Market’s convulsions could signal beginning of end for bull market

Call it a correction overdue, but to Doug Ramsey, the convulsions that have shaken equity markets for the past week have the hallmarks of something bigger, perhaps an end to the era of tranquility that has reigned on Wall Street for half a decade.

To a greater extent than 24 different previous pullbacks since 2009, he says, this one arrived amid distinct signs of froth: Bitcoin’s 20-fold run-up. Individuals streaming into the market. Equity funds getting record cash. In contrast with euphoria years like 2017, bond yields are rising with increasing momentum, something that has historically spelled trouble, according to the chief investment officer of Leuthold Group.

“What we saw in January was sort of the psychological peak of the entire bull market,” said Mr. Ramsey, 51, who helps oversees $1.5 billion in Minneapolis and cut equity holdings just before the sell-off. “The sentiment peak usually occurs a number of months, sometimes up to a year, in advance of a market peak. There is a chance that we put in a top somewhere in that window.”

Mr. Ramsey, a one-time academic all-America baseball player for Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has a solid record of prescience. His Leuthold Core Investment Fund is beating 88% of its peers over the past five years.

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How do bull markets end? Sometimes suddenly, but often in a slow burn in which signs of nervousness gradually multiply. In 1999, the last year of the internet bubble, the Cboe Volatility Index averaged 24.4 — more than twice its level in 2017. Declines in the S&P 500 exceeding 5% occurred six separate times that year, even as the index returned 20%. It had three similar retreats before peaking in 2007.

“As different scenarios work through the system, volatility should increase,” said Malcolm Polley, who oversees $1.2 billion as president and chief investment officer at Stewart Capital Advisors in Indiana, Pa. “The end of a cycle tends to happen because of any event — most of these events are either unknown or unexpected so the market doesn’t know how to discount that.”

Little in the economic data or corporate earnings indicates trouble is looming. Growth in GDP is projected to be 2.6%, while stock analysts have been upgrading earnings estimates at the fastest pace in six years. Unemployment is at a 17-year low. None of that has been enough to keep daily stock swings from doubling in 2018, at least over the first six weeks.

The imperfect relationship between late-cycle stock volatility and the economy was on display at the end of the dot-com bubble, too. In the U.S., turbulence was rife in equities at a time when GDP was expanding by nearly 5% and unemployment was on its way to a 30-year low. Things were a little less robust in 2007, though no quarter that year saw an economic contraction or joblessness of more than 5%.

Mr. Ramsey cautioned against one threat, spiking Treasury rates, in a market where valuations are the highest level since the dot-com era. This peril was on display last week, when 10-year yields climbed to a four-year high, fueling the worst stock decline in two years. A model giving him pause today compares the pace of deterioration in bond prices to the equity market.

Leuthold’s Dow Bond Oscillator, which looks at how quickly returns are weakening in corporate credit, just flagged a warning that the rise in yields is too fast for stocks to escape. The model, using the 10-week exponential moving average of the 26-week percentage change in the Dow Jones Corporate Bond Index (which measures price, the reciprocal of yields), suggests that the lower it goes, the tighter monetary conditions — and therefore the worse for stocks.

Last month, the indicator dipped below zero for the first time since June, triggering a sell signal for shareholders. Negative readings have corresponded to lower stock returns since 1920, with the Dow Jones industrial average falling at an average annualized rate of 0.3%. Equity performance was better, rising 11%, when readings were above zero.https://www.investmentnews.com/assets/docs src=”/wp-content/uploads2018/02/CI11426827.PNG”

“Even if yields just flatten out for the next several weeks, it’s going to stay in negative territory because you’re looking versus six months ago,” Mr. Ramsey said. “People say as long as rates are low, it’s the critical factor supporting stock market valuations. This would say, ‘No. It’s the rate of change that matters.”‘

To be sure, nothing in the market’s breadth or price momentum suggests that the S&P 500’s record reached on Jan. 26 marked the end of the rally. In fact, from small caps to transports, technology to financials, everything hit multiyear highs around that time, while the S&P 500’s relative strength indicator spiked, a sign that it’s too soon to claim the death of the bull market.

But danger is growing now that this bull cycle is six months away from becoming the longest in history. For a glimpse of how the topping process may unfold, look to 2007 as a road map, Mr. Ramsey said. Back then, stocks suffered a correction from July to August. As the S&P 500 started bouncing back, fewer and fewer stocks managed to keep up. Small caps trailed, transports lagged behind and once tech heavyweights failed to hold up, the sell-off cascaded into a bear market.

“It’s going to be this topping parade,” Mr. Ramsey said. “Maybe now we’ve gone down hard for a few days, something that has been knocked down among these bellwethers doesn’t come back and make new highs. This crack sets up for the last rally leg.”

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