The 1% Move Report

Timely commentary on market performance whenever the S&P 500 changes more than 1% in a day.

 

 

 

 

 

Wealth Management — March 21, 2023

Source: Bloomberg and Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Global Investment Office as of 3/21/2023.

What Happened in the Markets?

  • The S&P 500 Index rose 1.3% Tuesday to 4,003.16. With the gains, the index is now up 4.3% year to date. 
  • Eight of the 11 S&P 500 sectors rose on the day, as Energy (+3.4%) and Consumer Discretionary (+2.7%) outperformed while Real Estate (-0.6%) and Utilities lagged (-2.0%). 
  • Stocks bounced for the second straight day this week. The move higher comes after last week's volatility, where pressures mounted for some regional banks within the US banking system. However, remarks by the US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in addition to measures and protections put in place by the FDIC, the Federal Reserve, the Swiss central bank, and a consortium of large banks helped rebuild confidence in recent days. 
  • The uncertainty that still remains could potentially lead to more volatility in financial markets. In particular, tomorrow's FOMC meeting has investors debating whether the Fed will hike rates or choose to pause entirely. Currently, the odds of a 25 basis point (bp) rate hike are 80%, down from 100% on March 10th. MS & Co.'s US Economics team forecasts the Fed will deliver a 25bp rate hike at each of the March and May meetings, to a peak rate of 5.125%. The team then expects the Fed to pause until the Fed cuts rates 25bp in March 2024.
  • By the 4pm equity market close, the US 10-year Treasury yield rose 11 basis points to 3.59%. Gold fell 2% to $1,934 per ounce, while WTI oil rose 2.5% to $69.33 per barrel. The US Dollar Index was flat. 

S&P 500 Price vs. 50, 100, 200 Daily Moving Averages

Source: Bloomberg and Morgan Stanley Wealth Management GIO. Data as of March 21, 2023.

The Global Investment Committee’s Outlook

Source: Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Global Investment Office as of December 8, 2022.

With the Fed responding to 40-year highs in inflation through both rate hikes and balance sheet run-off in 2022, the GIC’s call for continued caution remains intact. Corporate earnings revisions moved lower over the course of 2022, suggesting downside to forward earnings growth. We recommend investors focus on risk management through quality cash flows, defensiveness, and attention to stock-specific valuations. We suggest rebalancing portfolios and tax-loss harvesting during bear market rallies. In fixed income, the challenge is two-fold: generating sufficient income, while also preserving capital, given the potential for higher yields amid ongoing inflation. This requires diversified and active exposure, with our preference for core investment grade fixed income and dividend-paying stocks. Consider revisiting positioning in long-duration/growth equities, where there may not be adequate compensation for the risks of higher real rates, falling operating leverage and the strong US dollar. 

For US equities, the MS & Co. US Equity Strategy team sees the potential for further equity downside in the early part of 2023, given their base-case expectations of $195 for 2023E earnings, well below current consensus levels. Their 2023E S&P 500 base case provides a target of 3,900, based on 2024E earnings of $241. This scenario assumes that nominal top-line growth slows to the low single digits and that margins contract. Their 2023E bear case of 3,500 considers a severe earnings recession, margin pressure and a contraction of EPS growth. Their 2023E bull case of 4,200 corresponds to a mid-single-digit top-line growth rate and limited margin compression. This bull case forecast embeds an estimate of 16.7x MS & Co.'s forward 2024E earnings of $251. 

Market data provided by Bloomberg.

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA): A price-weighted average of 30 blue-chip stocks that are generally the leaders in their industry.

NASDAQ Composite Index: A broad-based capitalization-weighted index of stocks in all three NASDAQ tiers: Global Select, Global Market and Capital Market.

S&P 500 Index: The Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 Index tracks the performance of 500 widely held, large-capitalization US stocks.

US Trade-Weighted Dollar Index: A weighted average of the foreign exchange value of the 17US dollar against a subset of the broad index currencies that circulate widely outside the US.

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