Only the tech-laden NASDAQ is lagging, though its 329-point gain on the day put it within five percent of the record close of 14,095.47 achieved just one month ago.
The high stock prices are largely the result of significant efforts by the Federal Reserve and the US government to shore up citizens, businesses, and state and local governments. Thursday afternoon, Joe Biden signed into law the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Act, giving a major boost to capital markets. $1400 checks and direct deposits are being distributed beginning as early as this weekend.
With just about every entity in America soon to be flush with cash, it now appears certain that equity prices will rap even higher. The NASDAQ should be of particular interest to investors as it is currently in the unusual position of lagging the other indices when it has been customarily the since the GFC of 2007-09.
Despite futures looking a bit squeamish this morning, any position in stocks other than buying or holding would appear to be a fool's errand. Next week's upcoming meeting of the Fed's FOMC is likely to shed further light on just how much more money the central bank is willing to throw at the markets.
With $180 billion per month in QE already slated through the end of 2021, investors have the cat-bird's seat at another leg forward for stocks and housing as well. Median housing prices recently made a new high and there doesn't seem to be any reason for new and existing residential structures to command excessively high prices through the summer other than a slight tick up in mortgage interest rates, which are still close to record lows.
A 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is currently 3.462%, while a 15-year fixed rate is 2.562%, both extremely low by historical standards.
The Shiller CAPE measure for stocks currently stands at 35.67, higher than at any time in the history of the stock market (dating back to 1870) other than the level achieved at the height of the dotcom boom. While that may cause some consternation to purists, the current makeup of the US markets offers the ability to withstand absurd valuations and distortions due to extraordinary measures by the Fed and US government.
Other than a nuclear war, there isn't anything to prevent all stock indices from ramping even higher in coming days, weeks and months. The few impediments are psychology, interest rates, and valuation, none of which is a major headache for policy makers at this juncture.
Investor psychology is very high, for obvious reasons. Interest rates are controllable. The 10-year note was recently whipsawed to one-year highs, but the Fed and their proxies have managed to shore up the market and keep longer maturities from getting out of control. Yield on the 10-year reached an apex at 5.9% on Monday, but has fallen back to 5.4% as of Thursday.
Valuations, though very high, don't matter significantly to today's investors. As long as the dollar continues to slide slowly up and down in its current range, stocks will continue to catch the eye. It's no stretch to believe the Dow could hit 35,000 within six months and the S&P vault well over 4,000. Get out the party hats.
Elsewhere, gold and silver are getting crushed in the futures market again this morning, while bitcoin remains near all-time highs and is threatening to move to new levels, making it one of the very few - and likely the best - contrary indicators against dollar devaluation.
At the Close, Thursday March 11, 2021:
Dow: 32,485.59, +188.57 (+0.58%)
NASDAQ: 13,398.67, +329.84 (+2.52%)
S&P 500: 3,939.34, +40.53 (+1.04%)
NYSE: 15,648.00, +126.17 (+0.81%)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment