by Mike Boyle, Advisors Asset Management
From 4/2/12 through 5/18/12 the S&P 500 lost 8.73%. This marks the18th time since 3/9/09 (the beginning of the current bull market) that the S&P 500 has corrected by at least 3% and the eighth time that the S&P 500 has corrected by at least 7%. In addition, our research of the last 50 years shows 3% pullbacks occur on average four times a year. So, clearly pullbacks are commonplace during a normal bull market; however, every time they occur they still set investor emotions on edge and test their resolve. At times like this we like to try and decipher what drove the selloff and try to resolve if we think it is just a normal correction or the beginning of a longer trend down and possibly the start of a new bear market.
In late March, we highlighted that the equity markets appeared to be due for a correction and consolidation as the run from the 10/3/11 bottom seemed unsustainable and the equity markets appeared overbought. April then began with a mild selloff (-4.26%) but then it traded back towards its near-term high in late April and early May. However, as May progressed investor appetites soured and the equity markets turned south again driven by seasonality fears (Sell in May…), banking concerns (JP Morgan’s trading loss) and worries over the viability of the Eurozone due to the recent elections in France and Greece. On their own, any one of these factors was enough to push the market lower and together they drove a pretty strong selloff of 7.87% for the S&P 500 (5/1/12 – 5/18/12). Yet it wasn’t all bad news, but the good news on corporate earnings and U.S. economic strength was just that, good news, and the markets were in need of great news to help stem the short-term tide.
Some of this good news includes an earnings season that is, statistically, better than last quarter. In addition, EPS (Earnings Per Share) for the S&P 500 has risen over 10% year-over-year and is expected to grow about the same over the next year. On the value side the P/E (Price per Earnings) for the S&P 500 now sits at 13.29 well below its value of 15.32 from a year ago and its 60-year average of 16.4. Other good news includes reports of home inventories shrinking over 20% year-over-year, existing home sales rising and vehicle sales hitting levels last seen four years ago. This reinforces our thesis that the U.S. economy is continuing to mend (albeit slowly) and should continue to do so and should be helped along the way by the positive feedback cycles we are beginning to see from a number of industries including housing and autos.
Will there be more bumps in the road and more gut check moments? Absolutely! However, we still like the outlook for equities and are standing by our end-of-year target of 1430 for the S&P 500. We would continue to recommend investors take advantage of the dips as they come (disciplined dollar cost averaging if they can) and would favor our themes of investing in companies and strategies that offer quality dividends, quality balance sheets and quality (above trend) growth.
This commentary is for informational purposes only. All investments are subject to risk and past performance is no guarantee of future results. Please see the Disclosures webpage for additional risk information at ~/blog/about/disclosures. For additional commentary or financial resources, please visit www.aamlive.com
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