All Things in Moderation

Vital Statistics:

Stocks are lower this morning after a surprisingly weak jobs report. Bonds and MBS are up.

Jobs report data dump:

• Nonfarm payrolls up 98,000. Expectations were for 175k so this is a huge miss
• Unemployment rate down to 4.5%
• Employment to population ratio increased to 60.1%
• Average hourly earnings up 0.2% MOM and 2.7% YOY
• Labor force participation rate flat at 63%

Part of the payroll miss could be explained by bad weather in the Northeast and the Midwest in March. We saw jobs increase in professional and business services while payrolls contracted in retail. The labor force increased by 145k, while the number of employed people increased by 472k and the number of unemployed fell by 326k. The number of involuntary part time employees (people who would like a full time job but can only get a part time one) fell, as did the number of long term unemployed and discouraged workers. While the payroll number will garner all the attention, the internals of the jobs report show the slack is being used up in the labor market, so it isn’t as bad as it initially appears.

The Fed Funds futures took down their probability of a June hike from 71% to 66% on the jobs report.

Two things happened yesterday which could push bond yields lower. First the US attacked air bases in Syria in retaliation for using chemical weapons. International tension is almost invariably bond bullish as investors put on the flight to safety trade. The other is the Democratic filibuster of Neil Gorsuch. This probably forecloses any sort of possibility for bipartisan legislation, particularly stimulus plans or tax cuts. In fact, the debt ceiling battle could become an epic game of chicken as the government is rapidly running out of borrowing capacity. While the second scenario is not necessarily bond bullish the first one definitely is.

Fannie Mae’s Home Purchase Sentiment index fell last month as high prices and low inventories take their toll. The number of people who think it is a good time to buy fell by 10 percentage points while the number tho think it is a good time to sell rose by 9 percentage points. People are less bullish on their economic future as well.

Neel Kashkari disputes Jamie Dimon’s assessment of the regulatory environment for banks, citing the Fed statistic that there is a 70% chance of a bailout in the next century.  Jamie Dimon declared the era of too big to fail is over, while Kashkari disagrees. Forecasting banking scenarios over a 100 year time period is probably a fool’s errand. I wonder what banking regulators thought in 1917 (The Fed had only been established a few years earlier). Kashkari is a bit of a regulatory hawk and thinks the capital standards should be doubled.

San Francisco Fed President John Williams says it should take about 5 years for the Fed’s balance sheet to shrink to a normal level once they start reducing it. Of course the open question is “what constitutes normal?” Prior to the financial crisis, the Fed’s balance sheet was under $1 trillion. It is now pegged at $4.5 trillion.

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Vital Statistics:

Stocks are lower this morning after the FOMC worried about stock prices. Bonds and MBS are down small.

Job cuts rose 17% in March, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas. Telecom and retail were the two main sectors to trim staff. Note that this report only measures announced job cuts (in press releases), not actual job cuts. We are still seeing losses in the energy patch, however it is much slower than the past two years when we lost over 200k jobs.

On the other side of the coin, hiring announcements continue to hit records, with the Home Despot announcing 80,000 seasonal hires in March.

Initial Jobless Claims fell to 234k last week, while the Gallup Good Jobs index improved. The drop in initial jobless claims was the most in 2 years.

The FOMC minutes showed the Fed is beginning to discount the possibility of a big Trump fiscal expansion. The failure of health care reform means that the available resources for a big infrastructure spend or tax cuts is much less. The Fed also discussed what to do with their $4.5 trillion balance sheet, and how to go about shrinking it. The terms “gradual” and “phase out” were used, which means they probably aren’t going to stop reinvesting maturing principal all at once and will perhaps take a couple of meetings to see how it goes. The Fed’s fear is that the additional contractionary effects of reducing the balance sheet along with rate hikes will be too much and push the economy into a recession.

The staff also noted that stock values are above historical norms, which is undoubtedly another reason for them to go slowly. The worst-kept secret in financial markets is that the Fed targets asset prices and uses them to guide policy.

Goldman Chief Economist Jan Hatzius says that reducing the Fed’s balance sheet is probably a good step to clear the decks for whoever will be the new Fed President ahead of the end of Janet Yellen’s term in early 2018.

The left has set up a new website to keep track of HUD and what they are doing. They want to ensure that affordable housing targets don’t fall by the wayside as HUD works on housing reform. Given the tight housing inventory these days, affordable housing is a huge need.

Donald Trump economic adviser Gary Cohn supports some sort of return to the Glass-Steagall days, where consumer banking is separated from the underwriting and trading functions of investment banks. Some Senators and policy types were surprised to hear a Wall Street type advising that. The conversation regarding deposits will be further complicated by the emerging fintech sector which wants access to those deposits as well.

The Senate is expected to exercise the nuclear option today and eliminate the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees. Neil Gorsuch will probably be confirmed on Friday.

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Vital Statistics:

Stocks are higher this morning on no real news. Bonds and MBS are down small.

The minutes from the FOMC meeting are coming out at 2:00 pm EST today. Investors will be focused on plans to shrink the balance sheet and also any sort of discussion about DC. Be careful locking around that time – we could see some volatility.

Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker resigned yesterday for making unauthorized disclosures to a consulting firm owned by the Financial Times. Lacker was a non-voter, so it should make no difference to monetary policy.

Mortgage applications fell 1.6% last week as purchases rose 1% and refis fell 4%. Refis fell to 42.8%, the lowest since October 2008.

The ADP jobs number came in at 263,000 which means we should expect a strong employment situation report this Friday. The Street is predicting 178,000 jobs were added in March. Construction added 49k jobs while IT lost 10k. This is the third month in a row with more than 240k jobs added:

The Gallup US Job Creation index also hit a new high. The US PMI Services index fell however. The ISM Services index fell as well.

Don’t forget, we are exiting Q1, which for some reason has been a weak quarter for over a decade. If past trends hold, we should be seeing a pickup during the spring and summer.

Jamie Dimon weighed in on banking regulation in JP Morgan’s annual letter to shareholders. The system is much safer today than it was in 2008, however he argues that many of the regulations put in place were hastily drawn up and should be reviewed. He mentioned that new regulations surrounding mortgage lending have raised costs to consumers and restricted lending to people with low credit scores needlessly. Interesting comment since JP Morgan pretty much got out of the FHA business years ago.

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Vital Statistics:

Stocks are lower this morning after auto sales disappointed. Bonds and MBS are up.

Factory orders rose 1% last month, in line with expectations.

US economic confidence decreased last week, according to Gallup, however confidence is still strong. Meanwhile, consumer spending was flat.

These data points (economic confidence, consumer spending, and auto sales) illustrate the conundrum we have been seeing for the past few months: soft data like confidence and ISM reports show a strong economy, while the hard data like sales have been showing a mediocre economy. Much of this is Washington-driven as investors realize that Trump will have a difficult time pushing through his agenda in the face of unified Democratic opposition and a Freedom Caucus that wants less government, period. Unrealistic expectations are being brought back to Earth. Despite gridlock, much is being done on the regulatory front and with executive orders which don’t require Congressional approval. That will help. But there seems to be a shift in the psychology of investors: the markets seem to be worrying less about the Fed and worrying more about tepid growth. Bonds have noticed as well, with the 10 bond yield down about 30 basis points over the past 3 weeks.

Home prices rose 7% YOY in February, according to CoreLogic. We are seeing the highest price appreciation at the lower price points. The first time homebuyer is getting hit with a double-whammy of higher prices and borrowing costs.

Housing’s share of GDP came in 15.6% in the fourth quarter. Historically, that number has been around 18%. Housing continues to punch below its weight, as evidenced by tight inventory. It is hard to know exactly why homebuilding continues to be weak – credit is an issue, as is the general post-bubble caution, along with local land use regulations.

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Vital Statistics:

Stocks are flattish on no real news. Bonds and MBS are flat as well.

The ISM Manufacturing Report ticked up slightly in March. New orders and production slipped while employment gained. Prices rose as well. The reading of 57.2 would correspond historically with about a 4.4% increase in real GDP.

Construction spending rose 0.8% MOM in February and is up 3.0% annualized. Residential construction rose 1.8% MOM and is up 6.3% YOY.

We have a relatively news heavy week coming up with the FOMC minutes and the jobs report. We will also get the ISM data this week.

This week will give will also be important politically. Republican Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch will be voted on in the Senate. Minority leader Chuck Schumer has demanded a 60 vote threshold to confirm him (here is the current state of affairs there), and Mitch McConnell has said Gorsuch is getting confirmed one way or the other, which is a threat to change Senate rules on judicial nominations (the nuclear option). If the Democrats filibuster Gorsuch and McConnell changes the rules, it pretty much poisons the well for any sort of bipartisan legislation like health care reform, tax reform, or financial reform. This would be good for rates at the margin.

Cash-out refinances are about 44% of all refis these days, which is a pickup from the depths of the bubble, but nowhere near the heady times of the bubble years where people used cash out refis to fund consumption. Today, cash-out refinances are used more to refinance debt, especially credit card debt.

As a general rule, when stocks and bonds disagree, go with what bonds are telling you. Mohammed El-Arian breaks that rule to say the bond market has it wrong. His point is that the bond market is underestimating how assertive the Fed is becoming.

Good article for the first time homebuyer.. All the stuff that can come up and surprise you. Bonus tip: Don’t load up on credit for all the things you will need for your new house until after your loan closes.

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Vital Statistics:

Stocks are lower this morning as investors take some profits after a good quarter. Bonds and MBS are flat.

Personal Incomes rose 0.4% MOM while consumer spending rose 0.2%. The savings rate increased 0.2% to 5.6%. The PCE Index (the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation) rose 2.1% YOY, while the core index, which strips out some volatile commodity prices rose 1.8%.

The Chicago PMI Index rose slightly in March as new orders rose and employment fell.

Consumer sentiment retreated slightly in March, according to the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment survey. Note that the spread between the “soft” economic data (like sentiment indices) and the “hard” economic data (like actual spending numbers) has never been higher. This is probably being driven by expectations of regulatory relief.

Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan is worried about Washington and the effect policy will have on consumer spending. The fear is that any sort of protectionism via a cross-border tax or policies that could increase health care inflation would crimp spending, especially for older folks. Of course there is a demographic effect happening as well – older people tend to spend less. Their kids are still just starting out, but they will hit their peak spending years soon enough. And before everyone starts wringing their hands over the savings rate, it is still pretty low by historical standards:

Want a good statistic to demonstrate how tight the housing market is? 57% of all realtors have been involved in a sale with at least 10 offers on a single property in the past year. In fact, only 2% have not experienced a bidding war in the last year. We are starting to see home sales contingent on the seller finding a place to buy.  This is part of the problem for the first time homebuyer: The move-up buyer can’t find (or afford) a better place so they are staying put.

William Dudley of the NY Fed prefers the Fed go slowly in reducing the size of its balance sheet. So far, the consensus is that the Fed will just let maturing bonds roll off and not re-invest those proceeds back into the market. Dudley wants to be even more cautious than that, and taper the re-investment, which would mean they would start by reinvesting only half of maturing proceeds back into the market, and then stop altogether later. Regardless of how the Fed handles it, any sort of balance sheet change should have a minimal effect on MBS spreads. If QE had a de minimus effect on spreads then ending the reinvestment policy should have little to no effect. Note Dudley is also concerned about the effect this will have on long term rates, which could restrict credit.

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Vital Statistics:

Stocks are lower this morning on no real news. Bonds and MBS are down small.

We will have Fed-speak all day, with 4 speakers. The bond market is still digesting hawkish statements from yesterday.

The final revision to fourth quarter GDP came in at 2.1%, an uptick from the previous 2.0% estimate, based on higher consumption. The PCE price index came in at 2%, bang in line with the Fed’s inflation target.

Initial Jobless Claims came in at 258k, a slight downtick from the week before. Consumer comfort slipped.

Corporate profits rose 22% in the fourth quarter compared to a year ago to just over $1.7 trillion. While the stock market may have overreacted to the Trump reflation trade, the backdrop of increasing corporate profits provides basis for increasing stock prices.

Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Head Eric Rosengren suggested the Fed should hike rates 3 more times this year and warned about pushing unemployment too low. “The perception seems to be that the outcome of each FOMC meeting depends on nuances of incoming data, with the base case being no change in rates,” Rosengren said in a speech in Boston Wednesday. “My own view is that an increase at every other FOMC meeting over the course of this year could and should be the committee’s default.” Rosengren used to be a dove, and now has turned hawkish. Again, the big question is whether the unemployment rate of 4.7% is a true reflection of the labor market given the low labor force participation rate. The true “tell” is going to be wage growth, and that is improving after a long slumber, but is nowhere near igniting inflation. Remember, the Fed has two goals here: 1) to prevent inflation from getting out of control, and 2) to get off the zero bound. The Fed is soft-pedaling goal #2, but that is what is really going on here.

A bipartisan group of senators has warned FHFA Chairman Mel Watt to not suspend Fannie Mae’s dividends to Treasury, as it would affect efforts to revamp the housing finance system. Note that the dividends from Fannie Mae have been used to prop up Obamacare, and the constant draining of capital means that Fannie is becoming less safe and more likely to need a bailout should home prices fall or we have a recession.

Repeal and Replace might not be dead after all. Trump is hinting that he might deal with Democrats if the Freedom Caucus doesn’t come onboard. That may be an empty threat as the bridge across the aisle is pretty much a smoking hulk at this point, but you never know. Trump does have leverage with the Democrats however, if he chooses to use it. Lawsuits against Obamacare still exist, and if the Administration chooses not to defend against them anymore, they could end the subsidies to the insurance companies which would probably end the exchanges in many parts of the country. The Freedom Caucus however is about to learn the first lesson of coalition politics – nobody gets everything they want. Additional progress on this front will generally be bond bearish (in other words sending interest rates higher).

One-of-a-kind waterfront property in VA for under $250k? Yes! Though it is a bit of a fixer-upper.

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Vital Statistics:

Markets are flat this morning on no real news. Bonds and MBS are down small.

Mortgage Applications fell 0.8% last week as purchases rose 1% and refis fell 3%. Rates collapsed at the end of the week due to the failure of health care reform, so it is probably premature to see if that has affected things. Note that mortgage rates invariably lag moves in the 10-year as lenders wait to see if the changes are for real.

Pending Home Sales increased 5.5% in February, which is 2.6% higher than a year ago, and the second-highest reading since the bubble years (the first was last April). A slight uptick in listings drove the increase. Demand is there, supply is not.

Deep Subprime auto loans (loans to borrowers with sub 550 credit scores) have increased to 1/3 of all auto loan ABS. In 2010, they were just 5%. As you can expect, delinquencies are increasing on these. It is surprising that institutional investors are happy to buy bonds securitized by assets that depreciate like sushi, while securitizing an overcollateralized pool of high quality non-QM loans is like pulling teeth.

If there is anything in Washington that should have bipartisan support, it is finding a solution for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The current situation is untenable, as the government is sweeping all of their profits, which is making them more and more undercapitalized. The Trump Administration has indicated that dealing with the GSEs is a high priority, but they have yet to give any sort of indication of how they think the future housing market should look. The model the MBA supports is to turn them into regulated utilities, with a capped rate of return. The Obama Administration supported nationalizing them, while another plan would get them out of the securitization business and into the mortgage insurance business. There are many stakeholders in this discussion, including the affordable housing types who want to ensure underserved areas can get credit, hedge funds who own the common and preferred shares, as well as lenders and borrowers.

Here is a good backgrounder on how hard tax reform is going to be. Every “loophole” will have a constituency which will defend it to the death. The failure to end Obamacare (at least for now) will have taken the biggest “pay for” off the table. That leaves Republicans with a couple choices: Either pass a 10 year tax cut the way George W Bush did, or do revenue-neutral tax reform like Reagan did.

Institutional Investors are implementing artificial intelligence into the stock picking business. How much do you want to bet that everyone’s algorithms will look pretty much the same and will pick the same stocks?

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Vital Statistics:

Markets are slightly lower after recouping most of yesterday’s losses. Bonds and MBS are up small.

The trade deficit improved to $64.8 billion from $68.8 billion in February. The weakening dollar is helping things, along with lower oil prices. Meanwhile retail inventories increased 0.4%.

Janet Yellen is scheduled to speak at 12:50 pm on workforce development. I doubt there will be any monetary policy (i.e. market-moving) statements, but you never know.

Donald Trump is hoping he can attract some moderate Democrats to vote in favor of his infrastructure spending plan. Democrats are in favor of infrastructure investment, however they want the government to spend directly, while Trump and the Republicans want to do it via the tax code. The partisan rift will almost undoubtedly fall down that line, although the failure of Obamacare repeal leaves less money for direct spending.

Remember the debt ceiling negotiations and threats of government shutdowns in the Obama admin? The government runs out of money in a month.

Charles Evans said that two hikes might be the right number for 2017, which is more dovish than the consensus. The collapse of the Obamacare repeal is still sinking in. Watch for more dovish statements and a lowering of growth and inflation forecasts.

Economic confidence fell last week according to Gallup and is at the lowest since the election. It is still higher than pre-election however. It will be interesting to see the numbers post the health care vote.

That drop in confidence was not apparent in the Consumer Confidence numbers, which came in way higher than expected in March. The reading of 125.6 was the highest reading since December 2000. Note the cutoff for this survey was mid-March.

The Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index is showing further strength, echoing the strength we have been seeing in the other regional Fed indices.

Home prices rose smartly in January, increasing 5.9% and hitting a 31 month high, according to the Case-Shiller home price index. Seattle, Portland, and Denver led the charge all reporting over 9% growth. Seattle increased by over 11%.

Home inventories are at the lowest level in 2 decades, according to NAR at just under 4 months’ worth. The first time homebuyer is being squeezed by tight inventory, rising prices, and increasing mortgage rates. Unless incomes begin to catch up with prices, something has to give: either home prices or building. According to NAR, the median home price February was $228,400, while the median income (from Sentier Research) was $58,056, putting the median house price to median income ratio at 3.9x, which is higher than the historical range of about 3.2- 3.6 times. Given the continued acceleration in home prices, professional investors who bought properties during the bust years and rented them out are happy holders. And to be honest, as an investor, you would sell real estate to buy what, exactly? Stocks? Bonds? Bitcoins?

Meanwhile, the homebuilder stocks are almost back to 2 year highs heading into the Spring Selling Season. Note that KB Home recently reported strong earnings, while Lennar disappointed on the the gross margin side. Increasing land costs are the biggest problem, while rising material and labor costs are an issue. The question for the bigger builders is what is going to drive revenue growth going forward once home prices plateau. At that point, they may begin to start building again. We aren’t there yet however, as Stuart Miller of Lennar commented on an earnings call: “In this environment of accelerating sales pace, together with limited land and labor, and tight inventory particularly at the lower price points, we believe we are positioned for increased pricing power and solid earnings going forward.” Translated, that says that Lennar plans to keep inventory tight and let price increases drive the top line going forward.

Despite the increase in rates, lenders are still optimistic about the economy, according to the latest Fannie Mae Investor Sentiment Survey, however a challenging purchase environment and the death of refis remain huge issues. Lenders are beginning to increase the size of the credit box in response, although the changes are modest. Increasing the credit box meaningfully will require some sort of return of the private label securitization market, which remains largely dormant. Addressing the issues here will be a huge part of Dodd-Frank reform. The US taxpayer currently stands behind something like 90% of all new origination, which almost nobody in government wants.

The regulators are using AI and machine learning to deal with the markets.

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Vital Statistics:

Stocks are lower after the Trump reflation trade is being unwound. Bonds and MBS are up.

Not much in the way of data this week – probably the biggest number is the final revision to Q4 GDP on Thursday. We will have a lot of Fed-speak however.

The Republican House couldn’t agree on a replacement for Obamacare and pulled the vote. This puts Trump’s planned infrastructure spend and tax cuts in jeopardy as reduced spending on healthcare was the pay-for. That said, tax reform will probably be easier as there is bipartisan agreement that the current corporate tax structure isn’t really working for anyone. Tougher will be individual tax reform, where Republicans want to lower rates in exchange for reduced deductions. The mortgage interest deduction will stay, but the deduction for state and local taxes may not.

Even though the markets are re-adjusting their forecasts for fiscal stimulus, central bankers still seem committed to getting off the zero bound. Amidst all the furor in the US over the last month, Europeans have completely re-assessed what they think the ECB is going to do, taking the implied probability of a rate hike by the end of the year from a long shot to a coin toss.

In the aftermath of the Obamacare vote, the next thing to watch for is whether the regional Fed banks and strategists start taking down their estimates for 2017 GDP. Remember, the Fed’s forecast of 2-3 hikes this year was predicated on fiscal stimulus, which now looks less likely.

Treasuries remain under some selling pressure as Japanese fund managers sell. Note that speculative short positions in Treasuries were pretty high going into this defeat on healthcare, so interest rates may be pushed lower as hedge funds unwind the trade. Not sure how long that lasts, but this is good news for homebuyers entering the Spring selling season.

Home prices are just shy of their 2006 peak, according to the Black Knight Financial Services Home Price Index. In December, they rose 0.1% MOM and 5.7% YOY. The report has a good state-by-state analysis too.

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