Banks not only feed the piggies but they slaughter them too

October 12, 2022 Leave a comment

I keep reiterating that what is more important about where interest rates have traded up to isn’t about the nominal rate, but rather the quantum or factor which the nominal rate have risen by.

Yes, the numbers look bigger when rates are rising from 0.5%…..but people, households, companies, governments etc etc don’t necessarily temper their borrowing when rates are low…..We tend to become accustomed to the ‘going rate’.

In general, the piggies are always at the trough.

When a family is seeking a mortgage of $600,000 but their credit provider announces the good news that they have been approved for $680,000, I suspect that they accept all of the $680,000. After all, they can use it for the landscaping etc etc.

We are happy to continue taking as much we can get or is available.

If my mobile phone plan allows for 20GB of data, I’m sure I’ll use it up and then ask for an upgrade to 40GB. Soon after, I’ll be requesting for an upgrade to 60GB of data.

When the Australian cash rates were 0.25% in last 2020, I was asked if I thought the Reserve Bank of Australia would cut rates at the next meeting.

My response was, “who cares”. The questioners were often shocked by my seeming flippancy.

At this point, I would add by asking, “How much debt do you have and how pressure are you under, that you need a further 15 or 25 basis points of relief”.

Today, if your cost of borrowing has risen from 3% to 6% and you are now speculating whether interest rates go up a further 1% receives the same response from me with the difference being, are you still carrying so much debt that you may ‘break’.

Is it the Fed that is possibly going to ‘break something’ or have we simply kept taking on more debt?

In the graphics below, you can see where the citizens of various nations sit in the indebted stakes.

source: Trading Economics
https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/households-debt-to-gdp

Look at those frugal and financial responsible Latvians and Hungarians.

Household Debt as % of net disposable income
source: OECD

Let me get back to the illustrating the ‘factor’ of the rise.

When rates went from 6% to 8%, it was only a 33% increase.

When rates went from 8% to 16%, it was ONLY a 50% increase.

Mortgage rates in Australia have nearly doubled. In the U.S., they have easily doubled.

The U.S. 2 years Treasury Bond yield has risen 10 fold.

When your interest repayments or the total cost of capital increase by such a factor, it is the quantum of the rise from the previous levels where you were comfortable with, that hurts the most.

My studies show that government bond yields have never risen by factors of 3 or 4 from their lows within any credit cycle.

At these extremes, as the chart within the below shows, the 2 year bond yield is miles above its 200 week moving average.

Why doesn’t mean reversion matter now, when it has many times prior?

Expecting rates to go higher and challenge gravity, probability and mathematics is a very foolish and crowded trade.

This is not about calling doom and whether the Fed ‘breaks something’……but rather it’s about thinking independently and reading the market tape as it is.

Behind the talk of where rates go to, sits speculative or investing opportunity.

If you have a view….then make the trade and take a position.

Those who shorted bonds when rates were 1% have made a fortune.

Today, if you think rates go up noticeably more……enough to tempt you into a trade, then short bonds and ride the expectation of whether the Fed keeps hiking rates to a point where ’they break something’.

If you think interest rates will fall, you could buy bonds.

Although, this is not a binary choice and the bond market may not be your natural business.

You can express you trade idea in many different manners.

For example, if interest rates keep rising, then you could short the equity of heavily indebted companies or technology stocks which aren’t profitable and have negative free cash flow, or

If you think rates are going to decline, then perhaps owing shares in high growth companies may see their prices ‘catch a bid’.

Of course, this is not personal advice and it’s important to do your research and analysis.

October 12, 2022

by Rob Zdravevski

rob@karriasset.com.au

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Watching Interest Rates to Understand Equities

March 21, 2021 Leave a comment

The latest chatter about the steepening of the yield curve between the yield of the US Government 10 year bond (minus) and the 2 year bond is no big deal.

That differential (“the spread”) is currently at 1.56%, 

(that’s how much the 10 year bond is yielding above the 2 year bond and it is represented in a plotted graph, we call the yield curve)

Yes, it’s the widest spread since September 2015, but it’s not extraordinary.

It has been twice that amount (3%) on several occasions over the past 30 years. (see chart below)

There is some exaggeration about how steep the curve is…it actually isn’t.

Don’t worry too much about that yield curve at the moment.

My story is about when the spread actually touched Zero (which is when the 10 year bond was offering the same yield as the 2 year bond) and not so much the actual spread nor the yield of the 10 year bond.

And then I have added comments to what happened to the equities market afterwards.

Example #1

In April 1998 the spread touched Zero,

but the S&P 500 continued to rise until the S&P 500 peaked in March 2000; some 21 months later.

A year earlier, in April 1997, the 10 Year Bond (“the 10’s) was yielding 7%. 

By April 1998 it had fallen to 5.6% (when the spread was Zero)…..

the yield would decline a little more, down to 4.4%.

By March 2000, it had climbed back to 6.66% to coincide with a peak in equities market.

Example #2

In January 2006, the spread was at Zero again, but stocks rallied for a further 17 months until the S&P 500 peaked in October 2007.

From that moment in January 2006, the 10’s rose from 4.3% to 5.3% on a couple occasions, reaching that same 5.3% peak in July 2007, just as economies were about to experience the ‘Global Financial Crisis’.

For a period of 6 weeks, the 5.3% yield did break above the downward sloping trend line (see the chart below) but the precedent of a Zero spread being registered 17 months earlier held sway.

Example #3

By December 2008, 10’s had fallen to 2% (although the spread didn’t flirt with Zero, it never went below 1.2%).

From this ebb, the yield doubled to 4% over the next 18 months (April 2010).

The stockmarket fell 20% over the next few months.

Example #4

Through stages of the GFC recovery, 10’s were back to 1.4% in July 2012.

Within the next 18 months (by December 2013), the 10’s doubled to 3%

The stockmarket rally was stifled and went sideways for 5 months.

Even though rates doubled, equities remained in a bull market because we never saw a Zero spread registered.

Equities resumed their rally as 10’s commenced a new decline in yields from 3% down to 1.7% over the next 14 months, being until January 2015.

Note: The United States Federal Reserve kept the Fed Funds Rate at Zero between 2008 and 2015.

Example #5 (the anomaly)

By July 2016, 10’s eased a little more to 1.35%. From there, they nearly doubled again (to 2.6%) within 5 months and then touched 3.2% by November 2018.

Although rates nearly trebled…..they never registered a Zero spread reading. Furthermore, the anomaly is that the 10’s yield broke above the sloping downtrend resistance line (see chart below), which gave the S&P 500 ‘carte blanche’ to rally….all until the 10’s yield crossed back beneath that (now and new) support line in the month of August 2019.

Example #6

In the next month, September 2019, saw another Zero spread registered. 

While absorbing an abrupt correction, the S&P 500 has soared and continually set new all-time highs, 18 months hence.

Today, the 10’s have Quadrupled from their 0.40% March 2020 low, to its current 1.72%.

Uncannily, we are 18 months further along since the spread touched Zero and we have seen an equity market participate in extraordinary gains…….

I will re-iterate…….the interest cost of government debt has Quadrupled within 12 months.

That matters to investors and to the government servicing the interest payments.

But we are at a moment, similar to the anomaly explained in Example #5.

Forget the ’spread’ and steepening yield curve, but let’s say the 10 year bond yield reaches 2% and decisively breaks above that sloping downward line, then it’s plausible that the S&P 500 rallies for a further 18 months.

This bullish scenario may represent the ‘last leg’ in the 11 year bull run which commenced at the March 2009 low.

Although, greater probability suggests (coinciding with fundamental valuations and various sentiment and anecdotal indicators) that the quantum of quadrupling interest rates will prove a greater weight on equities plight for further gains. 

This is the measured reason why I have shifted client equity portfolios to 35% cash position and hedged portfolios with put options. This was mentioned in my January 2021 newsletter.

March 21, 2021

by Rob Zdravevski

rob@karriasset.com

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Why buy bonds at -0.01%?

December 11, 2020 Leave a comment

Do you remember during the European debt crisis, which peaked around 2012, when the PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece & Spain) were being bailed out by the European Central Bank?

In the chart below, you can see the Portuguese 10 year Government Bond was yielding 14% at that time.

I didn’t have the inclination, acumen or guts to buy those bonds then and nor since.

But today, that bond has traded at a negative yield of 0.01%.

How times have changed.

Some investors have felt that such a yield is so ravishing that they decided to buy the heck out of those bonds to the point where they will happily receive a zero yielding return.

I can’t figure this out and nor do I have answer.
It’s simply an astonishing occurrence.

December 9, 2020
by Rob Zdravevski
rob@karriasset.com.au

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How did Sydney Airport shareholders not see this coming?

August 11, 2020 Leave a comment

Well, I got that wrong !
Only 6 weeks after I wrote this post, Sydney Airport didn’t choose to raise more debt to pay its interest coupon…..

even worse, it’s raising $2 billion in equity.

Debt is typically cheaper than equity in this current environment, but this tells me that Sydney Airport’s debt financing has dried up.

Worryingly,  with its growing debt burden, evaporated revenues and worsening equity valuations, the importance of this strategic asset will mean that government support will provide a perennial floor in the share price.

oh dear !

by Rob Zdravevski
11 August 2020

 

 

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Neither a borrower nor a lender be

March 22, 2015 Leave a comment

The genius of James Packer continues.

Crown Resorts is a BBB rated company and they have raised $600 million in debt through the public markets at 4% above the bank bill rate, which means currently the total coupon will be 6.27% range.

The paper matures in 2075 but Crown can redeem them in 2021. Lenders own debt which is subordinated. They will rank below preference share holders and other capital market debt but above ordinary shareholders. The money is going to be used to finance projects within Crown Sydney & Crown Towers Perth.

So what they have achieved is to reap a stack of long dated capital at a cheap price without the onerous banking liens and it was raised easily because investors are simply chasing any yield.

Investors should consider not whether they are being “paid” enough to take this risk as a lender but whether they have considered the risk/return (even the risk of underperformance) of owning the shares of Crown Resorts rather than its debt would a better proposition. I’m not writing about Crown’s risk or ability to pay its coupon or return your capital but whether the herd has simply filed into another hybrid income product without thinking about it.

Think of it in terms of the return shareholders may receive as a rate of return over the cost of the capital once they complete the expansion of the various casino projects?

I forgot to say that James Packer’s family company, Consolidated Press Holdings (CPH), also bought $50 million of this debt. I’m sure this gave the new debt investors added confidence that he has backing it personally.

That’s fine, but CPH also owns at least $4 billion of Crown Resort shares.

Sometimes analysis is difficult and sometimes it can be simple.

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The Coming Slaughter of the Yield Pigs

August 7, 2013 Leave a comment

Dollar in Piggy Bank

Major Australian banks have again raised billions of dollars by issuing debt.

In some instances, the issuer of the debt isn’t the parent company and in cases where it is, investors should wonder why do the most creditworthy banks in the world need to offer 300 basis points (or greater) above their benchmark rate, in order to attract investors?

Perhaps it’s because the debt is perpetual, its pays non-cumulative distributions, its unsecured and subordinated

Other questions to ask include; what is the credit rating of the debt, is if the credit rating of the debt is different to the issuer, when does the debt mature, can it be “called” or “converted”, are distributions franked, am I being paid fairly or enough for the risk I am taking or perhaps simply, does this investment benefit you or are the odds stacked towards the “house”.

I also question whether I should buy it at “par” rather than a discount.

Sadly, many Australian retail investors don’t possess the required skill and knowledge to analyse debt investments.

In turn, they often aren’t receiving objective advice,. Instead, they are often being “sold” the investment rather than being advised whether it’s appropriate for their portfolio.

There has been plenty of debt on offer, so I ask myself, why should I buy something that has ample supply?

The genius behind the banks decision is to raise capital when they don’t particularly need it and they do so when their costs (or the rates they offer) are cheap.

Australian interest rates are now at record lows with the current Reserve Bank rate sitting at 2.5%.

With the pendulum at an extreme, there is greater probability that interest rates triple in the next 10 years before they move to 1%.

Are these investors buying something at the wrong end of the cycle?

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The great U.S. corporate bond issuance

January 24, 2013 Leave a comment

Singularly, you may not have noticed various U.S. companies either re-finance existing debt or importantly issue new debt, over the past year or so.
Collectively, it is a monumental amount of debt.

Cleverly, these companies have taken advantage of the almost perpetual low yields of the government benchmarks, upon which they can base their spreads against.

Companies such as Oracle, Amazon & Goldman Sachs have issued bonds either secured or unsecured against their equity at historically low yields; which is brilliant financial strategy for these companies.

With interest rates at such low levels, probability and cycles suggest that rates will rise in the coming 6 years or so.

When 10 year benchmark rates are 6% and not 2%, I can’t see a 10 year 2.5% coupon Oracle Corp. bond being redeemed early, meaning bond holders will probably suffer capital losses unless held until maturity. Just imagine holding a bond that yields 2.5% into the latter half of this decade while others are earning twice or three times that amount?

Although, we are seeing a great bond issuance cycle, capital markets will most likely miss out on the next re-financing cycle.

What happens then?

Perhaps, companies will payout maturing debt by selling their own shares, which incidentally, they accumulated in share buy-backs conducted in 2012/2013 using the cheap money that they obtained from the same investors who bought their bonds?

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