JHSC News and Press, John Hancock Multifactor Small Cap From 02/04/23

Summary Three of the major investment themes of 2022 were: inflation and central bank responses; commodity and energy price spikes; and the China COVID lockdown. We discuss how each of these will likely play out in 2023. Our general market view for the year ahead is relatively sanguine,...

Summary On Wednesday we got a de-clawed hawk in Chairman Powell and he treaded carefully. For the first time, Powell acknowledged we are in a dis-inflationary environment and goods inflation is coming down fast. In my view, the most important quote of the press conference was, ...

Summary The first employment report of 2023 certainly surprised everybody. Friday morning’s report was the tenth straight better-than-expected report, which is a record and easily surpasses the prior peaks in September 2020 and March 2015. The US economy has added 4.967 milli...

Summary The jobs data surprised to the upside. The ISM data surprised to the upside. The stock market appears to be grossly mispriced relative to rates. The most stunning part of the FOMC press conference on Wednesday wasn't at the beginning or the middle. It came at the e...

Summary The Federal Reserve continues its quantitative tightening, and it keeps the pliers tight around the monetary facet. The Fed's securities portfolio continues to decline. The M2 money stock has now been in decline for about ten months. These data all seem to point toward a...

Summary Jobless claims continue to impress with the latest reading on seasonally adjusted initial claims dropping to 183K which is the lowest level since April 2022. While NSA claims were lower this week, it was not by much with the reading falling from 225.23K to just 224.36K. As f...

Summary January’s US index returns represented a complete inversion of 2022’s performance. International markets also started out the year with a strong rally - outperforming the S&P 500. The yield curve became more inverted in January, signaling potentially reduce...

Summary The leading indicators related to the labor market are deteriorating, signaling an imminent recession. Wage growth remains the key inflationary data point to follow. The stock market is not priced for the likely recession. An imminent recession The record inver...

Summary As economies both in the United States and globally weaken with tighter monetary policies, corporate earnings are coming under greater pressure. Without exception, in the 24 months prior to a recession, large caps outperformed small caps. Higher-quality investments did not m...

Summary The Fed raised rates by 0.25% annually at its meeting this week and indicated that further rate increases will be appropriate. But when the first question in the press conference (to paraphrase) was whether Powell was concerned whether the huge rally this year would fuel more in...