“Is the economy under control or is it spiraling out of control? That’s the million-dollar question traders continue arguing over,” sums up CrackedMarket blogger Jani Ziedins.
Clearly, the latter argument prevailed — again — after Wall Street’s worst day in two years, and futures hinting of more pain for Thursday. Among the gloomsters, Guggenheim’s Scott Minerd warned of a possible“summer of pain” — a 45% drop from the top for the S&P 500 and 75% down for the Nasdaq.
No doubt, Wall Street has been ratcheting stock forecasts lower in recent months. On the side of optimists, JPMorgan’s ever-stoic top equity strategist Marko Kolanovic told Bloomberg (in an interview before Wednesday) that equities will “climb out of this hole,” as recession and stagflation fears are overblown.
Indeed, our call of the day from Evercore strategists says that markets are spiraling on the view that recession is a foregone conclusion. They also say that panicky, leveraged retail investors who have been behind this selloff, should calm down soonish as the pros aren’t running scared (yet).
Read: A larger share of younger investors say they’re not afraid to buy the dip in the pursuit of long-term gains — but there’s one big caveat
“On Thursday, we will get an idea whether the market action is part of a volatile bottoming process, our base case, or whether the decline could materially undercut SPX 3,854, triggering a capitulation trade,” notes the Evercore team, led by Julian Emanuel.
Offering their view of what’s been happening with this selloff, Emanuel and the team argue that markets have been caught up in Fed “misdirection,” rallying despite hawkish remarks from Chair Jerome Powell, then giving it all back a day later, echoing what happened after the early-May Fed meeting.
What’s key here is not whether markets understand the Fed’s intent, but “whether a recession in 2022-23 is avoidable in combating generationally elevated inflation, with the only experience previously being the Volcker Fed tightening (1971-81) to the point where multiple recessions were an inevitability.”
Emanuel and the team don’t think the Fed needs to precipitate a recession, but say stocks are behaving like it does.
“The distinction is critical. The last three non-Recession Bear Markets declined on average -21.3% — 2018 a ‘V’ bottom, 2011 and 1998 a ‘W’ — though none registered as an ‘official’ Bear. The last three Recession Bear Markets (2020, 2007-09, 2000-02) declined on average -47.9%,” says Evercore.
Panicky investors, notably on the retail side, should calm down soonish, it says.
“We continue to expect the Public (whose job prospects remain robust and
balance sheets healthy) liquidating its Margin Debt to yield to the contrary signals/Misdirection of depressed sentiment and defensive professional positioning, stabilizing stocks in the days ahead,” say the strategists.
The buzz
Cisco Systems CSCO is on track to open at its weakest since late 2020 as China’s COVID-19 lockdowns battered its outlook.
After Walmart WMT and Target TGT, Bed Bath & Beyond BBBY is the latest retailer to disappoint, with shares down on weak guidance. Kohl’s results are ahead, a day after two executives left.
Read: Wednesday’s worst-performing stocks mostly come from this one sector that has investors really worried
Once a top-rated hedge fund, Melvin Capital, is closing its doors.
Thursday’s slate of economic data features the latest weekly jobless claims report, as well as the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing report, existing home sales and leading indicators.
A case of monkey pox has been identified in Massachusetts, with officials probing links to the rare disease from a spate of outbreaks in Europe.
The markets
Stock futures ES00 NQ00 are pointing to 1%-plus losses, with Dow futures YM00 down over 400 points, and bond yields BX:TMUBMUSD10Y BX:TMUBMUSD02Y tumbling. Oil CL00 BRN00 is also dropping, along with the dollar, and the whole crypto space BTCUSD. Gold GC00 is a bright spot.
The tickers
These were the most-searched tickers on MarketWatch as of 6 a.m. Eastern Time:
The chart
Michael Kramer, founder of Mott Capital Markets, is keeping an eye on one big name for Thursday — Apple AAPL — and advises investors do the same.
“If this stock breaks support at $139, it’s probably lights out for the entire stock market. That would create a lower low for Apple, a breach of support, and set up a drop to around $123. I don’t see how the entire market doesn’t follow Apple lower at that point,” said Kramer.
Mott Capital
Random reads
A rural Japanese town’s COVID-19 relief money was mistakenly sent to a guy who gambled it all away.
Former President George W. Bush made a rather large Freudian slip.
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