According to Bloomberg and Rod Smyth at Riverfront Investment Group, stocks are poised to continue their rally as they catch up with corporate bonds:
The CHART OF THE DAY shows that the difference in yield between corporates and 10-year Treasury notes has narrowed more quickly than the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has risen since March. The yield comparison is based on a Moody’s Investors Service index of Baa-rated debt. Smyth and colleagues Bill Ryder and Ken Liu had a similar chart in a report yesterday.
Since December, the yield gap has fallen to 2.9 percentage points from a peak of 6.2 points, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. This spread is near its lowest level since January 2008, when the S&P 500 was about 22 percent higher.
“‘Animal spirits’ are returning to Wall Street even if they are still suppressed on Main Street,” the report said. Spreads have narrowed so much that stocks have more room to rise than bonds, especially as earnings increase, it added.
Smyth isn’t the only strategist whose focus has shifted to shares. “Equities no longer look expensive relative to corporate bonds,” Andrew Garthwaite, a global strategist at Credit Suisse AG, wrote in a Sept. 18 report. He downgraded credit, or bonds, based on relative value.
Barry Knapp, a U.S. strategist at Barclays Capital, drew a similar conclusion last week. Stocks have more to gain from the economic recovery that’s now in progress, he wrote in a report dated Sept. 14.
Source: Bloomberg
Mr. Roche is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Discipline Funds.Discipline Funds is a low fee financial advisory firm with a focus on helping people be more disciplined with their finances.
He is also the author of Pragmatic Capitalism: What Every Investor Needs to Understand About Money and Finance, Understanding the Modern Monetary System and Understanding Modern Portfolio Construction.