Australian Property From FOMO To FONGO

Originally published by AMP Capital h2 Investment markets and key developments over the past week/h2

• US shares rose 0.8% over the last week helped by strong earnings results, a bounce back in tech stocks and another “Goldilocks” jobs report. However, Eurozone shares fell 1.1%, Japanese shares lost 0.8%, Chinese shares fell 5.9% and Australian shares lost 1% as trade war fears continue to escalate. Despite this bond yields were flat to up. Iron ore prices rose but oil and metal prices fell. The US dollar continued to push higher but the Australian dollar was little changed.

• The drip feed of escalating tariff threats from Trump and counter threats from China continues, with the US threatening that the proposed tariffs on $US200bn of Chinese imports will be 25%, not 10%, and China announcing a list of $US60bn of US imports to be subject to tariffs should the US proceed. With a 25% tariff on another $US16bn of Chinese imports likely to commence soon Trump is clearly ramping up the pressure on China but China is digging in. A tariff of this magnitude will start to have a significant economic impact on China’s growth (potentially knocking up to 0.5% off growth) and probably also on the US as well. While there has been talk that the US and China may be trying to restart trade talks, China does not appear to be interested given the gun to its head and the May experience. It may prefer to wait till after the US mid-term elections thinking that the longer this goes on the greater the chance of a backlash against Trump and that Trump will be weakened if the Republicans lose control of the House of Representatives. In the mean-time its stepping up measures to support growth. Trump really believes China’s trade practices are unfair, but he’s also tapping a vein of anti-trade/anti-Chinese sentiment amongst his supporters and may also be motivated by a Quixotic desire to slow the ascendancy of China as an economic power. Whatever the motivation its looking likely a solution will not be reached until after the US mid-terms and that trade fears will continue to cause volatility in markets.

• Meanwhile Trump is offering to meet Iran’s leadership and has asked US Attorney General Sessions to stop the Mueller inquiry. The former may be a good thing (but it’s doubtful as Iran is not North Korea and its leadership would regard a meeting as a media stunt) and the latter would be a Nixon like disaster (but won’t happen because Sessions can’t do it as he recused himself from the inquiry and Trump would have to fire Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein and keep firing Justice Dept officials until he finds someone who is willing to fire Mueller). Meanwhile, Trump’s desire to end the Mueller inquiry does highlight that it may be a real threat to his presidency.

• Ultra-easy monetary policy locked in for longer by the Bank of Japan, but with more flexibility. Despite all the anticipation the BoJ left monetary policy little changed with the overnight deposit rate remaining -0.1%, the 10-year bond target at zero. While it injected more flexibility into its bond yield target by allowing an effective range of +/-0.2%, up from +/-0.1%, new forward guidance effectively locks the BoJ into ultra-easy monetary policy into 2020. Overall this is positive for Japanese shares, but not so for the yen. While Japanese 10-year bond yields may drift up to test the 0.2% level, Japan is unlikely to be a source of significant upwards pressure on global bond yields.

• In Australia, average home prices are continuing to fall led by the once booming cities of Sydney and Melbourne – with more to go. Our assessment remains that with tighter lending standards, poor affordability, rising supply and falling capital gains expectations Sydney and Melbourne property prices will have a top to bottom fall of around 15% spread out to 2020 which given falls already seen implies further downside of 10 to 12%. We are not there yet, but FOMO (fear of missing out) risks becoming FONGO (fear of not getting out) for some investors. Other cities are in much better shape and most are likely to see moderate growth such that the top to bottom fall in national average home prices will be more like 5%. With falling home prices set to drive a negative wealth effect it’s hard to see the RBA raising rates anytime soon and if anything there is a significant chance that the next move will be a rate cut.

• US economic data remains strong. Personal income and spending remained robust in June and consumer confidence is high. The ISM business conditions indexes fell slightly in July but remain high. Home prices are continuing to rise. And July saw another “Goldilocks” jobs report with strong payroll growth including upwards revisions to prior months, falling unemployment and yet still soft wages growth of 2.7% year on year. Consistent with this the Fed remains upbeat describing growth as “strong” (up from “solid”) and seeing inflation near target and so it remains on track to continue with gradual rate hikes, with the next move next month.

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• US June quarter earnings reports remain very strong. Of the 80% of S&P 500 companies to have reported so far, 85% have beaten on earnings by an average beat of 5.3% and 73% have beaten on sales. Earnings are up around 26% year on year.

• Eurozone growth slowed further in the June quarter to 2.1% year on year, but at least core inflation rose to 1.1% in July. However, with core inflation still way below target and growth slowing we still can’t see the ECB raising rates until 2020.

• While the Bank of England raised rates another 0.25%, they have still only made it to 0.75% (ie half the RBA’s 1.5%) and with Brexit uncertainty this maybe it for a while.

• Japanese economic data is mixed supporting the continuation of ultra-easy monetary policy. While unemployment rose slightly in June, the jobs to applicants ratio rose to its highest since January 1974 helped by a falling labour force. Industrial production fell more than expected, but the manufacturing PMI for July points to a rebound.

• Chinese business conditions PMI’s softened in July with manufacturing export orders quite weak suggesting some impact from the trade skirmish. That said the PMIs are still mostly in the range of the last year or so and are consistent with a softening in growth as opposed to a collapse. Our forecast for GDP growth this year remains for a slowdown to 6.5%. Meanwhile, the July Politburo meeting reinforced expectations for more policy stimulus mainly from fiscal policy. The meeting statement included 15 references to “stable”, “stability” or “stabilising” compared to an average of 6 such references in the previous 10 Politburo meetings, highlighting the greater focus on supporting growth in the face of the trade threat.

• Meanwhile, policy is going the other way in India with the Reserve Bank of India raising its repo rate by 0.25% for the second meeting in a row to 6.5%. It makes sense when inflation is above the 4% target and GDP growth is around 7.4%.