Founder & Chief Market Strategist - SAV Markets, SAV Markets

Shyam Devani

Founder & Chief Market Strategist - SAV Markets

Cross Asset Strategy

<p>Is it still the time to be defensive on equities and have a notable allocation in Bonds as was described in the note from 11 May (see <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/us-equities-time-to-get-defensive" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:51332" rel="noopener">US Equities: Time to Get Defensive</a>)?</p><p>Whichever chart we look at across markets - whether in fixed income, commodities, foreign exchange, or equities - the signs are clear…stay long bonds (Treasuries) in this environment for the short term.</p>

Is it still the time to be defensive on equities and have a notable allocation in Bonds as was described in the note from 11 May (see US Equities: Time to Get Defensive)?Whichever chart we look at across markets - whether in fixed income, commodities, foreign exchange, or equities - the signs are clear…stay long bonds (Treasuries) in this environment for the short term.

Managing Director

Elan Gore

TMI Data Science

TMI Data Science utilizes Natural Language Processing to build custom leading indicators using unstructured data sourced from the global financial, trade & traditional media.  Our proprietary software, TMI Machine, is a text-mining platform designed with the buy-side & capital markets professional in mind, text-mining the global media to discern and quantify nuanced qualitative shifts in press coverage as they apply to macroeconomics, equity indexes/ETFs, commodities, currencies, fixed income & individual equities.  TMI provides custom leading indicators and systematic trading strategies, operating at the nexus of linguistics & statistics drawing on vast experience in investment banking and hedge fund settings in senior quantitative and fundamental roles.  

TMI Data Science was founded by Elan Gore, an award-winning Senior Global Basic Materials Equity Analyst & China Economist with 15 years of experience in North American hedge funds & institutional managers; and Alessandro Porrino, Ph.D., an Algorithmic Trading Analyst and Programmer with 10 years of front-office experience ranging from complex FX option pricing to auto-hedging strategies at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Standard Chartered.  Mr. Gore holds an MBA in Finance from New York University Stern School of Business, and Mr. Porrino holds a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from Brunel University London.

Macroeconomics

<p>In last month's <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/tmi-snapshots-is-a-tight-labor-market-already-slowing-payrolls-growth" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:51144" rel="noopener">TMI Snapshots:  Is a Tight Labor Market Already Slowing Payrolls Growth?</a> published ahead of the April nonfarm payrolls release, we noted a +2.5x STDEV M/M jump in media reports of labor shortages in various iterations (i.e. "tight labor market", "struggling to hire", "hard to find workers" etc.) and a 2-year high in the absolute number of weekly mentions of shortages (roughly 110 unique articles per week at the end of April in US national publications.)  Back in 2018-19, such spikes in reports of labor shortages tended to precede a slowing in payrolls growth; thus we suspected April nonfarm payrolls would come in weaker than expected.</p><p>As we revisit the data ahead of the May payrolls release, we acknowledge the situation is more nuanced for a variety of reasons and alternative employment data points are mixed.  Our labor shortages indicator continued to surge in the first half of May, hitting a record high of +5x STDEVs on May 13 and correcting since to +3x by the end of the month; similarly, the absolute number of trailing 7-day mentions of labor shortages in national US news surged to a new record of &gt;300 unique articles as of May 13 and ended the month at ~150, still above April levels but well off the highs:</p><section class="figure"><figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/210/753/original/LABOR_SHORTAGE_REPORTS_MAY.PNG?1622640352" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="210753"></figure><div class="content-caption">Labor Shortage Reports &amp; General Employment Sentiment vs. Total Private Payrolls <section class="figure"><figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/210/756/original/ABSOLUTE_NUMBER_MENTIONS.PNG?1622641122" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="210756"></figure><div class="content-caption">Absolute Number of Weekly Mentions of Labor Shortages in National US Publications</div></section>
</div>
<div class="content-highlight"><section class="figure">TMI Data Science utilizes Natural Language Processing to build custom leading indicators using unstructured data sourced from the global financial, trade &amp; traditional media. Our proprietary tools text-mine the global media to discern and quantify nuanced qualitative shifts in press coverage as they apply to macroeconomics, equity indexes/ETFs, commodities, currencies, fixed income &amp; individual equities. </section></div></section>

In last month's TMI Snapshots:  Is a Tight Labor Market Already Slowing Payrolls Growth? published ahead of the April nonfarm payrolls release, we noted a +2.5x STDEV M/M jump in media reports of labor shortages in various iterations (i.e. "tight labor market", "struggling to hire", "hard to find workers" etc.) and a 2-year high in the absolute number of weekly mentions of shortages (roughly 110 unique articles per week at the end of April in US national publications.)  Back in 2018-19, such spikes in reports of labor shortages tended to precede a slowing in payrolls growth; thus we suspected April nonfarm payrolls would come in weaker than expected.As we revisit the data ahead of the May payrolls release, we acknowledge the situation is more nuanced for a variety of reasons and alternative employment data points are mixed.  Our labor shortages indicator continued to surge in the first half of May, hitting a record high of +5x STDEVs on May 13 and correcting since to +3x by the end of the month; similarly, the absolute number of trailing 7-day mentions of labor shortages in national US news surged to a new record of &gt;300 unique articles as of May 13 and ended the month at ~150, still above April levels but well off the highs:Labor Shortage Reports &amp; General Employment Sentiment vs. Total Private Payrolls Absolute Number of Weekly Mentions of Labor Shortages in National US Publications

TMI Data Science utilizes Natural Language Processing to build custom leading indicators using unstructured data sourced from the global financial, trade &amp; traditional media. Our proprietary tools text-mine the global media to discern and quantify nuanced qualitative shifts in press coverage as they apply to macroeconomics, equity indexes/ETFs, commodities, currencies, fixed income &amp; individual equities. 

TMI Snapshot:  Did Labor Shortages Continue to Hamper Payrolls Growth in May?

<ul>
<li>While our US employment sentiment indicator continued to improve in April along with robust job openings, our text analytics now see a +2.5x STDEV increase in reports of labor shortages and companies struggling to hire new employees</li>
<li>Excluding reports of frontline worker shortages in March 2020, the last time we saw reports of labor shortages trending at this magnitude was May 2018</li>
<li>On an absolute basis, the number of media reports of labor shortages is back to the higher end of 2018-2019 ranges</li>
<li>In 2018-19, our data saw 3 incidences of &gt;2x STDEV increases in reports of labor shortages; in all cases, these preceded slower payroll growth in subsequent months</li>
<li>In the current episode, media reports focus primarily on labor shortages in the leisure &amp; hospitality sector whereas the previous episode was characterized by skilled labor shortages; nonetheless, Q1 earnings calls highlight widespread labor shortages across most sectors</li>
<li>Even as labor shortages affect nearly all industries, the single largest needle-mover for absolute payroll figures remains leisure and hospitality, which in March comprised 42% of the negative delta in total private payrolls relative to year-ago levels at -2.35M jobs or nearly -15% Y/Y; no other sector comes close in terms of COVID job losses or recovery potential in payroll terms</li>
<li>Given the heavy weighting of leisure and hospitality in private payroll growth at this time, the sector's significant hiring needs suggest that any slowdown in hiring would be followed by wage increases to incentivize unskilled labor to return to the workforce; labor shortages are likely to remain a key feature of the post-COVID recovery, but higher wage elasticity in leisure &amp; hospitality suggest these frictions may be resolved sooner in this key sector with a broadly inflationary outcome</li>
</ul><div class="content-highlight"><p>TMI Data Science utilizes Natural Language Processing to build custom leading indicators using unstructured data sourced from the global financial, trade &amp; traditional media. Our proprietary tools text-mine the global media to discern and quantify nuanced qualitative shifts in press coverage as they apply to macroeconomics, equity indexes/ETFs, commodities, currencies, fixed income &amp; individual equities. </p></div>


While our US employment sentiment indicator continued to improve in April along with robust job openings, our text analytics now see a +2.5x STDEV increase in reports of labor shortages and companies struggling to hire new employees
Excluding reports of frontline worker shortages in March 2020, the last time we saw reports of labor shortages trending at this magnitude was May 2018
On an absolute basis, the number of media reports of labor shortages is back to the higher end of 2018-2019 ranges
In 2018-19, our data saw 3 incidences of &gt;2x STDEV increases in reports of labor shortages; in all cases, these preceded slower payroll growth in subsequent months
In the current episode, media reports focus primarily on labor shortages in the leisure &amp; hospitality sector whereas the previous episode was characterized by skilled labor shortages; nonetheless, Q1 earnings calls highlight widespread labor shortages across most sectors
Even as labor shortages affect nearly all industries, the single largest needle-mover for absolute payroll figures remains leisure and hospitality, which in March comprised 42% of the negative delta in total private payrolls relative to year-ago levels at -2.35M jobs or nearly -15% Y/Y; no other sector comes close in terms of COVID job losses or recovery potential in payroll terms
Given the heavy weighting of leisure and hospitality in private payroll growth at this time, the sector's significant hiring needs suggest that any slowdown in hiring would be followed by wage increases to incentivize unskilled labor to return to the workforce; labor shortages are likely to remain a key feature of the post-COVID recovery, but higher wage elasticity in leisure &amp; hospitality suggest these frictions may be resolved sooner in this key sector with a broadly inflationary outcome
TMI Data Science utilizes Natural Language Processing to build custom leading indicators using unstructured data sourced from the global financial, trade &amp; traditional media. Our proprietary tools text-mine the global media to discern and quantify nuanced qualitative shifts in press coverage as they apply to macroeconomics, equity indexes/ETFs, commodities, currencies, fixed income &amp; individual equities. 

TMI Snapshots:  Is a Tight Labor Market Already Slowing Payrolls Growth?

<p>The price or yield action on US 10 year Treasury is now beginning to reveal a loss of momentum and indicate at least a consolidation if not lower yields in the short term.</p><p>A move below <strong>1.58%</strong> would be particularly telling.</p><p>What this, and the developing price action on Oil, tells us about equities is up for interpretation – though from our stand point the bias is to remain cautious on equities as we settle into the new month and quarter.</p>

The price or yield action on US 10 year Treasury is now beginning to reveal a loss of momentum and indicate at least a consolidation if not lower yields in the short term.A move below 1.58% would be particularly telling.What this, and the developing price action on Oil, tells us about equities is up for interpretation – though from our stand point the bias is to remain cautious on equities as we settle into the new month and quarter.

<p>A discussion at the end of this week on Singapore’s <em>Money FM</em> rounds up some thoughts on FX and other financial markets.</p><p>Below is an elaboration of some points made on the US, Europe, China, Commodities, Bonds, and India as well as a link to the radio interview.</p>

A discussion at the end of this week on Singapore’s Money FM rounds up some thoughts on FX and other financial markets.Below is an elaboration of some points made on the US, Europe, China, Commodities, Bonds, and India as well as a link to the radio interview.

US 10Y (USGG10YR INDEX)

Bonds: All Charts Lead to Me

As we look across financial markets, there is an increasing degree of conviction that higher [US] bond prices and lower yields are likely to be...

Shyam Devani

TMI Snapshot: Did Labor Shortages Continue to Hamper Payrolls Growth in May?

We revisit our labor shortage and wage inflation indicators ahead of May non-farm payrolls; our data sees lingering labor tightness, while other...

Elan Gore

TMI Snapshots: Is a Tight Labor Market Already Slowing Payrolls Growth?

While our US employment sentiment indicators continued to improve in April, an outlier +2.5x increase in reports of labor shortages may temporarily...

Elan Gore

US 10 Year Yield – What to Watch

A more cautionary short term picture is beginning to unfold indicating lower US 10 year yield which raises questions for other markets including US...

Shyam Devani

FX Summary Discussion at End of Q1

A summary radio discussion on foreign exchange and other financial markets as we approach Q2. Topics include the US, Europe, China, Oil, Bonds, and...

Shyam Devani