One of the past month’s interesting stock-market developments was the strength of the banking sector in both nominal terms and relative to the broad market. The strength in nominal dollar terms is illustrated by the top section of the following weekly chart, which shows that the US Bank Index (BKX) is threatening to break out to the upside. The strength relative to the broad market is illustrated by the bottom section of the chart, which reveals a sharp rebound in the BKX/SPX ratio since the beginning of September.

Bank stocks tend to perform relatively well when long-term interest rates are rising in both absolute terms and relative to short-term interest rates. This explains why the banking sector outperformed during September and also why bank stocks generally have been major laggards since early last year.

Valuations in the banking sector are depressed at the moment, as evidenced by relatively low P/Es and the fact that the BKX/SPX ratio is not far from a 25-year low. This opens up the possibility that we will get a few quarters of persistent outperformance by bank stocks after long-term interest rates make a sustained turn to the upside.

On a related matter, the relative performance of the banking sector (as indicated by the BKX/SPX ratio) is an input to my “true fundamentals” models for both the US stock market and the gold market. However, when the input is bullish for one of these markets it is bearish for the other. In particular, relative weakness in the banking sector is considered to be bullish for gold and bearish for general equities.

Until recently the BKX/SPX input was bullish in my gold model and bearish in my equity model, but there was enough relative strength in the banking sector during the first half of September to flip the BKX/SPX input from gold-bullish to equity-bullish. As a consequence, during the second week of September there was a shift from bullish to bearish in my Gold True Fundamentals Model (GTFM). This shift is illustrated on the following weekly chart by the blue line’s recent dip below 50.

The upshot is that the fundamental backdrop, which was supportive for gold from the beginning of this year through to early-September, is now slightly gold-bearish. My guess is that it will return to gold-bullish territory within the next two months, but in situations like this it is better to base decisions on real-time information than on what might happen in the future.

[This blog post is an excerpt from a commentary published at TSI on 1st September 2019.]

It’s well known that the US$ gold price often trends in the opposite direction to the US real interest rate. This relationship is illustrated by the following chart in which the real interest rate is represented by the yield on the 10-year TIPS (Treasury Inflation Protected Security).

Notice that the 10-year TIPS yield has just gone negative and that the previous two times that this proxy for the real interest rate went negative the gold price was at an important peak. Specifically, the real interest rate going negative in August-2011 coincided with a long-term top in the gold price and the real interest rate going negative in July-2016 coincided with an intermediate-term top in the gold price. If gold tends to benefit from a lower real interest rate, why would the gold price reverse downward shortly after the real interest rate turned negative?

Considering only the 2016 case the answer to the above question seems obvious, because in July-2016 the TIPS yield reversed course and began trending upward soon after it dipped into negative territory. In other words, the downward reversal in the gold price coincided with an upward reversal in the real interest rate. However, in 2011-2012 the real interest rate continued to trend downward for more than a year after the gold price peaked.

We think there are two reasons why the gold price didn’t make additional gains in 2011-2012 after the real interest rate turned negative. First and foremost, the real interest rate is just one of several fundamental gold-price drivers (the 10-year TIPS yield is one of seven inputs to our Gold True Fundamentals Model), and after August-2011 the upward pressure exerted by a falling real interest rate was counteracted by the downward pressure exerted by other fundamental influences. Second, in August-2011 a further significant decline in the real interest rate had been factored into the current gold price.

The risk at the moment is that on a short-term basis the bullish fundamental backdrop, including the potential for a further decline in the ‘real interest rate’, is fully discounted by the current price. This risk is highlighted by the fact that the total speculative net-long position in Comex gold futures is very close to an all-time high. It is also highlighted by the fact that the RSI displayed in the bottom section of the following weekly chart is almost as high as it ever gets.

The relationship between short-term market interest rates and the interest rates set by the Fed is a complicated one. The market makes predictions about what the Fed is going to do and moves in anticipation, but at the same time the Fed’s interest-rate settings are influenced by what’s happening to market interest rates. Also, market interest rates are determined by factors other than what the Fed is doing or expected to do to its official rate targets, and as a result there are times when the market and the Fed seem to be at odds with each other.

At the moment there is no doubt that the market is leading the Fed. In particular, the Fed has been swayed towards rate cutting partly by the fact that the market has discounted rate cuts. This can be established by comparing recent movements in market interest rates with changes in the Fed’s interest rate targets, which I’ll get to shortly. It can also be established by referring to the Fed’s own statements. For example, the minutes of the July FOMC meeting included the following assessment:

“Participants observed that current financial conditions appeared to be premised importantly on expectations that the Federal Reserve would ease policy to help offset the drag on economic growth stemming from the weaker global outlook and uncertainties associated with international trade as well as to provide some insurance to address various downside risks.”

In essence, the Fed has admitted here to being worried that if it doesn’t cut rates like the market expects then financial conditions could get a lot worse. The implication is that if the market expects the Fed to cut rates, then to avoid disappointing the market (and risking the deterioration of financial conditions) the Fed will cut rates.

I mentioned above that the market’s current leadership can be established by comparing recent movements in market interest rates with changes in the Fed’s interest rate targets. Displayed below is a chart that makes this case. The chart shows the performance of the 2-year Treasury yield and indicates the last two interest-rate changes made by the Fed. Notice that:

1) The 2-year market interest rate began trending downward in early-November of 2018.

2) The Fed made its last rate hike during the second half of December 2018, that is, the Fed was still in rate-hiking mode six weeks after a short-term market interest rate began trending downward.

3) The Fed made its first rate cut at the end of July 2019. By that time, the 2-year market interest rate had been trending downward for almost 9 months.

It’s reasonable to assume that additional Fed rate cuts are on the way. Bear in mind, however, that a few additional rate cuts have already been factored into market prices, so market prices won’t necessarily respond in the obvious way to future Fed rate cuts. Also bear in mind that market interest rates probably will begin trending upward while the Fed and other central banks are still in rate-cutting mode.

[This post is a modified excerpt from a recent TSI commentary]

Gold tends to lead the industrial metals sector at intermediate-term bottoms, that is, the US$ gold price tends to make an intermediate-term bottom and commence a multi-quarter (or multi-year) upward trend in advance of the Industrial Metals Index (GYX). Evidence of this can be found on the following chart comparison of the US$ gold price and GYX. Specific examples are:

a) The gold price reversed upward in April of 2001 and GYX did the same in November of that year.

b) The gold price reversed upward in October-November of 2008 and GYX did the same in February-March of 2009.

c) The gold price reversed upward in December of 2015 and GYX followed suit in January of 2016.

Gold’s most recent intermediate-term bottom was in August of 2018. It has since trended upward and over the past two months the trend accelerated. GYX, however, continued to make lower lows until June of 2019. It’s too early to tell if GYX’s June-2019 low was the intermediate-term variety, but regardless of whether or not it makes a new low within the next couple of months the performance of the gold market suggests that the industrial metals sector will commence an intermediate-term rally before the end of this year.

The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) is also predicting an industrial metals rally

The BDI is an index of dry bulk shipping rates. I generally don’t use it as an economic or a financial-market indicator, because it is influenced as much by changes in the supply of shipping capacity as by changes in the global demand for commodities. However, intermediate-term trends in the BDI often match intermediate-term trends in the Industrial Metals Index (GYX). Also, large short-term divergences between the BDI and GYX tend to be important, with one or the other subsequently making a big catch-up move in quick time.

As illustrated by the following chart, a large divergence has opened up over the past four months due to the BDI rocketing up to a 5-year high while GYX languishes near a 2-year low. This divergence could be closed by either a dramatic plunge in the BDI or a substantial rally in the industrial metals sector. I suspect it will be the latter.