Ready for a rally

Finding the silver lining
Despite higher volatility, largely reflecting financial market stability concerns and expectations for a US recession, there is reason for optimism in global equity markets. Monetary and fiscal policy response has been aggressive and more is likely on the way. Thus, a major source of ‘tail’ risk appears to have been removed.
Coupled with attractive valuations, low interest rates, and reasonable earnings growth, we believe prospects for a more sustainable rally in equities appear good.

Lingering challenges
We recognize that a move to become less defensive could still be early given that uncertainty could persist. Details of policy response are still unknown and global growth is still under pressure, which may keep earnings expectations muted.

With expectations for a US recession still on the rise and concerns about the stability of the financial system acute, markets have reeled amid the uncertainty.
Credit markets are under strain, banks have been under associated stress, and pressures have seemed unlikely to abate on their own.

Past examples of banking system bailouts should offer hope to investors.
Performance of domestic bank stocks following inception of a banking sector bailout is usually robust, with an average gain of nearly 30% in three months.

The historical pattern of a market rebound suggests that the sectors that have been under the most pressure also rebound the most.

Actions already taken by the Federal Reserve over the last nine months in response to the housing and financial market crisis have been significant.
Those actions include cuts of 300 bps in the Fed Funds rate and 375 bps in the Discount Rate since August, creation of the Term Auction Facility (TAF), Term Securities Lending Facility (TSLF), Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF), and involvement in term-funding of Bear Stearns.
In addition to monetary policy measures, there has also been fiscal action, with a tax rebate approved by Congress.
Further, we believe that there’s a probability of additional measures that will be taken by Congress and, perhaps, the Fed to provide more stimulus and liquidity to the economy and to markets. The combination of these measures should act as a stabilizer against the instabilities caused by the weakness in the housing market.
Therefore, coupled with other positive factors, equities appear oversold.

Low levels of nominal and real interest rates also favour equity markets. Real interest rates (the real Fed funds rate is now negative) are supportive of overall equity market valuations.

While we continue to believe that earnings growth is slowing globally and that bottom-up estimates for this year remain somewhat optimistic (particularly in emerging markets), though there have been downgrades to earnings estimates in recent months.

How to position for a market rebound
Looking back over previous market sell-offs (-10% from 12-month peak) that are followed by a sharp rebound (greater than 10% in three months) we find that the sectors that led markets lower also tend to lead in the recovery.

Markets are poised for a broad recovery in valuations driven by a decline in risk premiums. These moves are likely to benefit the whole market. However, the historical pattern of a market rebound suggests that the sectors that have been under the most pressure over the last year (financials -22% and consumer discretionary -16%, compared to the market which has been roughly flat) have potential to rebound sharply in the near-term.

In that vein, both sectors face hurdles that are unlikely to be cleared quickly. For consumers, the US appears still at the early stages of recession, the unemployment rate is likely to rise, and the downturn in housing will continue to force household balance sheet repair. Meanwhile, financials will face continued questions about growth potential in coming years given shrinking balance sheets.

Banking bailouts: A history lesson
Our Global Banks Analyst Philip Finch published a report on March 17th called “UBS Global I/O™: Banking Crisis – A banking bailout?” which takes a close look at past banking crises and the parallels we can draw from them to help understand the current turbulence. The team looked at four other crises with similar features to today which were preceded by a long period of over-lending and were all derived in one way or another from a real estate bubble. These bank crises are :-
1) The Great Depression of 1929,
2) the Savings and Loans crisis in 1986,
3) the Swedish banking crisis in 1992 and
4) the Japanese banking crisis of 1990.
Stacked up against these prior episodes, the current subprime crisis ranks second in terms of its cost as a percentage of GDP.

On average the financial sector returned 148% in the twelve months after the inception of the government bailout. The team believe a swift response from the US government this time could lead to a similar rally.

Overall economic conditions may remain challenging as recession in the US appears probable. To that end, sustainability of overall earnings growth may remain a concern.
Fears of a spreading global slowdown. These growth concerns could be most acute in Europe and Emerging markets, where growth expectations have been more stable. Moreover, materials and energy stocks could be vulnerable if demand concerns finally trump expectations for limited supply, driving prices lower.

Challenges remain Much of the stemming of systemic risk in the financial markets was predicated on a fiscal policy response from the US government. If this fails to materialise or the Fed disappoints with future monetary measures, substantial uncertainty could return to the capital markets.