Selection is not dead - and who said Growth ever was?

21 giu 2022

INVESTMENT CONTEXT

• Lithuania limited railway cargo transit across its territory from Russia to Kaliningrad; Russia dubbed the move as "openly hostile"
  
• Russia overtook Saudi Arabia as China’s biggest supplier of crude oil. Russian crude exports to China surged 55% in May
  
• Turkey, Sweden and Finland met to discuss Turkey's opposition to the Nordic countries bid to join NATO
  
• French President Emmanuel Macron lost parliamentary majority as the country's far-right regained momentum after the Presidential elections held last April
  
• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned against the bloc's "backsliding" into coal as the continent tries to weave itself off Russian gas
  
• Terra/LUNA project staff were banned from flying as South Korean authorities deepen investigations on LUNA's demise
  

PROFZERO'S TAKE

• It's hard to look at the EU without feeling something disruptive is about to happen. The bloc's inflation rate is not too far from that of the U.S. (8.1% vs. 8.6%, respectively) - yet the ECB's base rate, even after the 25bps hike earlier in June, is still negative by 25bps, while the Fed is already pricing cash at 150bps. The Fed has stopped sustaining fixed income markets by not rolling over USD 30bn Treasury bonds and USD 17.5bn MBS per month - the ECB tried to walk down the same path, only to face backlash from traders which sent interest rates on the weakest countries (Greece, Italy and Spain) to fresh highs. And as Russia curtails natural gas supplies, the countries that are most exposed to energy security - notably including Germany and Italy - scramble to diversify the energy mix, stumbling upon the harsh reality that coal will attract criticism from environmental groups (and voters) while LNG supplies need re-gasification plants - whose dearth won't be made up for until 2024.
  Nigel Bolton, BlackRock's co-Chief Investment Officer, said on June 20 he saw "extreme valuation opportunity in European banks". ProfZero would really, sincerely like to share the same optimism - or opportunism
  
• Speaking of Europe - after dismissing blockchain assets as "worth nothing" (and therefore badly needing regulation, in a rare moment of pure pneumatic vacuum of logics), ECB President Christine Lagarde said "While the correction in asset prices has so far been orderly, the risk of a further and possibly abrupt fall in asset prices remains severe". ProfZero concurs with Madame Lagarde - absent energy security and supply strategy, foggy monetary policy (to tighten or not to tighten?) and a much feared fragmentation of borrowing costs already happening, traders are having it good shorting European assets. If only there was a strong Regulator...
  
• In the opinion of ProfZero, the market-wise breadth of June 13's collapse has a deeper structural meaning, and could in fact contain cues on portfolio construction to cross summer season: (i) Markets are not done pricing a recession, nor the Fed's and the ECB monetary policy. After the 50bps rate hike on May 5, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq plunged 3.56% and 4.99%, respectively; after the 75bps rate increase on June 15, the indexes nosedived 3.27% and 4.08%, respectively. The Fed is meeting four more times this year; current expectations are for 75bps flat increases at each meeting. Should inflation fail to be absorbed in the economy, calling for more rate increases, equities would bear the brunt of the selloffs, (ii) Investors are starting to see Value as fairly priced - possibly signaling the beginning of reversal on commodity stocks, especially in the energy space. At the same time, Growth is not dead. Apple (AAPL), Alphabet (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT) dropped less than 5% on average in the last month, compared to almost 15% by Occidental Petroleum (OXY), Petrobras (PBR), and Shell (RDS.A), (iii) It is still too early to construct risk positions. A clear trough has not been touched and even a touted recession has not materialized. No clear industrial path has emerged from the bear market; and without such, longs are but reckless positions. No time to cry; no time to risk either