'Quantamental' Japan Specialist, LightStream Research

Campbell Gunn

'Quantamental' Japan Specialist

Long-Short Analysis on Japan, Asia and the World

LightStream Research

LightStream conducts quantitatively rigorous and data-driven analysis with a focus on Japan and Asia.

We consistently cover the Tech, Consumer and Industrial sectors, and provide ECM and Events coverage more broadly.

We supplement traditional qualitative insights from company relationships with a robust quantitative foundation that examines as much historical data as is available.
We further refine the accuracy of our insights and calls through the use of alternative data to flesh out current trends, and through a valuation framework that emphasises non-superficial peer group selection and a proper attempt to understand the metrics and changes that have driven security valuations in the past.

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/128/454/original/2020-04-18_16-16-49.png?1587194226" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="128454"></figure><div class="content-caption">Source • Japan Analytics</div>MARKING TIME - Japanse equities were becalmed last week, rising by 0.84%, while the Yen traded at 107 all week. The Bank of Japan bought ETFs on Wednesday and Thursday despite the relative calm and are on a path for April to equal the total purchases made in March. <figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/128/455/original/2020-04-18_17-43-44.png?1587199447" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="128455"></figure><div class="content-caption">Source • Japan Analytics</div>MARKING MULTIPLES - As we have been covering in our daily Results &amp; Revisions updates, forward earnings continue to decline gradually. As previously noted, the market multiple will rise over the next month as full-year forecasts for FY2021 are announced to at least the early 2020 peak of 17.6 times. This adjustment process will be complicated by a lack of initial forecasts from many leading companies and by a delay in the publication of annual yuho audited financial statements until the late summer. 'Robust' analysis will be at a premium.<figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/128/651/original/File%202020-04-20%204%2023%2024.jpeg?1587324271" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="128651"></figure><figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/128/652/original/File%202020-04-20%204%2024%2019.jpeg?1587324282" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="128652"></figure><div class="content-caption">Source • ourworldindata.org</div>COVID CASE COUNT - Japan's COVID-19 daily case-count has trended down this week compared to the weel before and is now on a par with Sweden and Singapore. Daily fatalities are averaging double figures as this lagging statistics reflects the higher case count of two weeks ago and are still within the East Asian 'range' of 0-10 a day. New case counts of below 100 and a declining trend, as is the case in South Korea, Denmark and Austria will be required by the end of Golden Week on May 6th for Japan to consider any relaxation of its now nationwide 'state of emergency'. <figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/128/558/original/File%202020-04-19%2016%2028%2027.jpeg?1587281926" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="128558"></figure><figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/128/559/original/File%202020-04-19%2016%2023%2014.jpeg?1587281952" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="128559"></figure><div class="content-caption">Source • ourworldindata.org</div>JAPAN'S TESTING VACUUM - We have noted the lack of testing in Japan in an earlier <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/japan-market-update-hit-the-boj-bid-and-wait-for-the-absolute-value-opportunity" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:37670" rel="noopener">Insight</a> and the two charts above from Oxford's Global Change Data Lab highlights Japan's outlier status in this regard and the implications for confirmed case counts and confirmed deaths. This deficiency has led many data scientists to study excess mortality rates. At present, there is insufficient data from the Health Ministry in Japan to make any valid comparisons. Based on other countries, Japan's excess mortality will likely price to be slightly higher for the over 65s and lower for everyone else. In any case, a massive testing capability will form a key component of any viable exit strategy.     <figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/128/479/original/File%202020-04-19%206%2024%2053.jpeg?1587245112" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="128479"></figure><div class="content-caption">Source • stopcovid19.jp</div>OVERSHOOT - Unfortunately for patients and the government, hospitals are now full in many prefectures. Central Tokyo hospitals are turning away patients requiring ambulances to take patients to outlying parts of the prefecture - although this situation is not unusual in normal times. Despite ample time to prepare, the government has failed to provide for the 'overshoot' that they had been warning the public it was necessary to avoid. Japan also has a lower ratio of intensive care beds, (5) per 100,000 people, than many other developed countries. The previous policy of hospitalising every case, however mild, has been reversed and local governments have now requisitioned 210,000 hotel rooms to house those not in need of urgent medical intervention. While Japan's COVID-19 strategy has, so far, followed the less economically-damaging Swedish model (see below), a failure to address the hospital overshoot risks the country being forced to follow the UK's 'u-turn' into total lockdown from which exit strategies are much harder. <figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/128/650/original/2020-04-20_04-02-00.png?1587322973" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="128650"></figure><div class="content-caption">Source • Tokyo Metropolitan Government</div>PEAKING OUT? On Sunday, Tokyo only 107 new cases, the lowest Sunday total for three weeks and the first decline. Tokyo now has over 3,000 cases out of a population of almost 14 million. The rate of doubling is now decelerating from one week to two weeks. Meanwhile, transit through major railway stations has declined by 70-80% across Japan. A lowering of new cases next week will be crucial to keep the hospitals from overflowing and the Prime Minister's reputation from falling further.FALLOUT - PM Abe's political capital is another casualty of this disease. It has emerged that his coalition partner the lay-Buddhist Komeito party threatened to walk out if the cash-for-all policy was not implemented requiring Abe to amend a previously-agreed budget bill much to the fury of the Ministry of Finance. The latter was able to require an application process as a means of limiting the amounts dispersed. However, in a bow to the changing circumstance, this process can be conducted online without, it seems, the need for in-person hanko certification. An additional complication is that Abe has 'fallen out' with his main bureaucratic 'fixer' and the main conduit with Komeito, Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga. Abe's poll ratings will probably never recover, and only his long-cherished desire to open the Tokyo Olympics in July 20121 will keep him in office. As will be true in many countries, the COVID-19 policy post mortems will be brutal and fatal for many previously Teflon-like political careers.<figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/128/486/original/File%202020-04-18%2013%2054%2022.jpeg?1587246944" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="128486"></figure><div class="content-caption">Source • Agoop</div><figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/128/488/original/File%202020-04-18%2013%2053%2001.jpeg?1587247186" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="128488"></figure><div class="content-caption">Source • @shinagawajp &gt; Blue bars = COVID-19 cases by Tokyo Ward   Orange Line = Concentration of people at 11 pm</div><figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/128/490/original/File%202020-04-18%2014%2000%2004.jpeg?1587247628" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="128490"></figure><div class="content-caption">Source • @shinagawajp &gt; Blue bars = COVID-19 cases by Tokyo Ward  Red Line = Population earning more than ¥15m a year</div>HOTSPOTS &amp; FAT CATS - Some support for the government's policy of shutting down Tokyo's nightlife comes from data which correlates case count per Tokyo ward and population clusters in each area at 11 pm.  The correlation is much higher than both population levels and public transport transit through each ward. The second highest correlation was with income levels, suggesting that Tokyo' rich have a greater tendency to frequent bars, restaurants and other forms of evening entertainment, while no doubt considering themselves immune. This correlation has been anecdotally confirmed by the growing number of figures from the media and entertainment world who have contracted the disease and bears out the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's focus on avoiding the 3 'C's - Congregations Conversing in Confined spaces. The plug has been pulled on Tokyo's 'mizushobai' or 'water trade'.<figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/128/663/original/File%202020-04-20%205%2020%2010.jpeg?1587327650" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="128663"></figure><div class="content-caption">Source • Johns Hopkins CSSE</div><figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/128/478/original/2020-04-19_06-16-22.png?1587244624" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="128478"></figure><div class="content-caption">Source • LockdownTV</div>PROF GIESECKE &amp; THE SWEDISH MODEL - Lastly, this <a href="https://youtu.be/bfN2JWifLCY" target="_blank" rel="noopener">video</a> of an interview with retired Swedish epidemiologist, Professor Johan Giesecke, provides an update on the policy options that governments have faced in their responses to COVID-19, the background to Sweden's policy and the difficulties of exiting from lockdown strategies. A summary of his talk is as follows:-<blockquote>
Lockdown policies are not evidence-based
The correct policy is to protect the old and the frail only - this will eventually lead to herd immunity as a by-product - the initial UK response, which was similar to Sweden's was better  - before they made a 180 degree U-turn
The UK's Imperial College paper was not very good and he has never seen an unpublished paper have so much policy impact - the paper was  too pessimistic and any such models are a dubious basis for public policy
The flattening of the curve is due to the most vulnerable dying first as much as the lockdown policy
The outcomes will eventually be similar for all countries regardless of policy pursued
Covid-19 is a mild disease similar to the flu, and it was the novelty of the disease that scared people - the fatality rate of Covid-19 is the region of 0.1%
At least 50% of the population will be shown to have already had the disease when mass antibody testing becomes available - achieving 'herd immunity'
</blockquote>In the DETAIL below, we shall explore some of the emerging themes for the post-COVID-19 world, review the results, revisions and initial forecast announcements made on Friday and, finally, look at our lists the Moving Average 'Outliers'.  The positive/neutral/negative balance for Friday's three results announcements was 1:0:2. For the 20 revisions/forecasts, the split was 7:1:12 - although two of the positive outcomes were securities brokers making initial 'forecasts' of a year-on-year return to profitability after the full-year results have been finalised. Peer Groups revising down included Advertising Services, Apparel &amp; Footwear, Retail-Apparel &amp; Footwear, Hotels &amp; Resorts, Employment &amp; Staffing, and Restaurants. Upward revisions were seen in Retail-Food &amp; Drink, Personal Products, and Public Relations.

Source • Japan AnalyticsMARKING TIME - Japanse equities were becalmed last week, rising by 0.84%, while the Yen traded at 107 all week. The Bank of Japan bought ETFs on Wednesday and Thursday despite the relative calm and are on a path for April to equal the total purchases made in March. Source • Japan AnalyticsMARKING MULTIPLES - As we have been covering in our daily Results &amp; Revisions updates, forward earnings continue to decline gradually. As previously noted, the market multiple will rise over the next month as full-year forecasts for FY2021 are announced to at least the early 2020 peak of 17.6 times. This adjustment process will be complicated by a lack of initial forecasts from many leading companies and by a delay in the publication of annual yuho audited financial statements until the late summer. 'Robust' analysis will be at a premium.Source • ourworldindata.orgCOVID CASE COUNT - Japan's COVID-19 daily case-count has trended down this week compared to the weel before and is now on a par with Sweden and Singapore. Daily fatalities are averaging double figures as this lagging statistics reflects the higher case count of two weeks ago and are still within the East Asian 'range' of 0-10 a day. New case counts of below 100 and a declining trend, as is the case in South Korea, Denmark and Austria will be required by the end of Golden Week on May 6th for Japan to consider any relaxation of its now nationwide 'state of emergency'. Source • ourworldindata.orgJAPAN'S TESTING VACUUM - We have noted the lack of testing in Japan in an earlier Insight and the two charts above from Oxford's Global Change Data Lab highlights Japan's outlier status in this regard and the implications for confirmed case counts and confirmed deaths. This deficiency has led many data scientists to study excess mortality rates. At present, there is insufficient data from the Health Ministry in Japan to make any valid comparisons. Based on other countries, Japan's excess mortality will likely price to be slightly higher for the over 65s and lower for everyone else. In any case, a massive testing capability will form a key component of any viable exit strategy.     Source • stopcovid19.jpOVERSHOOT - Unfortunately for patients and the government, hospitals are now full in many prefectures. Central Tokyo hospitals are turning away patients requiring ambulances to take patients to outlying parts of the prefecture - although this situation is not unusual in normal times. Despite ample time to prepare, the government has failed to provide for the 'overshoot' that they had been warning the public it was necessary to avoid. Japan also has a lower ratio of intensive care beds, (5) per 100,000 people, than many other developed countries. The previous policy of hospitalising every case, however mild, has been reversed and local governments have now requisitioned 210,000 hotel rooms to house those not in need of urgent medical intervention. While Japan's COVID-19 strategy has, so far, followed the less economically-damaging Swedish model (see below), a failure to address the hospital overshoot risks the country being forced to follow the UK's 'u-turn' into total lockdown from which exit strategies are much harder. Source • Tokyo Metropolitan GovernmentPEAKING OUT? On Sunday, Tokyo only 107 new cases, the lowest Sunday total for three weeks and the first decline. Tokyo now has over 3,000 cases out of a population of almost 14 million. The rate of doubling is now decelerating from one week to two weeks. Meanwhile, transit through major railway stations has declined by 70-80% across Japan. A lowering of new cases next week will be crucial to keep the hospitals from overflowing and the Prime Minister's reputation from falling further.FALLOUT - PM Abe's political capital is another casualty of this disease. It has emerged that his coalition partner the lay-Buddhist Komeito party threatened to walk out if the cash-for-all policy was not implemented requiring Abe to amend a previously-agreed budget bill much to the fury of the Ministry of Finance. The latter was able to require an application process as a means of limiting the amounts dispersed. However, in a bow to the changing circumstance, this process can be conducted online without, it seems, the need for in-person hanko certification. An additional complication is that Abe has 'fallen out' with his main bureaucratic 'fixer' and the main conduit with Komeito, Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga. Abe's poll ratings will probably never recover, and only his long-cherished desire to open the Tokyo Olympics in July 20121 will keep him in office. As will be true in many countries, the COVID-19 policy post mortems will be brutal and fatal for many previously Teflon-like political careers.Source • AgoopSource • @shinagawajp &gt; Blue bars = COVID-19 cases by Tokyo Ward   Orange Line = Concentration of people at 11 pmSource • @shinagawajp &gt; Blue bars = COVID-19 cases by Tokyo Ward  Red Line = Population earning more than ¥15m a yearHOTSPOTS &amp; FAT CATS - Some support for the government's policy of shutting down Tokyo's nightlife comes from data which correlates case count per Tokyo ward and population clusters in each area at 11 pm.  The correlation is much higher than both population levels and public transport transit through each ward. The second highest correlation was with income levels, suggesting that Tokyo' rich have a greater tendency to frequent bars, restaurants and other forms of evening entertainment, while no doubt considering themselves immune. This correlation has been anecdotally confirmed by the growing number of figures from the media and entertainment world who have contracted the disease and bears out the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's focus on avoiding the 3 'C's - Congregations Conversing in Confined spaces. The plug has been pulled on Tokyo's 'mizushobai' or 'water trade'.Source • Johns Hopkins CSSESource • LockdownTVPROF GIESECKE &amp; THE SWEDISH MODEL - Lastly, this video of an interview with retired Swedish epidemiologist, Professor Johan Giesecke, provides an update on the policy options that governments have faced in their responses to COVID-19, the background to Sweden's policy and the difficulties of exiting from lockdown strategies. A summary of his talk is as follows:-
Lockdown policies are not evidence-based
The correct policy is to protect the old and the frail only - this will eventually lead to herd immunity as a by-product - the initial UK response, which was similar to Sweden's was better  - before they made a 180 degree U-turn
The UK's Imperial College paper was not very good and he has never seen an unpublished paper have so much policy impact - the paper was  too pessimistic and any such models are a dubious basis for public policy
The flattening of the curve is due to the most vulnerable dying first as much as the lockdown policy
The outcomes will eventually be similar for all countries regardless of policy pursued
Covid-19 is a mild disease similar to the flu, and it was the novelty of the disease that scared people - the fatality rate of Covid-19 is the region of 0.1%
At least 50% of the population will be shown to have already had the disease when mass antibody testing becomes available - achieving 'herd immunity'
In the DETAIL below, we shall explore some of the emerging themes for the post-COVID-19 world, review the results, revisions and initial forecast announcements made on Friday and, finally, look at our lists the Moving Average 'Outliers'.  The positive/neutral/negative balance for Friday's three results announcements was 1:0:2. For the 20 revisions/forecasts, the split was 7:1:12 - although two of the positive outcomes were securities brokers making initial 'forecasts' of a year-on-year return to profitability after the full-year results have been finalised. Peer Groups revising down included Advertising Services, Apparel &amp; Footwear, Retail-Apparel &amp; Footwear, Hotels &amp; Resorts, Employment &amp; Staffing, and Restaurants. Upward revisions were seen in Retail-Food &amp; Drink, Personal Products, and Public Relations.

🇯🇵 JAPAN MARKET (& COVID-19) UPDATE 19th April - Overshoot

Technical Analyst, Vermilion Research

Joe Jasper

Technical Analyst

Technical and Quantitative Research

Vermilion Research

Vermilion’s objective is to deliver timely, actionable, and unique technical research to professional investors through the application of our various technical indicators.

Our research strategists seek to highlight securities which we believe are at major inflection points, based on our various technical and quantitative indicators, and offer asymmetric risk/return profiles. Our unique research methodology, centered on relative strength, enables our strategists to deliver superior investment recommendations.

Our process begins by organizing the universe of actively traded stocks into discrete sectors, then into industry groups. We then apply our technical and quantitative tools to identify developing price trends. Once attractive trends are identified within a selected sector or group, we screen for individual stocks which we believe offer the best risk/reward profile. We provide a historical perspective that often reveals, through our long-term charts, how price patterns often repeat themselves over time.

Technical Analysis

Positive news flow surrounding COVID-19 is encouraging on many fronts. Still, despite encouraging news and the relief rally in global equities, history tells us that this is a fairly standard bear market rally in terms of its magnitude, making us believe the global equity market is not yet out of the woods. We are watching for signs of a turn of the tide. There has been significant damage inflicted and that damage is going to take time to repair. Actionable Themes in this report have representation in Staples, Health Care, Technology, and a collection of bottom-up ideas.

Positive news flow surrounding COVID-19 is encouraging on many fronts. Still, despite encouraging news and the relief rally in global equities, history tells us that this is a fairly standard bear market rally in terms of its magnitude, making us believe the global equity market is not yet out of the woods. We are watching for signs of a turn of the tide. There has been significant damage inflicted and that damage is going to take time to repair. Actionable Themes in this report have representation in Staples, Health Care, Technology, and a collection of bottom-up ideas. 

Several equity indexes and indicators we watch are telling us an initial primary low has been established for global equities (ACWI-US). At the same time, after this type of major waterfall decline there is often a test of this initial low - and oftentimes we get an undercut of the initial low. Barring approval of a first-line therapy for COVID-19 we are of the belief that we will get an eventual test of this initial low and potentially an undercut. In this report we highlight key technical levels and indicators to watch and suggest investment opportunities with defensive and/or growth characteristics. We are also expanding our recommendations to include bottom-up ideas within several other Sectors.

Several equity indexes and indicators we watch are telling us an initial primary low has been established for global equities (ACWI-US). At the same time, after this type of major waterfall decline there is often a test of this initial low - and oftentimes we get an undercut of the initial low. Barring approval of a first-line therapy for COVID-19 we are of the belief that we will get an eventual test of this initial low and potentially an undercut. In this report we highlight key technical levels and indicators to watch and suggest investment opportunities with defensive and/or growth characteristics. We are also expanding our recommendations to include bottom-up ideas within several other Sectors.

Global Equity Strategy: Initial Low Established

ja research

ja research is an independent research platform focused exclusively on Japanese equities. Leveraging data and graphic analysis provided by Japan Analytics, we provide insights on small and medium-sized companies that have been ignored by the sell-side as well as challenging conventional wisdom on larger companies. We also offer analyst and corporate access, the latter with translation if required. 

<div>• RELATIVE PRICE SCORE •</div><div>RELATIVE PRICE SCORE OUTLIERS - The Relative Price Score (RPS) is a measure of price performance relative to TOPIX calculated by comparing the current deviation with the mean absolute deviation of monthly and daily relative share prices over the last 28 years and 24 months, respectively. As all companies are put on a comparable scale, 'Overbought' and 'Oversold' outliers and short-term changes in scoring can offer interesting trading opportunities.</div>The data for all 3,871 currently-listed Companies is cap-weight-aggregated into Relative Price Scores for our 328 Peer Groups and 30 Sectors. The Overbought and Oversold outlier 'thresholds are set' at +4 &amp; -2 for Companies, +3 &amp; -1.5 for Peer Groups and +2 and -1 for Sectors, respectively. These thresholds equate with the top and bottom percentiles of over one million historical observations.<figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/120/245/original/2020-02-27_08-50-00.png?1582762915" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="120245"></figure><div class="content-caption">Source • Japan Analytics</div>With a few exceptions, mean reversion from these extreme outlying states occurs typically in weeks or months. The twenty-eight-year history of Sector Relative Price Scores illustrates the ebbs and flows of investment themes in the market, from the 2000 Technology 'bubble' to the REIT and Real Estate peak of 2013/14, the Healthcare and FB&amp;T market of 2016/17. On the downside, there is greater 'persistence' in the Oversold zone, particularly recently for Energy, Banks and Utilities Sectors.<figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/120/400/original/2020-02-28_07-33-54.png?1582842856" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="120400"></figure><figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/120/402/original/2020-02-28_07-34-58.png?1582842919" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="120402"></figure><div class="content-caption">Source • Japan Analytics</div>CONSUMER SERVICES - The most recent case of Sector mean reversion is in Consumer Services, driven primarily by the performance of <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/oriental-land-co-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:13517:1" rel="noopener">Oriental Land (4661 JP)</a>, a business that is now seeing a direct impact from Covid-19 with the closure of Tokyo Disneyland until March 15th announced today. This news is prompting some short-covering in the Friday afternoon session; however, at 31X EV/OP, there is still 63% downside to a residual income-based no-growth valuation. We expect both the Sector's and company's RPS to retrace the gains of the last two years.  <div>In the DETAIL section below, we provide an update on  Sector and Peer Group trends, over the last three months and adds some stock-specific comments. A separate Insight to follow in the next few days will cover the Relative Price Scores for individual companies.</div>

• RELATIVE PRICE SCORE •RELATIVE PRICE SCORE OUTLIERS - The Relative Price Score (RPS) is a measure of price performance relative to TOPIX calculated by comparing the current deviation with the mean absolute deviation of monthly and daily relative share prices over the last 28 years and 24 months, respectively. As all companies are put on a comparable scale, 'Overbought' and 'Oversold' outliers and short-term changes in scoring can offer interesting trading opportunities.The data for all 3,871 currently-listed Companies is cap-weight-aggregated into Relative Price Scores for our 328 Peer Groups and 30 Sectors. The Overbought and Oversold outlier 'thresholds are set' at +4 &amp; -2 for Companies, +3 &amp; -1.5 for Peer Groups and +2 and -1 for Sectors, respectively. These thresholds equate with the top and bottom percentiles of over one million historical observations.Source • Japan AnalyticsWith a few exceptions, mean reversion from these extreme outlying states occurs typically in weeks or months. The twenty-eight-year history of Sector Relative Price Scores illustrates the ebbs and flows of investment themes in the market, from the 2000 Technology 'bubble' to the REIT and Real Estate peak of 2013/14, the Healthcare and FB&amp;T market of 2016/17. On the downside, there is greater 'persistence' in the Oversold zone, particularly recently for Energy, Banks and Utilities Sectors.Source • Japan AnalyticsCONSUMER SERVICES - The most recent case of Sector mean reversion is in Consumer Services, driven primarily by the performance of Oriental Land (4661 JP), a business that is now seeing a direct impact from Covid-19 with the closure of Tokyo Disneyland until March 15th announced today. This news is prompting some short-covering in the Friday afternoon session; however, at 31X EV/OP, there is still 63% downside to a residual income-based no-growth valuation. We expect both the Sector's and company's RPS to retrace the gains of the last two years.  In the DETAIL section below, we provide an update on  Sector and Peer Group trends, over the last three months and adds some stock-specific comments. A separate Insight to follow in the next few days will cover the Relative Price Scores for individual companies.

🇯🇵 JAPAN • March Sector & Peer Group Relative Price Scores -

<figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/118/403/original/2020-02-18_08-44-22.png?1581983074" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="118403"></figure><figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/118/404/original/2020-02-18_08-42-56.png?1581983098" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="118404"></figure><div class="content-caption">Source • Japan Analytics</div>THREE-YEAR LOW - With <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/bridgestone-corp" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:8914:1" rel="noopener">Bridgestone (5108 JP)</a>'s results and revision now added, our final tally for this season is a 196 basis point decline in our Results Sore - the lowest since March 2017.  In contrast, the Forecast/Revision Score reached a three-month high as the 470 companies with December year-ends put an optimistic gloss on their medium-term outlook. As we have noted in our recent daily roundups, a normal precondition for a cycle low is for the Forecast/Revision Score to rise above the Results Score. Forecast/Revision Score peaks and troughs usually occur one to two quarters ahead of those for the Results Score.  Covid-19's impact will likely see the 2016 'playbook' repeated next quarter with a lower Results Score and a 'sideways' Forecast/Results Score. The Results Score cycle low point will be reached with the mostly-interim results to be released in six months. <figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/118/405/original/2020-02-18_09-29-28.png?1581985792" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="118405"></figure><div class="content-caption">Source • Japan Analytics</div>LEADING INDICATOR - By including several momentum factors into our Scoring (see below), we can provide a better indication of future business conditions. Indeed there is a 0.83 correlation between the Cabinet Office's Business Condition Leading Indicator and the Forecast/Revision Score. Reported earnings, as well as company forecasts, are lagging indicators and, as shown in Part 1 of this Insight. Both data series peaked one year after our Scores and the market peaked in early 2018. SCORING METHODOLOGY - For those new to these Insights, we briefly recap our scoring methodology below:-<ul>
<li>Results Scores are calculated using the most recent eight quarters of company data for Revenues, Operating Income and Operating Margin and, for each, measure the rate, degree and consistency of change. The Results Score has a maximum of +30 and a minimum of -30 for each period. Our data series commences from the time a particular company issues quarterly results. The sample size becomes significant from March 2005.</li>
<li>The Forecast/Revision Score is based on both Annual and Interim period company forecasts and compares changes from previous forecasts as well as against the trailing twelve-month (TTM) or previous first-half results, with annual forecasts being double-weighted. This Score also has a maximum of +30 and a minimum of -30 for each period.  For this series, our data samples start from August 2008.</li>
<li>The combined Results &amp; Revision Score (RRS) is the average of the Results Score and the Forecasts/Revision Score.</li>
<li>
All company Scores are then cap-weight-aggregated into Sector, Peer Group and Market Composite Scores for which the seventeen-year monthly and two-year daily track records are shown above. Only currently listed-companies are covered in the aggregate Scores, and the Total Market Capitalisation excludes delisted entities. REITs are not included.
<hr>
• SECTOR SCORES •
<figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/118/410/original/2020-02-18_09-55-29.png?1581987489" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="118410"></figure><div class="content-caption">Source • Japan Analytics</div>
In the DETAIL Section below, we provide a detailed breakdown of our RRS Scoring for Sectors, Peer Groups and individual companies, highlighting this quarter's 'winners' and 'losers'. The chart above shows a  seventeen-year 'timeline' of the cap-weight-aggregated Sector RRS Scores and the ebbs and flows around the business cycles. The Metals Sector is the most volatile on the downside and has yet to 'bottom' this cycle. Technology Hardware appears to have already rebounded; however, Covid-19 suggests this Sector may relapse. On the upside, the Information Technology Sector has replaced the Internet and Telecoms Sectors as the contra-cyclical 'champion'. 
</li>
</ul>

Source • Japan AnalyticsTHREE-YEAR LOW - With Bridgestone (5108 JP)'s results and revision now added, our final tally for this season is a 196 basis point decline in our Results Sore - the lowest since March 2017.  In contrast, the Forecast/Revision Score reached a three-month high as the 470 companies with December year-ends put an optimistic gloss on their medium-term outlook. As we have noted in our recent daily roundups, a normal precondition for a cycle low is for the Forecast/Revision Score to rise above the Results Score. Forecast/Revision Score peaks and troughs usually occur one to two quarters ahead of those for the Results Score.  Covid-19's impact will likely see the 2016 'playbook' repeated next quarter with a lower Results Score and a 'sideways' Forecast/Results Score. The Results Score cycle low point will be reached with the mostly-interim results to be released in six months. Source • Japan AnalyticsLEADING INDICATOR - By including several momentum factors into our Scoring (see below), we can provide a better indication of future business conditions. Indeed there is a 0.83 correlation between the Cabinet Office's Business Condition Leading Indicator and the Forecast/Revision Score. Reported earnings, as well as company forecasts, are lagging indicators and, as shown in Part 1 of this Insight. Both data series peaked one year after our Scores and the market peaked in early 2018. SCORING METHODOLOGY - For those new to these Insights, we briefly recap our scoring methodology below:-
Results Scores are calculated using the most recent eight quarters of company data for Revenues, Operating Income and Operating Margin and, for each, measure the rate, degree and consistency of change. The Results Score has a maximum of +30 and a minimum of -30 for each period. Our data series commences from the time a particular company issues quarterly results. The sample size becomes significant from March 2005.
The Forecast/Revision Score is based on both Annual and Interim period company forecasts and compares changes from previous forecasts as well as against the trailing twelve-month (TTM) or previous first-half results, with annual forecasts being double-weighted. This Score also has a maximum of +30 and a minimum of -30 for each period.  For this series, our data samples start from August 2008.
The combined Results &amp; Revision Score (RRS) is the average of the Results Score and the Forecasts/Revision Score.

All company Scores are then cap-weight-aggregated into Sector, Peer Group and Market Composite Scores for which the seventeen-year monthly and two-year daily track records are shown above. Only currently listed-companies are covered in the aggregate Scores, and the Total Market Capitalisation excludes delisted entities. REITs are not included.

• SECTOR SCORES •
Source • Japan Analytics
In the DETAIL Section below, we provide a detailed breakdown of our RRS Scoring for Sectors, Peer Groups and individual companies, highlighting this quarter's 'winners' and 'losers'. The chart above shows a  seventeen-year 'timeline' of the cap-weight-aggregated Sector RRS Scores and the ebbs and flows around the business cycles. The Metals Sector is the most volatile on the downside and has yet to 'bottom' this cycle. Technology Hardware appears to have already rebounded; however, Covid-19 suggests this Sector may relapse. On the upside, the Information Technology Sector has replaced the Internet and Telecoms Sectors as the contra-cyclical 'champion'. 



🇯🇵 JAPAN • IT’S A WRAP! Part 2: 2020-Q1 Results & Revision Scores

Japan

Lasertec Corporation develops, designs, manufactures and markets photomask inspection systems to make semiconductor devices, confocal scanning laser microscopes and liquid crystal display (LCD) inspection systems.

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