In recent years it seems that market sentiment is shifting more rapidly than ever. We saw this earlier this year when the US Federal Reserve flipped on its monetary stance from a tightening stance to a “let’s take pause and see how things pan out” position. In August we saw the yield curve invert meaning that long-term bond yields were lower than short-term bond yields. The most common measure of this is the difference between 2 and 10 year government bond yields. Markets reacted negatively to this as an inverted bond yield is typically an indication that investors are concerned about the economy. It has also been a good predictor of a looming recession with an inverted yield curve preceding every US recession since the 1970s. Interestingly, the time between the yield curve inverting and a recession is highly variable and equity markets have historically performed strongly until a recession has hit. For example, in 1988 the S&P 500 rose by over 30% prior the recession and in 2006 it rose approximately 16%. The yield curve has since steepened and is no longer inverted. So does this mean we are out of the woods?
From our perspective the economic news is mixed. Indicators such as manufacturing data have been trending down, however housing has been strong in the US and has improved in Australia. Consumers are also holding up in the US. Geopolitics continue to be an X-factor with news regarding US – China trade talks continually shifting, whilst the prospect of further quantitative easing is certainly plausible. From a bottom-up perspective, many of the professional investors Lonsec speaks to are indicating that they don’t expect a recession within the next 12 months but over a 2 year timeframe the risk of recession rises.
Amidst this uncertain backdrop, from an asset allocation perspective we have retained our slight defensive bias holding a greater exposure to real assets and focusing on diversification via uncorrelated assets such as alternatives.
