The Dividend Cafe

Market Action Futures opened down nearly -200 points last night but got back nearly to the flat line by bedtime as Japan and Hong Kong markets were rallying. Then this morning, futures pointed to a +170-point open pre-market. The market opened +80 points and went steadily higher throughout the day. The Dow closed up +424 points (+1.31%), with the S&P 500 up +0.96% and the Nasdaq up +0.85%. It would be malpractice not to start with this chart. One thing I have said over and over is that I believe equity volatility does not stabilize until the ascendant dollar reverses. Friday’s drop in the DXY was the worst day for the dollar since 2015 and the second worst day since the financial crisis (h/t Jim Bianco). Now, the dollar was still UP on the week – we are hardly in a trend of dollar reversal. Volatility is still the story, not a weakening dollar. For now. We are up to 85% of companies reported for the quarter now (Q3 results), and revenue growth looks to be +11% year-over-year with earnings growth of +4.3%. And the earnings outlook for 2023 has only come down from $252/share for the S&P 500 to $233, meaning either this will end up being a very, very mild recession, or else there is more room to go for downward revisions of 2023 profits. The ten-year bond yield closed today at 4.22%, up six basis points on the day Top-performing sector for the day: Communication Services (+1.83%) and Energy (+1.73%) Bottom-performing sector for the day: Utilities (-1.94%) I am not sure that the ESG movement is proving to be much about ideology. It is apparently a lot more about performance, after all. As ESG-popular FAANG stocks have gotten hammered and ESG-hated energy stocks have thrived, new money into ESG products has evaporated. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

I appreciated the very kind words I received about last week’s lengthy Dividend Café, and hope the message coming out of that annual week of meetings was clear and useful for readers. I struggled with where to take Dividend Café this week as last week’s covered so many topics, the Fed’s announcement this week was no real surprise at all, and I desire to write less about the Fed in the Dividend Café. On that last part, it isn’t going to happen – and that’s not merely because of my not-so-secret obsession with monetary economics. I may believe (and I assure you, I do) that the Fed policy framework of this era has given a way higher role to the Fed in modern economics than is appropriate, but believing it shouldn’t be is different than believing it isn’t such. So yes, the Fed is going to be a heavy theme in Dividend Café for years to come (whether I like it or not). But if there is one thing I am obsessed about more than monetary economics, it is dividend-growth investing. And I think you will find some observations about dividend equity investing to be very relevant to the paradigm in which we find ourselves. So today is not quite Fed-free, but it is rich in dividends, the very rewards I want for investing clients. Let’s jump into the Dividend Café … Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

MARKET ACTION Dow: -146 points (-0.46%) S&P: -1.06% Nasdaq: -1.73% 10-Year Treasury Yield: 4.15% (+9 basis points) Top-performing sector: Energy (+2.04 xxx%) Bottom-performing sector: Technology (-3.00%) and Communication Services -2.83% WTI Crude Oil: $87.95/barrel (-2.29%) Key Economic Point of the Day: 1.485 million continuing claims (up 47k, most since March) ISM Services came in at 54.4 – still expansionary but a point lower than expected, and with New Orders dropping 4 points ASK DAVID “I enjoy listening to your podcasts – thank you for the insights! I am sitting on cash – about 75% of my investable assets. What would be a good philosophy of when to get back into the market and how? I am a believer in dividend based investing.” ~ Adrian One first has to start with the basic principles – not getting invested in a dividend equity portfolio with cash is a riskier than getting invested in one. The reason not to invest immediately is either (a) A belief about market timing that is not grounded in reality, or (b) A desire to not invest all at once at an inopportune time (that being revealed to you in hindsight, not in advance). I reject reason A and am sympathetic to reason B, as long as one does the needed self-assessment to see that reason B is psychological and emotional, not financial or rational. So then if the desire to mitigate timing risk is psychologically helpful, I advise deploying no less than 50% at once, and then the rest either over a period of time periodically (say, 1/10th of the remainder each month for ten months), or tactically (each “bad” down day in markets deploying more). I have no statistical or empirical argument for one over the other as it pertains to how to deploy the second 50%, but feel strongly about getting 50% of uninvested cash at once. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

I would have to go back and look at the exact shape but I believe the market action today was quite identical to the last time the Fed announced a known rate hike, where the market bad been down, rallied huge to the upside on the news, sold off substantially, rallied all the way back, then sold off into the close with no new news. It’s all just so, so dumb. But I have more to say than that here … MARKET ACTION Dow: -505 points (-1.55%) S&P: -2.50% Nasdaq: -3.36% 10-Year Treasury Yield: 4.09% (+4 basis points) Top-performing sector: Utilities (-1.02%) Bottom-performing sector: Consumer Discretionary (-3.79%) WTI Crude Oil: $89.35/barrel (+1.11%) Key Economic Point of the Day: ADP private sector number came in at +239k for October vs. 198k expected. BLS jobs report is Friday Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

MARKET ACTION Dow: -80 points (-0.24%) S&P: -0.41% Nasdaq: -0.89% 10-Year Treasury Yield: 4.04% (-3 basis points) Top-performing sector: Energy (+0.99%) Bottom-performing sector: Communication Services (-1.81%) WTI Crude Oil: $88.57/barrel (+2.36%) Key Economic Points of the Day: ISM Manufacturing fell to 50.2, just barely in expansion mode, and the weakest figure since May 2020. New Orders and Backlogs reflected contraction, and only 8 of 18 sectors saw growth on the month. But … Job Openings went HIGHER in September, coming in at 10.7 million (almost a million higher than the 9.8 million expected) Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Futures opened basically dead flat last night and stayed there into the evening. Bright and early this morning futures pointed to a down -100 point open pre-market and it worsened from there. The market opened down -100 points or so and didn’t move much above or below that throughout the day. The Dow closed down -128 points (-0.39%) with the S&P 500 down -0.75% and the Nasdaq down -1.03%. The Dow hit 28,661 at one point October 13, it closed as low as 29,203 on October 10, and yet today sits at 32,732, up +14% from mid-month lows. We are a bit over half way through earnings season (263/500 companies reporting) and sales growth is +10.3% year-over-year (a bit ahead of expectations and earnings growth is +4.2% (a bit behind expectations). Excluding the energy sector, though, earnings growth in the S&P 500 is negative year-over-year. Right now consensus expectations are for $235 of earnings from the S&P 500 in calendar year 2023. The number was $250 in the summer, so it has come down, but really not very much. Operating margins have declined from about 17% plus change to 16% plus change. For the third time this year we have a spike of breadth where the % of companies advancing over a 10-day period is in the 99th percentile (it also happened in January and July). In those other two occasions the momentum was not sustained. As good as things have been the last few weeks, only 40% of companies are above their 200-day moving average. And in some sectors the breadth of companies seeing price improvement is really, really low. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

I have mentioned all week how excited I am for this week’s Dividend Cafe, and now here we are. I have explained why our annual week of money manager meetings is so important before, and have written weekly recaps before as well. But this is different. This week not only comes in the midst of a bear market (as the 2008 and 2011 trips did, as well) but was also the best-scheduled meeting we have ever had, meaning, the caliber and topical significance of many of the managers and economists we were in front of was top-shelf. Combine that with a dinner with one of the true legendary CEO’s in America, and it was an absolutely tremendous week. It also comes at a very important time. I do not mean that because stocks are in a bear market, or interest rates are rising. I mean it because of the circumstances behind both of these things, years in the making, with years of profound investment ramifications ahead. I believe a lot of perspective was gained on this year’s trip that needs to be applied to a decade of thoughtful guidance, not merely covering a month or a quarter. I hope you will find the information shared as interesting, actionable, useful, and provocative as I do. And, of course, reach out with any questions at any time. This is the stuff we live for, and I am confident this Dividend Cafe is one you will be glad you read. So with that, let’s all jump in, to this “money manager week recap” edition of the Dividend Cafe! Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

I returned from my meetings in Palm Beach at the end of the day yesterday and hit the ground running (both figuratively and literally) very early this morning. I love doing the DC Today. Special thanks to Brian and Trevor for filling in, and off we go with an action-packed recap of today … Market Action Dow: Up +194 points (+0.61%) – but off of a +550 point high S&P: -0.61% Nasdaq: -1.63% 10-Year Treasury Yield: 3.92% (-9 basis points) Top-performing sector: Industrials (+1.14%) Bottom-performing sector: Communication Services (-4.12%) WTI Crude Oil: $88.58/barrel (+0.72%) Key Economic Points of the Day: Real GDP grew in Q3 at +2.6% annualized rate as net exports grew in light of energy exports being up and Chinese imports being down. Personal Consumption and Business Investment were up, but only a tad. New Orders for Durable Goods were up +0.4%, below the 0.6% expectation Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today was a mixed bag, where we continue to see varying results from the Dow and the Nasdaq. Some market pundits have dubbed this as value vs. growth or categorized these baskets of equities as a difference in “duration.” Regardless of how you describe it, we saw some downward pressure resulting from less-than-favorable earnings reports on a handful of large tech companies, and some continued positive momentum from the sectors leading the market on the year (Energy, Healthcare, Consumer Staples, etc.). Market Action Dow: +2.37 (0.01%) S&P: -0.74% Nasdaq: -2.04% 10-Year Treasury Yield: 4.01% (-9 basis points) Top-performing sector: Energy (+1.36%) Bottom-performing sector: Communication Services (-4.75%) WTI Crude Oil: $88.12/barrel (+3.26%) Key Economic Points of the Day: The trade deficit widened in September by 5.7% (from $87.3 billion to $92.2 billion) There is a lot you could potentially dissect here, but the simplest explanation is that a strong dollar means buyers (exports) can buy less of our goods, and US purchasers (imports) can buy more goods, which expands the deficit – falling exports, rising imports. New home sales fell month over month (from 677,000 to 603,000), but we were still slightly above the average estimates of 593,000 For perspective here, new home sales peaked in August 2020 at 1.04 million Although the number of homes sold declined, the average sale price did rise from $436,800 to $470,600 (slightly below the record high of $479,800) Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

We notched a third day of gains in markets today, up now 11% on the S&P from the intra-day lows a few weeks ago in a broad-based rally in both stocks and bonds, and I have plenty to go around the horn in my video and podcast links below. I have also sprinkled in a few takeaways from over 20 portfolio manager meetings last week in New York to add to your listening pleasure. Take a listen, and reach out to me, Brian Szytel, with questions. Market Action Dow: +337 points, +1.07% S&P: +1.63% Nasdaq: +2.25% 10-Year Treasury Yield: 4.10% (+ 13 basis points) Top-performing sector: Real Estate +3.94% Bottom-performing sector: Energy -.05% WTI Crude Oil: $84.92 barrel +.40% Key Economic Points of the Day: Consumer sentiment came in lower than expected at 102 versus expectations of 105. The Richmond Fed index came in weaker than expected today at -10. The US Dollar was lower on the day by about 1%, along with interest rates across the yield curve that both aided today’s equity rally. Terminal Fed Funds Rate shown ending north of CPI in all of the last rate tightening cycles is shown below. Today we are at 3.3% versus 8.2%, and while those rates will likely converge, we just aren’t there yet folks… Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com