“Treasury yields rise as Turkey worries fade,” declaimed a headline at Dow Jones Marketwatch yesterday.
This one day after the New York Times bleated, “Plunge in Lira, Turkey’s Currency, Fuels Fears of Financial Contagion.”
Why are stocks, ostensibly propelled by fundamentals (earnings and revenue growth this reporting cycle were strong), instead wracked by the machinations of a minor monetary unit for an economy that ranks 19th, behind the Netherlands and Indonesia and just ahead of Saudi Arabia?
They’re not. It’s the dollar. Every investor and investor-relations professional should understand currency valuation, just as we all must grasp how the market works and what the money is doing (we wrote about that last week).
(To Turkey, for a prescient economic perspective, read this piece by Jim Rickards – whose gold views fuel skepticism but who always writes thoughtfully.)
The dollar is the world’s reserve currency. Simplistically, instead of holding gold, countries own dollars, and sell or buy them to adjust the value of their own currencies.
The USA by contrast only mints the buck and the Federal Reserve uses interest rates to regulate its value. In effect, higher interest rates mean a stronger dollar, lower interest rates a weaker buck, all other things being equal. (In fact, some economics ingenue somewhere should write a thesis establishing that the definition of inflation is low rates.)
Anyway, stocks are risk assets that reflect fluctuations in currencies every bit as much as they are supposed to offer a barometer of economic activity.
Take Turkish stocks. The lira has been falling in value for years while Istanbul’s stocks shined, especially last year. Yet the economy has slipped a couple notches in global rankings.
The US economy is booming, and yet markets have stalled in 2018. The dollar is at a 52-wk high, spiking lately. In 2017, the dollar devalued 12% and stocks soared. There’s consistent inverse correlation between broad US equity measures and the dollar’s value.
We’ve described Teeter Totter Monetary Theory before. The nexus of the Teeter of supply meeting the Totter of demand should determine prices.
But under the modern floating-rate currency construct, central bankers move the fulcrum, which is money, to balance out the teeter totter. To encourage investment (supply) increase the value of the dollar (also lifting productivity, something few in orthodox economics recognize). To fuel consumption, depress interest rates so people borrow more and save less.
The problem is these policies over time erode the veracity of stock prices – and the value of everything from debt to art to homes to money.
Yes, many economists will disagree. But the evidence is stark, as is the math. Goods are the numerator, dollars, the denominator. If the dollar depreciates, things like stocks and beer cost more. Increase its value – more purchasing power – and prices fall.
August has had a recent history of currency volatility. August 2010 and August 2011 were rocked by the euro, which nearly failed. August 2015 brought a sudden Chinese currency devaluation and on the 24th a thousand Exchange Traded Funds were volatility halted. Stocks didn’t recover until October.
As August 2018 fades like summer grass, there are currents. The dollar is strong and market-structure Sentiment is sluggish, positive now but without a vital mean-reversion. Options expire the 16th-17th and 22nd, a split cycle for derivatives. (NOTE: Speaking of August, don’t miss NIRI SWRC next week — I’ll be there.)
If stocks top into expirations with a rising dollar, we could have a hard mean-reversion to finish the summer. It’s no prediction, just a higher probability. And it’s not fundamental – yet another reminder that the stock market cannot be seen merely as an economic gauge.
