The Big Picture

Brexit – or the referendum to decide Britain’s future in the EU – dominated news up until the vote on June 23rd and then swamped it. The polls were always close – and there were only two possible outcomes – ‘exit’ or ‘remain’. But for some reason, markets and the British people were stunned when the ‘exit’ vote got up.

If we allow for the 72% turnout (voting was not compulsory) ‘exit’ scored 37% of the vote, ‘remain’ 35% and the ‘no vote’ was 28% – so it was a close run race. But Boris Johnson – the lead MP for ‘Brexiting’ – looked a bit like a frightened rabbit when he won. Indeed, he has now dropped out of the race to be the next PM!

Current British PM, David Cameron, went into hiding after announcing he would stand down by October and the leader of the opposition, Jeremy Corbyn is in trouble with half of his shadow ministry resigning because they claim he didn’t lobby hard enough to ‘remain’. And then 80% of his party gave him a vote of no confidence – but he won’t stand down, yet. There are now rumours of replacing the Governor of the Bank of England because of his views on Europe. The England soccer coach got sacked a couple of days after Brexit because his team lost to Iceland in Euro 2016! Nobody seems to have won! But leadership issues are not confined to Britain.

There is a chance that Parliament, who must sanction the vote for an exit to be enacted, might not take that next step and Germany is even looking like it might try to woo Britain back in.

The main downside for Britain is that London might lose its status as a major financial centre. In time, Europeans, who now freely work in Britain, might have to go home and vice versa. But it will take years for the whole process to unravel – perhaps a decade.

In the meantime stock markets have taken big hits but our ASX 200 seems to have done relatively well. Losses have largely been erased.

Of course, at home, we not only have Brexit to deal with. We have our own election on July 2nd, a possible rate cut on July 5th and the US jobs report on July 8th.

The US Fed seems to have walked away from a rate hike anytime soon – as we have been predicting for months. One cut in December is a far cry from the Fed’s four this year that they predicted last December – but it makes sense to wait.

Brexit may play a role in the Fed’s thinking but the last jobs number of +38,000, when +160,000 was expected, demonstrates a hike now would not be prudent.

Our jobs data were quite well received but we still see some weakness in full-time employment. Yes, there were +17,900 new jobs, but all were part-time. There were zero new full-time jobs, making January the last increased trend in full-time jobs!

But there are some good points. The European Central Bank did raise its growth forecast for 2016 – from 1.3% to 1.4%, and the Spanish general election the Sunday after Brexit, resulted in an increased majority for the ruling People’s party. This has been taken as a statement of conservatism after Brexit. That is, there was no swing to more radical parties that might want to follow Britain out of the EU.

By the way, Brexit is nothing like Lehman Brothers and the GFC. It’s not even as bad as the Greek debt crisis. Maybe more like the Blues losing the State of Origin series again (for those south of the border)!

Asset Classes

Australian Equities

After three consecutive months of strong gains, the ASX 200 had a negative month in June largely owing to the ‘Brexit’ referendum.

The losses were largely across-the-board with only Property and Utilities – two very defensive sectors – making gains in June. Stocks with possible exposure to Britain were hit particularly hard. The likes of BT Funds Management, Clydesdale Bank (a NAB offshoot) and Macquarie Bank were savaged.

The financial year (FY16) that just ended finished up +0.6% when dividends are included. However, that doesn’t tell the whole story. In FY16, the Industrials, Consumer Discretionary, Health, Property and Utilities sectors were all up between +20% and +25%. It’s just that Energy (???21.7%) and Financials (???8.7%) were hit hard.

We have the market slightly underpriced and the fundamentals look strong for FY17. It’s just a case of what temporary shocks buffet us along the way.

Foreign Equities

Market carnage hit most countries. The German DAX lost over ???6% on the day following Brexit. But a couple of days later most markets rebounded. Wall Street finished flat on the month and the London FTSE was up +4.4%. The German DAX was down ???5.7% showing that Germany might miss Britain more than the other way round!

The VIX ‘fear index’ jumped up sharply following Brexit but it has already settled down to below average.

Bonds and Interest Rates

The RBA was on hold again in June at 1.75%. Brexit may have changed the RBA’s thinking but we believe either way, one or two cuts would help us a lot.

The US Fed removed the phrase, “in the coming months” regarding the next hike in its press releases. Almost everyone takes that to mean there will be no hike soon. We think December is the earliest.

Bond yields have fallen in post-Brexit times. The German government yields are now on average negative!

The Bank of England has flagged the possibility of increasing stimulus – either by a rate cut or asset purchases – in the remainder of this year.

Russia cut its prime rate from 11% to 10.5%. And Japanese PM, Shinzo Abe, has urged his central bank to do what it takes to get through this bout of volatility.

S&P cut its rating of UK government debt to AA (negative watch) from AAA. It also cut the EU debt to AA from AA???. But remember the US lost its AAA rating a few years ago with no lasting backlash.

Other Assets

Iron ore prices have been amazingly stable given the global events but oil prices took a bit of a hit after Brexit. However, prices have now more or less recovered. Of course, oil is a far more speculative market than iron ore.

Our dollar has moved around a lot in June finishing the month up +2.5% against the US dollar. Normally we focus on the $A against the $US but, with Brexit around, the $A against sterling moved up well over 10% in the day or two following.

Gold rose strongly over the month, up +8.8%.

Regional Analysis

Australia

News on the economy has taken a back seat while we try to work out what the political adversaries are offering us. A big ticket item is superannuation and both sides have been less than forthcoming about the details of what they are proposing. Serious analysis we have done shows that politicians and public servants will be much better off than those in the private sector – whichever side wins. Nests have been feathered!

In a disturbing run of labour force data, the unemployment rate has held at a moderate rate of 5.7% but that is because an increasing numbers of ‘workers’ are part-time rather than full-time. Of course it is better to have some sort of job – maybe 10 hours – than no job at all, but that is not the basis of a growing economy. Full-time employment has fallen in each of the last four months in trend terms!

China

For a change, China is off the radar. All the doomsayers are in hiding or gainfully employed following Europe instead. It is clear that all of the data from China is consistent with it being an economy we don’t have to worry about.

BHP just announced a +29% increase in expenditure on mining exploration – up to $900m for 2017. It is also rumoured that they are thinking of bidding for the second largest fertilizer mine in the world – which happens to be in Canada. Of course BHP had been cutting back in previous years but this is a very positive sign for the resources sector.

U.S.A

Watching Trump v Clinton, Turnbull v Shorten and ‘Exit v Remain’ it is clear that the political order has changed. We can’t imagine enough people being content after the November presidential elections that there won’t be another bout of volatility then, if not before.

But the fundamentals of the US economy are not bad. They are just not great.

Europe

Britain is still in the continent of Europe if not the EU – at least not soon. Britain’s economy is one of the stronger in the region but it is not clear what will unfold in coming months.

There has been talk that France might also want a referendum to see whether it should stay in the EU. Spain voted conservatively in its election this week just gone. Frankly it is too soon to form a confident view of the world order. But the chances are there is more bluster than substance.

Rest of the World

Iceland deservedly bundled England out of Euro 2016 (soccer competition like a world cup for Europe). England left Europe twice in a few days! But Brexit could mean a lot of European footballers in the prestigious English Premier League have to go back home and be replaced by English players. The EPL football might not be then as good but the national team might do better (they couldn’t do worse).

The main Turkey airport in Istanbul was the subject of a major terrorist attack. It has been argued that the fear of Turkey joining the EU with the free movement of people was a major factor in people voting for Brexit.

By Ron Bewley*. Brought to you by Infocus

*Ron Bewley(PhD,FASSA)– Director, Woodhall Investment Research

Important information

This information is the opinion of Infocus Securities Australia Pty Ltd ABN 47 097 797 049 AFSL and Australian Credit Licence No. 236523 trading as Infocus Wealth Management and may contain general advice that does not take into account the investment objectives, financial situation or needs of any person. Before making an investment decision, readers need to consider whether this information is appropriate to their circumstances.

The Big Picture

The hope many of us felt for markets on New Year’s Eve dissipated in the first week. But January ended so strongly here, Wall Street and elsewhere. So what is going on?

It was largely an accidental coincidence of several things that separately may have had little impact. The economic questions were around China (its stock market, currency and economic growth); US economic growth; oil prices; and interest rate expectations. Each of those is worthy of much consideration but, on top of those issues a number of other events muddied the waters: North Korea’s nuclear testing; IS terrorism; Iran’s sanctions being cleared; Saudi Arabia and Iran over executions; and attacks on the embassy in Tehran.

And the elephant in the room was the length and stability of the multi-year bull-run on Wall Street. Some were expecting a correction just because they hadn’t had one for ages. With that sentiment, markets can easily overshoot when innocuous missiles are thrown at markets. Well they’ve now had that correction so we can move on!

Let’s start with China. Growth has been questioned in some quarters but China just announced not only a strong month for iron ore imports, but a record! RIO backed this up with Q4 iron ore shipments up 11%. Treasury Wines share price went through the roof when it reported its increased exports to China.

China growth will hopefully continue to fall gradually as they move from a government-funded infrastructure economy to more of a capitalist economy like ours. All developed countries have been through periods like China is now experiencing.

Of course their stock market being closed twice in one week because of sharp price movements didn’t help the uninitiated – but the explanation was so simple. The market was closed the first day ‘circuit breaker’ rules were introduced for the first time ever. Everyone admits that the rules were too sensitive and caused the market falls rather than helping market stability. Those rules were quickly shelved.

And the China currency? They are moving from being pegged to the US dollar to a system referencing a basket of the currencies of its major trading partners. The problem here was China not communicating its strategy well enough, rather than doing something people shouldn’t like.

US economic growth just came in at 2.4% for 2015 and +0.7% for Q4. Their unemployment rate is 5.0% which is just a tenth above what the Federal Reserve (Fed) considers full employment to be. Calls for a recession any time soon seem to be the results of underemployed analysts trying to establish a profile for themselves.

And oil? The real experts acknowledge that a sustainable price for oil is around $50 – $60 / barrel. Any higher and shale oil in the US will be back on stream; any lower and countries go bankrupt. But OPEC has been playing games with the US over shale oil and speculators have been exacerbating the situation.

When Brent oil got down to $26 in late January, some were calling for $10 of Brent oil – a fall of around a further  60%. In a few days Brent jumped up over +30%!

But the Fed has been caught out on interest rate hikes. They predicted four hikes during 2016 at their last press conference but markets are pricing in none or one. There is no rush.

For those of you coming back from a good long summer holiday – welcome back – you didn’t miss anything important on the markets – just froth and over-reaction!

Asset Classes

Australian Equities

The ASX 200 was down  5.5% in January after being up +2.5% in December. But this turbulence was not like that last August. Back then the market fell on statistics like the VIX fear index were, which was much worse than that in January. Resource stocks and Financials bore the brunt of the negativity in January but no sector improved by more than +1.0%.

Importantly, our indicators of potential long-run capital gains improved over the month. We have the market under-priced by about  6% so there could be some strong gains sometime soon.

Reporting season by listed companies is about to start. Since a number of downgrades have been reported in resources and retail stocks, much of the bad news is behind us.

Foreign Equities

Our market, although down, performed well compared with many of the big overseas markets. The world index was down  7.8%.

China’s “Shanghai Composite” index continued to lose ground as the heavy gearing encouraged by the government in late 2014 and in 2015 was unwound.

The China regulator brought in ‘circuit breakers’ that closed the market for 15 minutes if the index fell by  5% and closed it for the rest of the day if the index fell by  7%. These limits were far too tight for a volatile index like the Composite. The more stable US market only gets closed for the day if its index falls  20%.

Arguably, the introduction of the circuit breakers for the first time ever in January caused the shutdown on day one and the next. When the breakers were removed the market settled down.

Bonds and Interest Rates

Japan spiced up the cash market at the end of January by flagging negative interest rates, more monetary stimulus and a prediction of 2% inflation in two years after decades of deflation.

The Fed suggested last December that it might hike rates four times in 2016 (March, June, September and December) but the market doesn’t believe them. It seems more like one or none. There is no need to rush increases and the last thing anyone would want is for the Fed to hike rates and then be forced to reverse the decision in an untimely fashion.

At home the RBA did not meet in January. The odds of a cut this year are falling but one cut is still possible. Inflation did pop up a bit in the last read so the RBA might want to wait a few months to assess the situation before acting.

Other Assets

Iron ore and oil prices seemed to have stabilised – at least for the moment. There is talk of co-operation between Russia and OPEC over supply limits but, apparently, enacting such a move would be difficult for technical reasons. With Iran being allowed to export oil again after nuclear-related sanctions, there is downward pressure on oil prices. Brent oil was up +15% on the month!

Iron ore prices have been above and below $40 / tonne during January. Vale, the big Brazilian miner, is reportedly having difficulties with pricing and that might help Australian miners.

A number of other commodity prices bounced back at the end of January. Was January just the month we had to have to shake out the cobwebs?

Regional Analysis

Australia

Our jobs data remained strong – against market expectations. It is now over a year since unemployment peaked at 6.3%. Jobs growth continues to be solid.

We are fast approaching the budget and the government is, as is usual, airing some options to test market sentiment. Some are questioning our AAA rating. As we have been writing since the May 2014 budget, we do have a serious problem to tackle. We are not currently in trouble but we will be if we do not start doing the right thing soon.

China

China’s GDP growth for 2015 came in at +6.9% just short of the target +7%. China has announced that its target growth rate is now 6.5% to 7.0%. Its trade data were much, much better than expected.

The China Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for manufacturing at 49.4 shows that the industry expects continuing strong growth but at a slightly lower rate (as the PMI is below 50). The PMI for services at 53.5 shows continuing expected strong growth but at a more rapid rate.

U.S.A.

Following the December rate hike – the first in nearly a decade, US jobs data came in particularly strongly. Unemployment is only 5.0% compared with the Fed’s estimate of full employment being 4.9%.

The latest GDP growth data did come in a bit softer than the quarter before but more or less on expectations.

The Presidential election, set for November, is hotting up. The usual smear campaigns are starting on both sides.

Europe

Sweden is considering sending a significant number of refugees back and others are seeking to claim expenses for settlement back from the ‘asylum seekers’.

Angela Merkel – the German leader – has suffered in popularity following her desire to take in an almost unlimited inflow, and has had her previously massive support cut to about 40%. She has now stated she expects most to return home when the troubles end. With the huge death toll in Damascus from bombings overnight, that end doesn’t like coming any time soon.

The ECB is still on the case regarding monetary policy. Europe is healing – but slowly.

Rest of the World

Japan lost its Treasurer in a scandal but that hasn’t stopped the policy machine from seeking new ways of supporting the economy.

New Zealand kept its rate on hold but it is considering further cuts.

Russia is hurting and is seemingly trying to gain support in oil prices. But, apparently, the nature of the frozen terrain in Siberia means that if they do cut back supply from there, it will be lost forever. As a result, this month’s meeting between OPEC and Russia is limited in what it might achieve – but, perhaps, talking is a useful start.

Nigeria has just sought a $US3.5bn international loan to support its budget while oil prices for its major export are depressed.