An update on the correlation between stocks and bonds (from Verdad Weekly Research on September 11)…

Investors tend to think of stocks and bonds as negatively correlated, with stocks doing well in positive growth environments and bonds doing well when growth slows or declines. And that was largely true for the last quarter century. But earlier this year, the trailing three-year correlation between stocks and bonds turned positive for the first
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The record spread between 30-year mortgage rates and the 30-year U.S. Treasury yield could be a bearish signal for stocks (from C. Scott Garliss via X on September 11)…

Keep an eye on the spread between 30-year mortgage rates and the 30-year U.S. Treasury yield. Since 1990, it has only been this high three other times… 2Q 2000, 4Q 2008. and 1Q 2020. Each of those marked a major inflection point for the S&P 500 Index…

Today’s near-record high market valuations suggest that stocks could suffer dramatic losses if inflation remains sticky (from Bloomberg on September 11)…

In straightforward absolute terms, without comparing to bond yields, equity valuations are again getting hard to ignore. In the 12 months to the end of August, the S&P 500 managed a price return of 14%. Of that, increasing price/earnings multiples accounted for 12.4 percentage points, according to a decomposition by Patrick Palfrey of Credit Suisse
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This labor market indicator suggests inflation remains a problem (from Otavio Costa via X on September 14)…

The resurgence of labor market participation is yet another indicator of potential inflationary problems in the system. A similar pattern occurred back in the 1970s when rising living costs compelled households to rejoin the labor market. The term “The Great Resignation,” frequently highlighted by the media, is fundamentally rooted in looking at the past. We
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This pandemic program has been handing out billions of dollars in bogus tax credits for years. The IRS may finally be shutting it down (from The Wall Street Journal on September 14)…

The Internal Revenue Service made its biggest moves yet to stop what officials say is a wave of fraudulent and overstated claims for a pandemic-era tax break, including an immediate halt to processing new refund requests. New claims for the employee retention credit, or ERC, won’t be processed until at least 2024, the IRS announced
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