by Variant Perception | May 10, 2018 | Framework, Leading Indicators
Shakespeare said, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” While this appears true superficially, studies have shown that words can actually affect our perception of an object. Names matter. So, in this article we’ll...
by David Hill | Mar 12, 2018 | Leading Indicators, Uncategorized, US Economy
A key risk for investors remains an US inflation overshoot. US inflation breakevens have been rising since the start the year (top-left chart), however we believe this is more a reflection of market pricing returning to fair value than the start of a self-perpetuating...
by Bill | Oct 14, 2015 | Leading Indicators, US Economy
All of our leading indicators for credit spreads and volatility point to wider volatility and higher credit spreads over the next two years. The credit cycle is long in the tooth, and the best predictor of future credit spreads is the lagged growth in lending. For a...
by Bill | Jun 2, 2015 | Leading Indicators, US Economy
There has been a sharp divergence between ISM services and non-services in the US. Many of our leading indicators for manufacturing have pointed to weakness. This suggests demand is tilting away from manufacturing and towards the service sector. The breakdown of the...
by Bill | Feb 26, 2015 | Global Economy, Leading Indicators, Monetary Policy
As we remind our readers often, yield curves are one of the single best leading indicators. A yield curve inversion has predicted every US recession since 1945, with only one false positive, in 1966 (although the false positive preceded a downturn in industrial...
by Bill | Nov 24, 2014 | Leading Indicators, US Economy
Despite the subdued nature of US CPI, some large components are turning up. Owners’ equivalent rent and rent of primary residence, which together account almost of a third of the CPI basket, are turning up strongly. A low vacancy rate and a relatively resilient US...
by Bill | Jun 9, 2014 | Featured, Leading Indicators
While markets are fixated on the threat of deflation and “lowflation” (a dumb word if ever there was one), our leading indicators are pointing towards modest core inflation ahead. Furthermore, our leading headline inflation indicator is rising moderately as well. We...
by Bill | Mar 20, 2014 | Emerging Markets, European Economy, Featured, Global Economy, Leading Indicators, US Economy
One of the themes we have been tracking in the past 6 months is the slowdown in global money growth and excess liquidity. The focus on the second derivative is important here. The level of growth in liquidity and money growth indicators is decent but the annual...
by Bill | Mar 18, 2014 | European Economy, Featured, Leading Indicators
One of the equity themes we have been highlighting in the recent month is ongoing mismatch between high expectations in Europe relative to lacklustre growth in profitability and growth. European equities are overvalued based on what our models are telling us about...
