by Scott Martindale
  CEO, Sabrient Systems LLC

 The latest CPI report coupled with the stagnant jobs market essentially gave the FOMC license to continue its rate cutting cycle this week, and fed funds futures now give highest odds for three more 25-bp cuts over the next 12 months. Historically, rate cuts give an outsized boost to growth over value stocks. But this time might be a bit different given the lengthy stretch of outperformance of growth over value and large over small caps, driven by the Big Tech juggernauts, as investors have anticipated a more accommodative Fed for a long time. After several sporadic attempts, could the market finally be ready for sustained market rotation? Let’s explore.

Interest rate cuts provide a favorable backdrop for stocks in general, by stimulating business and consumer borrowing and encouraging investment in risk assets. While growth stocks are more advantaged by interest rate cuts through valuation (i.e., a falling discount rate on long-duration cash flows), value stocks are more advantaged through fundamentals (i.e., lower borrowing costs and rising consumer demand) because they are often capital intensive and/or cyclical.

To be sure, even with “higher for longer” interest rates, investors have been quite willing to pay up for all that Big Tech has to offer as they ride strong secular growth trends (i.e., little cyclicality) in disruptive innovation that create rising sales growth, margins, operating leverage, cash flow, ROIC, insider buying—at levels no other sector can match. With little to no concern about the level of interest rates, these cash-flush juggernauts have wasted no time in their race for supremacy in new technologies like AI, quantum computing, robotics, automation, cloud computing, cybersecurity, 3D printing, fintech, precision medicine, genomics, space exploration, and blockchain.

This has driven the major cap-weighted indexes to lofty heights, with 10 companies in the $1 trillion market cap club. And this week, Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple (AAPL) joined NVIDIA (NVDA) in the exclusive $4 trillion market cap club, while NVIDIA just surged past the $5 trillion mark!

From the April 7th lows, retail investors flipped from tariff panic to FOMO/YOLO/momentum, and the rest of the investor world jumped onboard. Besides Big Tech, speculative “meme” stocks also have been hot, and AQR’s Quality-minus-Junk factor (aka “quality margin”) has been shrinking. Moreover, small caps have been participating, as evidenced by the Russell 2000 Small-cap Index (IWM) and the Russell Microcap Index (IWC) both setting new all-time highs in October (for the first time since 2021), which is a historically bullish signal. Similarly, value stocks also have perked up, with the Invesco S&P 500 Pure Value ETF (RPV) and S&P 500 Value (SPYV) also reaching new highs.

However, while retail investors have continued to invest aggressively, institutional investors and hedge funds (the so-called “smart money”) have grown more defensive. So, maintaining a disciplined approach—such as focusing on fundamental analysis, long-term trends, and clear investment goals—can protect against emotional kneejerk reactions during murky or turbulent periods.

Stock valuations are dependent upon expectations for economic growth, corporate earnings, and interest rates, tempered by the volatility/uncertainty of each—which manifests in the equity risk premium (ERP, i.e., earnings yield minus the risk-free rate) and the market P/E multiple. Some commentators suggest that every 25-bp reduction in interest rates allows for another 1-point increase in the P/E multiple of the S&P 500. But regardless, the expected rate cuts over the next several months might already be baked into the current market multiple for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 such that further gains for the broad indexes might be tied solely to earnings growth—driven by both revenue growth and margin expansion (from productivity and efficiency gains and cost cutting)—rather than multiple expansion.

As such, although near-term market action might remain risk-on into year end, led by growth stocks, the case for value stocks today might be framed as countercyclical, mean reversion, portfolio diversification, and market broadening/rotation into the neglected large, mid, and small caps, many of which display a solid earnings history and growth trajectory as well as low volatility and less downside risk. Value investors can avoid paying the Tech-growth premium. And given their more modest valuations, they also might have greater room for multiple expansion.

So, perhaps the time is ripe to add value stocks as a portfolio diversifier, such as the Sabrient Forward Looking Value Portfolio (FLV 13), which is offered annually as a unit investment trust by First Trust Portfolios—and remains in primary market only until November 14th.

In addition, small caps tend to benefit most from lower rates and deregulation, and high-dividend payers become more appealing as bond alternatives as interest rates fall, so Sabrient’s quarterly Small Cap Growth and Dividend portfolios also might be timely as beneficiaries of a broadening market—in addition to our all-seasons Baker’s Dozen growth-at-a-reasonable-price (GARP) portfolio, which always includes a diverse group of 13 high-potential stocks, including a number of under-the-radar names identified by our models.

Let me discuss three key drivers that might make the heretofore sporadic attempts at market rotation into value and smaller caps more sustainable:  Read on….

  by Scott Martindale
  President & CEO, Sabrient Systems LLC

After a strong Q1, stocks continue to rise on exuberant optimism, and the mega-cap dominated S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 just hit new highs this week. Notably, the Tech sector significantly lagged the broader market during the second half of Q1, primarily due to worries about the apparent spike in inflation and a surge in the 10-year Treasury yield (as a higher discount rate on future earnings has greater implications for longer duration growth stocks). But once the rapid rise in yield leveled off, Tech caught a bid once again. The Russell 2000 small cap index, after absolutely crushing all others from November through mid-March, has been cooling its jets for the past several weeks. I think the other indexes will need to do the same. In the short term, after going straight up over the past two weeks, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 both look like they need to pause for some technical consolidation, but longer term look pretty darn good for solid upside – so long as earnings reports surprise solidly higher than the already strong predictions, and Q1 earnings season is now at hand.

Regular readers know I have been opining extensively about the bullish convergence of positive events including rapid vaccine rollout, reopening of the economy, massive fiscal and monetary stimulus/support, infrastructure spending, pent-up demand, strong revenue and earnings growth, and the start of a powerful and sustained recovery/expansionary economic phase – but with only a gradual rise in inflation and interest rates – in contrast with those who see the recent surge in inflation metrics and interest rates as the start of a continued escalation and perhaps impending disaster. Notably, in his annual letter to shareholders, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon laid out a similar vision, referring to it as a “Goldilocks moment” leading to an economic boom that “could easily run into 2023.”

In my view, it was normal (and healthy) to see record low interest rates last summer given the economic shutdowns, and as the economy begins to reopen, interest rates are simply returning to pre-pandemic levels. Furthermore, relatively higher yields in the US attract global capital, and the Fed continues to pledge its support – indeed, I think it may even implement yield curve control (YCC) to help keep longer-term rates in check.

And as for inflation, the March CPI reading of 2.6% YOY sounds ominous, but it is mostly due to a low base period, i.e., falling prices at the depth of the pandemic selloff in March 2020, and this dynamic surely will continue over the coming months. Although we see pockets of inflation where there are production bottlenecks (e.g., from shutdowns or disrupted supply chains), it seems that massive stimulus has created asset inflation but little impact on aggregate demand and consumer prices, as personal savings rates remain high and the recent stimulus programs have mainly gone to paying bills, putting people back to work, and building up personal investment accounts. Future spending bills targeting infrastructure or green energy might have a greater impact, but for now, the huge supply of money in circulation is largely offset by disinflationary drivers like low velocity of money, aging demographics, re-globalization of trade and supply chains, and technological disruption. The Treasury market seems to be acknowledging this, as the rapid rise in the 10-year yield has leveled off at around 1.7%.

Thus, I believe that growth stocks, and in particular the Technology sector, must remain a part of every portfolio, even in this nascent expansionary economic phase that should be highly favorable to value and cyclical sectors like Industrial, Financial, Materials, and Energy. Put simply, new technologies from these Tech companies can facilitate other companies from all sectors to be more efficient, productive, and competitive. However, investors must be selective with those secular growth favorites that sport high P/E multiples as they likely will need to “grow into” their current valuations through old-fashioned earnings growth rather than through further multiple expansion, which may limit their upside.

And with Sabrient’s enhanced selection process, we believe our portfolios – including the Q1 2021 Baker’s Dozen that launched on 1/20/21, Small Cap Growth portfolio that launched on 3/15/21, Sabrient Dividend portfolio that launched on 3/19/21, and the upcoming Q2 2021 Baker’s Dozen that launches next week on 4/20/21 – are positioned for any growth scenario.

In this periodic update, I provide a comprehensive market commentary, offer my technical analysis of the S&P 500 chart, review Sabrient’s latest fundamentals based SectorCast quant rankings of the ten US business sectors, and serve up some actionable ETF trading ideas. To summarize, our outlook is bullish (but with occasional bouts of volatility), our sector rankings reflect a solidly bullish bias, the technical picture is still long-term bullish (although in need of some near-term consolidation), and our sector rotation model retains its bullish posture.  Read on….