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A Crisis of Clarity Rippling Through Regional Banks  

The past week of volatility exhibited in the banking sector was epic. It was along the lines of a redux of 2008, when some high-profile mortgage lenders…

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The past week of volatility exhibited in the banking sector was epic.

It was along the lines of a redux of 2008, when some high-profile mortgage lenders and investment banks dealing in risky practices went bankrupt, filed for Chapter 11 or were acquired for pennies on the dollar. To say the recent events in the regional bank sector and with Credit Suisse are surreal would be an understatement.

Oh, how history does repeat itself — in various forms — but with the same pattern of hubris, greed and sheer stupidity.

Take Barney Frank for instance. As one of the authors of the Dodd-Frank Act enacted to prevent the excessive risk-taking that led to the financial crisis, it appears there is some twisted irony as to how Mr. Frank was a sitting board member of now-failed Signature Bank that was one of only a handful of banks allowing customers to deposit and transact in cryptocurrency assets 24/7 beginning in 2018.

One can look at the demise of FTX and the fall-off its leader Sam Bankman-Fried as the spark that led to the collapse of crypto-centric Silvergate Bank and the further chain reaction that ignited fears of depositors at Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank for their exposure to start-ups, crypto and commercial office space. From there, the market was taking down shares of banks with large uninsured deposit bases. First Republic Bank (FRC) is the newest poster child of this contagion.

No sooner than one day after 11 banks transferred $30 billion over to First Republic to shore up its deposit base, news reports indicated that top executives at the struggling financial institution sold millions of dollars of company stock in the two months prior to the regional bank panic. So, the rally in FRC shares last Thursday on the rescue plan fizzled Friday on news of the timely stock sales by company insiders.  

The other deadly transgression by bank executives was reaching for yields on their bond portfolios. The banks invested in long-term bonds where the difference in yields compared to short-term bonds was minuscule, thereby taking huge risk of principal.

When money rained on the bank system from the roughly $4.7 trillion created in pandemic stimulus, banks invested heavily into long-dated government bonds. When the rate on the 10-year Treasury briefly rose to 1.75% in March 2021, banks rushed to buy.

The decision to do so by “risk managers,” instead of accepting 0.40% on 3-year T-Notes, is proving to be pretty short-sighted. At 1.75% for 10-year paper, there is really only one direction yields of that duration can go (higher), and only one direction for long-term bond prices to go — lower. To the extent these risk managers didn’t ladder their bond holdings borders on reckless, as if printing trillions of dollars wouldn’t somehow be inflationary down the road. And all for trying to bank a spread of 1.3% between the 3-year and 10-year Treasuries. 

2-year T-Note www.cnbc.com

10-year T-Note www.cnbc.com 

The obvious question sweeping the markets is how many, and to what extent, other banks are also underwater with their bond portfolios, their uninsured deposits and their exposure to commercial office space. In recent days, there have been numerous CEOs of small to mid-size banks putting forth statements that what happened at Silicon Valley Bank, Signature and Silvergate is unique, since those institutions engaged in non-traditional activities. They go on to say that all is well and their institutions are safe and sound, yet there is no mention of their Treasury holdings and a maturity schedule, a breakdown of commercial real estate loans and the level of uninsured deposits. 

Transparency is what investors and depositors want most. Banks should immediately make public their current holdings and details of their financials and balance sheets amid this crisis. The warm and fuzzy statements do nothing to shore up confidence.

Caution takes hold when banks announce “there is nothing to worry about,” and then don’t back it up with internal numbers. With first-quarter earnings season approaching in April, investors will have ample opportunity to investigate the details of each bank during the earnings calls that follow the posting of quarterly results. 

“Smaller banks are crucial drivers of credit growth, the fuel that powers the economy,” the Wall Street Journal reported on March 19. Banks smaller than the top 25 largest account for around 38% of all outstanding loans, according to Federal Reserve data. They account for 67% of commercial real estate lending. The possibility that other banks have similar problems has triggered a sell-off of financial stocks as investors scrutinize bank solvency. This, in turn, stoked public alarm about the safety of deposits and the size of unrealized losses.

This week will hopefully begin to provide some much-needed clarity of the risks within the wider banking sector. It is widely accepted that lending standards just tightened up for both businesses and consumers to raise capital ratios. Additionally, some pundits are suggesting recent events could trigger a wave of weaker banks being swallowed up by bigger banks to avoid the potential of further bank runs. These mergers could be voluntary or at the direction of state bank regulatory agencies.

What the market seeks most is a rapid response by the bank industry, the Fed and Treasury to prevent a further ripple effect. The fact that the Fed and Treasury jointly agreed to guarantee all deposits above the $250,000 FDIC level of insurance at Silicon Valley Bank is fueling a fresh debate about the moral hazard of universal deposit insurance. The potential for unintended consequences is high. If all funds are guaranteed, there’s at least some incentive to take on higher risks with depositors’ funds to chase profits. 

What should come of recent events is that there should be more stress testing, more often with stricter mandates about where capital is concentrated. I think if these directives were made known to markets sooner than later, the ground under the banking sector might stop shaking. Let’s hope sound minds and proper decision making prevail in the days ahead.

P.S. Join me for a MoneyShow virtual event where I’ll be on a panel moderated by Roger Michalski and will be joined by my colleagues Jim Woods and Mark Skousen. In addition, the entire event focuses on investing for income, real estate, Master Limited Partnerships, dividend-paying stocks, bonds and more.

To sign up for this free event taking place March 21-23, click here now.

The post A Crisis of Clarity Rippling Through Regional Banks   appeared first on Stock Investor.

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Homes listed for sale in early June sell for $7,700 more

New Zillow research suggests the spring home shopping season may see a second wave this summer if mortgage rates fall
The post Homes listed for sale in…

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  • A Zillow analysis of 2023 home sales finds homes listed in the first two weeks of June sold for 2.3% more. 
  • The best time to list a home for sale is a month later than it was in 2019, likely driven by mortgage rates.
  • The best time to list can be as early as the second half of February in San Francisco, and as late as the first half of July in New York and Philadelphia. 

Spring home sellers looking to maximize their sale price may want to wait it out and list their home for sale in the first half of June. A new Zillow® analysis of 2023 sales found that homes listed in the first two weeks of June sold for 2.3% more, a $7,700 boost on a typical U.S. home.  

The best time to list consistently had been early May in the years leading up to the pandemic. The shift to June suggests mortgage rates are strongly influencing demand on top of the usual seasonality that brings buyers to the market in the spring. This home-shopping season is poised to follow a similar pattern as that in 2023, with the potential for a second wave if the Federal Reserve lowers interest rates midyear or later. 

The 2.3% sale price premium registered last June followed the first spring in more than 15 years with mortgage rates over 6% on a 30-year fixed-rate loan. The high rates put home buyers on the back foot, and as rates continued upward through May, they were still reassessing and less likely to bid boldly. In June, however, rates pulled back a little from 6.79% to 6.67%, which likely presented an opportunity for determined buyers heading into summer. More buyers understood their market position and could afford to transact, boosting competition and sale prices.

The old logic was that sellers could earn a premium by listing in late spring, when search activity hit its peak. Now, with persistently low inventory, mortgage rate fluctuations make their own seasonality. First-time home buyers who are on the edge of qualifying for a home loan may dip in and out of the market, depending on what’s happening with rates. It is almost certain the Federal Reserve will push back any interest-rate cuts to mid-2024 at the earliest. If mortgage rates follow, that could bring another surge of buyers later this year.

Mortgage rates have been impacting affordability and sale prices since they began rising rapidly two years ago. In 2022, sellers nationwide saw the highest sale premium when they listed their home in late March, right before rates barreled past 5% and continued climbing. 

Zillow’s research finds the best time to list can vary widely by metropolitan area. In 2023, it was as early as the second half of February in San Francisco, and as late as the first half of July in New York. Thirty of the top 35 largest metro areas saw for-sale listings command the highest sale prices between May and early July last year. 

Zillow also found a wide range in the sale price premiums associated with homes listed during those peak periods. At the hottest time of the year in San Jose, homes sold for 5.5% more, a $88,000 boost on a typical home. Meanwhile, homes in San Antonio sold for 1.9% more during that same time period.  

 

Metropolitan Area Best Time to List Price Premium Dollar Boost
United States First half of June 2.3% $7,700
New York, NY First half of July 2.4% $15,500
Los Angeles, CA First half of May 4.1% $39,300
Chicago, IL First half of June 2.8% $8,800
Dallas, TX First half of June 2.5% $9,200
Houston, TX Second half of April 2.0% $6,200
Washington, DC Second half of June 2.2% $12,700
Philadelphia, PA First half of July 2.4% $8,200
Miami, FL First half of June 2.3% $12,900
Atlanta, GA Second half of June 2.3% $8,700
Boston, MA Second half of May 3.5% $23,600
Phoenix, AZ First half of June 3.2% $14,700
San Francisco, CA Second half of February 4.2% $50,300
Riverside, CA First half of May 2.7% $15,600
Detroit, MI First half of July 3.3% $7,900
Seattle, WA First half of June 4.3% $31,500
Minneapolis, MN Second half of May 3.7% $13,400
San Diego, CA Second half of April 3.1% $29,600
Tampa, FL Second half of June 2.1% $8,000
Denver, CO Second half of May 2.9% $16,900
Baltimore, MD First half of July 2.2% $8,200
St. Louis, MO First half of June 2.9% $7,000
Orlando, FL First half of June 2.2% $8,700
Charlotte, NC Second half of May 3.0% $11,000
San Antonio, TX First half of June 1.9% $5,400
Portland, OR Second half of April 2.6% $14,300
Sacramento, CA First half of June 3.2% $17,900
Pittsburgh, PA Second half of June 2.3% $4,700
Cincinnati, OH Second half of April 2.7% $7,500
Austin, TX Second half of May 2.8% $12,600
Las Vegas, NV First half of June 3.4% $14,600
Kansas City, MO Second half of May 2.5% $7,300
Columbus, OH Second half of June 3.3% $10,400
Indianapolis, IN First half of July 3.0% $8,100
Cleveland, OH First half of July  3.4% $7,400
San Jose, CA First half of June 5.5% $88,400

 

The post Homes listed for sale in early June sell for $7,700 more appeared first on Zillow Research.

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February Employment Situation

By Paul Gomme and Peter Rupert The establishment data from the BLS showed a 275,000 increase in payroll employment for February, outpacing the 230,000…

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By Paul Gomme and Peter Rupert

The establishment data from the BLS showed a 275,000 increase in payroll employment for February, outpacing the 230,000 average over the previous 12 months. The payroll data for January and December were revised down by a total of 167,000. The private sector added 223,000 new jobs, the largest gain since May of last year.

Temporary help services employment continues a steep decline after a sharp post-pandemic rise.

Average hours of work increased from 34.2 to 34.3. The increase, along with the 223,000 private employment increase led to a hefty increase in total hours of 5.6% at an annualized rate, also the largest increase since May of last year.

The establishment report, once again, beat “expectations;” the WSJ survey of economists was 198,000. Other than the downward revisions, mentioned above, another bit of negative news was a smallish increase in wage growth, from $34.52 to $34.57.

The household survey shows that the labor force increased 150,000, a drop in employment of 184,000 and an increase in the number of unemployed persons of 334,000. The labor force participation rate held steady at 62.5, the employment to population ratio decreased from 60.2 to 60.1 and the unemployment rate increased from 3.66 to 3.86. Remember that the unemployment rate is the number of unemployed relative to the labor force (the number employed plus the number unemployed). Consequently, the unemployment rate can go up if the number of unemployed rises holding fixed the labor force, or if the labor force shrinks holding the number unemployed unchanged. An increase in the unemployment rate is not necessarily a bad thing: it may reflect a strong labor market drawing “marginally attached” individuals from outside the labor force. Indeed, there was a 96,000 decline in those workers.

Earlier in the week, the BLS announced JOLTS (Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey) data for January. There isn’t much to report here as the job openings changed little at 8.9 million, the number of hires and total separations were little changed at 5.7 million and 5.3 million, respectively.

As has been the case for the last couple of years, the number of job openings remains higher than the number of unemployed persons.

Also earlier in the week the BLS announced that productivity increased 3.2% in the 4th quarter with output rising 3.5% and hours of work rising 0.3%.

The bottom line is that the labor market continues its surprisingly (to some) strong performance, once again proving stronger than many had expected. This strength makes it difficult to justify any interest rate cuts soon, particularly given the recent inflation spike.

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Mortgage rates fall as labor market normalizes

Jobless claims show an expanding economy. We will only be in a recession once jobless claims exceed 323,000 on a four-week moving average.

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Everyone was waiting to see if this week’s jobs report would send mortgage rates higher, which is what happened last month. Instead, the 10-year yield had a muted response after the headline number beat estimates, but we have negative job revisions from previous months. The Federal Reserve’s fear of wage growth spiraling out of control hasn’t materialized for over two years now and the unemployment rate ticked up to 3.9%. For now, we can say the labor market isn’t tight anymore, but it’s also not breaking.

The key labor data line in this expansion is the weekly jobless claims report. Jobless claims show an expanding economy that has not lost jobs yet. We will only be in a recession once jobless claims exceed 323,000 on a four-week moving average.

From the Fed: In the week ended March 2, initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits were flat, at 217,000. The four-week moving average declined slightly by 750, to 212,250


Below is an explanation of how we got here with the labor market, which all started during COVID-19.

1. I wrote the COVID-19 recovery model on April 7, 2020, and retired it on Dec. 9, 2020. By that time, the upfront recovery phase was done, and I needed to model out when we would get the jobs lost back.

2. Early in the labor market recovery, when we saw weaker job reports, I doubled and tripled down on my assertion that job openings would get to 10 million in this recovery. Job openings rose as high as to 12 million and are currently over 9 million. Even with the massive miss on a job report in May 2021, I didn’t waver.

Currently, the jobs openings, quit percentage and hires data are below pre-COVID-19 levels, which means the labor market isn’t as tight as it once was, and this is why the employment cost index has been slowing data to move along the quits percentage.  

2-US_Job_Quits_Rate-1-2

3. I wrote that we should get back all the jobs lost to COVID-19 by September of 2022. At the time this would be a speedy labor market recovery, and it happened on schedule, too

Total employment data

4. This is the key one for right now: If COVID-19 hadn’t happened, we would have between 157 million and 159 million jobs today, which would have been in line with the job growth rate in February 2020. Today, we are at 157,808,000. This is important because job growth should be cooling down now. We are more in line with where the labor market should be when averaging 140K-165K monthly. So for now, the fact that we aren’t trending between 140K-165K means we still have a bit more recovery kick left before we get down to those levels. 




From BLS: Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 275,000 in February, and the unemployment rate increased to 3.9 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in health care, in government, in food services and drinking places, in social assistance, and in transportation and warehousing.

Here are the jobs that were created and lost in the previous month:

IMG_5092

In this jobs report, the unemployment rate for education levels looks like this:

  • Less than a high school diploma: 6.1%
  • High school graduate and no college: 4.2%
  • Some college or associate degree: 3.1%
  • Bachelor’s degree or higher: 2.2%
IMG_5093_320f22

Today’s report has continued the trend of the labor data beating my expectations, only because I am looking for the jobs data to slow down to a level of 140K-165K, which hasn’t happened yet. I wouldn’t categorize the labor market as being tight anymore because of the quits ratio and the hires data in the job openings report. This also shows itself in the employment cost index as well. These are key data lines for the Fed and the reason we are going to see three rate cuts this year.

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