@Hedgeye

QUOTE OF THE DAY

It's about discovery.  

Scott Jurek

STAT OF THE DAY

Apple reported iPhone owners unlock their device, on average, 80 times a day.