Weekly Market Update – 16th July 2021

Investment markets and key developments over the past week

• Share markets were buffeted by concerns about higher inflation and rising coronavirus cases over the past week. US shares fell 1% through the week and European shares fell 0.8%. However, Japanese shares rose 0.2%, Chinese shares rose 0.5% and Australian shares gained 1%, benefitting from the rally in US shares at the end of the previous week. The gain in Australian shares came despite bad news on lockdowns and was led by utility, material, retail and industrial shares. Bond yields continued to fall. While iron ore prices rose, metal prices fell, as did the oil price, as OPEC and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) closed in on a deal to boost production. The A$ fell as the US$ rose.

• The fall-back in bond yields are continued to be seen as part of a correction against a rising trend in yields that will resume as global recovery continues. Shares are at high risk of seeing more weakness in the short-term as coronavirus cases rise, the inflation scare continues and central banks become less dovish and as we come into the seasonally weaker months for shares around August/September. However, the rising trend in shares, led by cyclical trades, is likely to resume into year-end and continue through next year as rising vaccination allows the economic recovery to continue at the same time that interest rates and bond yields remain low.

• The inflation-scare continued over the last week, with blow out CPI reports in the US, UK and NZ and similar for producer price inflation in the US and Japan, but this still looks mostly transitory. Just five pandemic/reopening distorted items (covering vehicles, vehicle rental, airfares and hotels), covering just 12% of the core CPI, drove 75% of its increase. The 45% increase in used car prices over the last year alone accounts for one third of the rise in core inflation. The other items rose just 2% year-on-year (yoy) and median CPI inflation is just 2.2% yoy, suggesting that it’s still not very broad based. Outside the US there is not a lot of evidence of pass-through of high producer price inflation to consumers.

Source: Bloomberg, AMP Capital

• The news out of central banks was a bit confusing over the last week, but the big ones remain dovish. On the one hand the Royal Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) surprised markets by abruptly ending its bond buying program one year ahead of schedule and sounding a lot more hawkish, causing many to now expect the start of rate hikes by August. This has been reinforced by higher than expected inflation, which was driven by similar things to what we are seeing globally (i.e., building costs, fuel, vehicles). The thing though, is that underlying inflation measures were already in the RBNZ’s target range, the RBNZ is very erratic and it’s likely being influenced by the addition of house prices to its mandate, so it’s not a good guide to other central banks’ potential actions, particularly the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). Meanwhile, the Bank of Canada continued to taper its weekly bond buying and the Bank of Korea was hawkish and appears to be on track for a rate hike soon. Against this though, comments by the ECB’s Lagarde point to a dovish adjustment to its forward guidance on monetary policy. US Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Powell remained relatively dovish, seeing the inflation spike as likely temporary and the economy still a “ways off” achieving further substantial progress to the Fed’s goals, suggesting he is not rushing into a taper (we expect it from year-end). The Bank of Japan (BoJ) meanwhile remained dovish following its latest meeting.

• Will another debt ceiling battle hit US shares? It could cause some nervousness and contribute to a correction, but it’s unlikely to derail shares for long. The US debt ceiling expires on August 1, though Treasury can use various reserves to keep going into mid-September, after which it will default on payments unless the ceiling is raised. As we saw in 2011 and 2013, there could be brinkmanship, but such disruptions are unpopular with voters and the Republicans are not as anti-debt as they used to be, so 10 Republican senators can probably be found to get the 60 votes needed to raise the ceiling. If not, the Democrats can include it in their upcoming budget reconciliation bill (which will seek to pass President Biden’s American Jobs and Families Plans into law) and hence, pass it with a simple majority.

• The latest wave of new coronavirus cases globally is continuing to build, with the more contagious Delta variant adding to the risk. This has the potential to further unnerve investors – but the key is what happens to hospitalisations & deaths in countries that are well down the vaccination path.

Source: ourworldindata.org, AMP Capital

• Lowly vaccinated countries have little choice but to tighten restrictions and lockdowns in order to keep pressure off hospital systems and minimise deaths and this is what we have been seeing throughout Asia, South Africa and elsewhere. Of course, Australia is in the same boat.

Source: ourworldindata.org, AMP Capital

• However, it’s a different situation in the more vaccinated regions, including the UK, US and Europe. The UK is now seeing new daily cases over 30,000 (up from a recent low of 1,600 a day), the US over 25,000 (up from 12,000) and Europe nearly 100,000 (up from 40,000) – all of which make Australia look like a non-event, population adjusted or not! Of course, this poses a significant risk in that these countries are still below herd immunity and the vaccines are less effective in preventing the Delta infection. So, it risks causing concern, particularly amongst the young and in lowly vaccinated (mostly red) US states, and this will likely see some restrictions remain/reinstated (like masks in LA).

• However, while it would be desirable to have waited for 70-80% vaccination before fully reopening, the risk of a return to severe lockdowns and a derailing of the recovery in more-vaccinated countries is low compared to previous waves. First, various studies show that the vaccines are highly effective (i.e., 90% plus) against serious illness necessitating hospitalisation, even with the new variants. Second, most older, more at risk people have been vaccinated. So far hospitalisations and deaths have been edging up, but remain low in the UK, US and Europe and this remains key to watch going forward. While deaths lag new cases, note that deaths don’t seem to be following their past relationship to new cases in the chart below for the UK, which is a good sign.

Source: ourworldindata.org, AMP Capital

Source: ourworldindata.org, AMP Capital

Source: ourworldindata.org, AMP Capital

• On the latest count 27% of people globally and 54% in developed countries have had at least one dose of vaccine. Canada is now at 71%, the UK at 69%, the US at 57% (and stalling), Europe at 55% and Australia is at 28%.

Source: ourworldindata.org, AMP Capital

• Being relatively lowly vaccinated means that Australia has little option but to implement distancing and lockdowns to control the spread of coronavirus to limit pressure on the hospital system and prevent deaths following the latest outbreaks. “Learning to live with coronavirus” in the absence of high levels of vaccination will just mean “learning to die with it” and the consequences of long COVID. The experience since November tells us that lockdowns that are hard and start early, when new cases are running around 1 to 10 a day, are successful and can end within two weeks with minimal economic impact. Whereas lockdowns that start later take longer to work, with higher economic and health costs. Further, there is now academic support for this. This is particularly likely to be the case with the Delta variant.

Source: covid19data.com.au

• The economic impact of the lockdowns is evident in the Australian Economic Activity Tracker remaining down from recent highs but it’s not seeing the precipitous collapse seen going into April last year and in fact rose slightly in the last week because other states are providing an offset to NSW and businesses and households have found more ways to work through lockdowns. That said with NSW’s lockdown being extended and Victoria and now South Australia going back into lockdown we may see further softness in the week ahead.

Source: AMP Capital

• We are now assuming that the greater Sydney lockdown will last seven weeks. So, at a cost of around $1bn a week, it will cost the NSW and hence Australian economies around $7bn. To this, must now be added the latest Victorian and South Australian lockdowns. Adding in all the lockdowns since late May, it means a cost to the economy spread across the June and mainly September quarters upward of around $10bn. Government income support costing more than $0.5bn a week – basically JobKeeper lite, entailing payments to businesses contingent on them maintaining their workforce and payments to workers similar to what they would have received from JobKeeper late last year, will help soften the blow, but will mainly serve to help keep the economy resilient so it can bounce back quickly once the lockdowns end.

• Assuming other states keep growing (including Victoria and South Australia beyond their current lockdown) and NSW rebounds through September, helped by pent up demand and the lagged impact of support payments, the extended lockdown will likely flatten GDP growth this quarter (we were assuming growth of 1% quarter-on-quarter (qoq)) and risks sending it slightly negative. Allowing for a solid rebound in the December quarter, this will likely push GDP growth in Australia through the year to the December quarter down to around 4% yoy from the previous forecast of 4.75%. The hit to the NSW economy could push unemployment up temporarily from 4.9% currently, but it would likely quickly resume its downtrend later in the year and through next year, albeit it may not be below 5% at year-end as was expected. A further extension of the Sydney lockdown and further Delta outbreaks across Australia are a key risk. Though having seen the impact on Sydney, other states are likely to be extra cautious in making sure they don’t see the same, which means the risk of early snap and short lockdowns, but averting longer economically debilitating lockdowns like that seen in Sydney. Beyond the next few months, there remains reason for optimism as vaccination picks up, ultimately enabling a more sustained and confident reopening through next year. This combined with significant pent-up demand and an even higher level of savings after the Sydney lockdown, along with ongoing fiscal stimulus and ultra-easy monetary policy, will likely result in compensating stronger growth in 2022.

• The US Economic Activity Tracker ticked up in the past week, but has been little changed since May. The European Tracker recovered further and is above pre coronavirus levels.

Based on weekly data for eg job ads, restaurant bookings, confidence, mobility, credit & debt card transactions, retail foot traffic, hotel bookings. Source: AMP Capital

Major global economic events and implications

• US data releases were mostly solid, with a rise in small business confidence, strong business conditions in the Philadelphia and New York regions, a fall in jobless claims and stronger than expected retail sales. Against this, retail sales were likely soft in real terms, consumer sentiment fell and industrial production rose less than expected, partly due to ongoing supply chain disruptions holding auto production back. Along with stronger than expected consumer and producer price inflation, price pressures remained strong in various business surveys, albeit prices paid fell a bit.

• The BoJ made no major changes to monetary policy but will offer banks interest free funds for climate linked lending.

• Chinese GDP growth accelerated in the June quarter to 1.3% qoq, from 0.4% in the March quarter. Similarly, for June activity data which showed some slowing in year-on-year growth, but an acceleration in monthly retail sales and industrial production growth and a pickup in year ended investment growth. Export and import growth were also stronger than expected. Overall, Chinese growth remains solid.

Australian economic events and implications

• Australian economic data was mixed. Jobs data was strong in June, with unemployment falling to a 10-year low of 4.9%. Normally this would have boosted talk of earlier RBA rate hikes, but this is less likely now as the NSW lockdown is likely to depress this month’s jobs report. Meanwhile, business conditions and confidence fell in June in response to the Victorian lockdown, but consumer confidence surprisingly rose in July as depressed confidence in NSW was offset by strength in other states.

Source: Westpac/MI, NAB, AMP Capital

• Ongoing lockdowns are likely to depress confidence in the near term, but providing they are relatively short and given government income assistance and greater familiarity with lockdowns its likely to hold up reasonably well. Both business and consumer confidence remain reasonably strong. Finally, new home sales rose in June and remain strong.

• In the US, expect continuing strength in the home building conditions index and a rise in housing starts and existing home sales (Thursday). Business condition PMIs for July (Friday) will likely soften a touch but remain strong, with the focus likely to be on price readings.

• June quarter company profit results will start to ramp up with the consensus now looking for a 66% year-on-year rise boosted by base effects, but the rebound in various macro variables suggesting this could end up being +90% or so.

• The ECB (Thursday) is expected to leave monetary policy unchanged, but is expected to adopt more dovish forward guidance consistent with its more dovish inflation target. European business conditions PMIs for July (Friday) will likely show a further rise.

• Japanese CPI inflation data for June is expected to remain weak, with core inflation staying weak at -0.2%yoy.

• Shares are vulnerable to a short-term correction, with possible triggers being the latest upswing in global coronavirus cases, the inflation scare and US taper talk and geopolitical risks. Looking through the inevitable short-term noise however, the combination of improving global growth and earnings, helped by more fiscal stimulus, vaccines allowing reopening once herd immunity is reached and still-low interest rates augurs well for shares over the next 12 months.

• Still ultra-low bond yields and a capital loss from rising yields are likely to result in negative returns from bonds over the next 12 months.

• Unlisted commercial property may still see some weakness in retail and office returns, but industrial is likely to be strong. Unlisted infrastructure is expected to see solid returns.

• Australian home prices now look likely to rise 20% this year, before slowing to around 5% next year, being boosted by ultra-low mortgage rates, economic recovery and fear of missing out (FOMO), but expect a progressive slowing in the pace of gains as poor affordability impacts, government home buyer incentives are cut back, fixed mortgage rates rise, macro prudential tightening kicks in and immigration remains down relative to normal.

• Cash and bank deposits are likely to provide very poor returns, given the ultra-low cash rate of just 0.1%. Views remain that the RBA won’t start raising rates until 2023.

• Although the A$ could pull back further in response to the latest coronavirus scare and the threat it poses to global and Australian growth, a rising trend is likely to remain over the next 12 months, helped by strong commodity prices and a cyclical decline in the US dollar, probably taking the A$ up to around $US0.85 over the next 12 months.

Source: AMP CAPITAL ‘Weekly Market Update’

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