Summer 2009 Quarterly Newsletter

By
Posted on September 8th, 2009


Summer 2009 Quarterly Newsletter
(view as pdf)

UPCOMING EVENTS

August 4, 2009
Symposium in partnership with Victor Ferguson, Partner with Vorys, Seymour, Sater, and Pease LLP,
Location & Time TBA.

November 11, 18, and December 2
In partnership with Upper Arlington Library
A “How To” guide to “Investment Management”, “Asset Allocation”, and “Uncertainty and Retirement Analysis”,
Upper Arlington Main Library, Time TBA

August 18
“Investing for Retirement” Webinar, Back to the Basics: Structuring a Retirement Portfolio
6 p.m.

See an Event you’d like to attend? Please email info@BHAdvisory.com for instructions!


QUARTERLY ECONOMIC REVIEW

The market upturn that began in March continued through this quarter. The major impetus for this movement was a realization that the economic environment was not catastrophic, it was merely bad. Risk was generally rewarded. Many companies took advantage of the stabilizing markets to issue equity to deleverage their balance sheets. May equity issuance was at a record level. While the torrid pace of equity issuance in May is unlikely to be sustained, the motivation to deleverage will continue, creating a headwind for the equity markets. In addition, a few large bankruptcies will continue to reverberate throughout our economy. On the other hand, only a fraction of the fiscal stimulus is yet to ‘hit the streets’.

Consistent with risk being rewarded generally, small cap stocks outperformed large cap stocks:

In the fixed income market, risk was again rewarded, with junk bonds trouncing higher quality issues.

BarCap U.S. Aggregate Bond: 1.8%
BarCap U.S. Corporate High Yield: 23%

Interest rates along most maturities (i.e. the “yield curve”) have in general shifted up, with the longer term maturities shifting up slightly more. That being said, interest rates across all maturities are still fairly low, with room to move up significantly.

Readers will recall that when rates go up, bond prices go down (generally), with the longer maturity bonds generally showing more volatility. This risk (“interest rate risk”) hurt the longer term bonds this quarter, and is a continued risk for the future.

BarCap U.S. Treasury 1-4 Year: -.4%
BarCap U.S. Treasury 10-20 Year: -6%

FTSE NAREIT Equity REITS: 28.9%

Consistent with the realization that our economy is merely bad, rather than catastrophic, the commercial real estate portion of the market enjoyed broad gains as well.
ECONOMISTS LOOK TO THE FUTURE

We are pleased to welcome guest commentary:

William Strauss
Senior Economist and Economic Advisor for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

Bill LaFayette, PhD
VP of Economic Analysis for the Columbus, OH Chamber of Commerce

It should be stressed that the general stock market is a leading indicator of the general economy. By the time the economy rebounds, the market typically has already moved up. While we, at Beacon Hill, temper ours and others’ predictions of the future in implementing investment actions, we were impressed while hearing William Strauss present at a recent investment conference. In addition, we welcome the views of Bill LaFayette PhD, Vice-President of Economic Analysis for the Columbus Chamber of Commerce for a more localized analysis.

General Economic Review
In general this recession has been brutal, yet Mr. Strauss points out that “the contraction appears to be slowing, had the Fed and the fiscal side not reacted we would be looking at something that is bad being quite catastrophic”. All leading indicators but Real Estate are up, with decreased consumer spending and real estate presumed to continue to be a headwind. The Chicago Fed National Activity index (a compilation of leading indicators) bottomed in January of 2009 and appears to be rebounding.

“Most outlooks show a very slight positive (growth) in the 3rd quarter moving to more robust growth in the 4th quarter, albeit still muted growth” says Mr. Strauss. There was “quite a sharp drop in inventories in the first quarter, the manufacturing sector specifically has been extremely aggressive about cutting back on production and have kept inventories relatively in balance. Due to this, manufacturing might be able to rebound more quickly than it historically has due to the need to increase production when sales come back (due to the inability to rely on inventory stockpiles).”

Our Local Economy
In the Midwest specifically, Mr. Strauss points out that the “automotive industry problems and the expectation for closures and layoffs will probably cause the Midwest to lag the (general economic) turnaround.” Mr. LaFayette generally agrees with the Midwest lagging the general economies turnaround, but points out that “it is less applicable to the Columbus economy. Since the beginning of the recession, the U.S. overall has lost about 4.3% of total employment while Columbus has lost 2%. The primary reason is that we’re not being as affected by the bust as we were not as affected by the boom.”

Inflation
The current Beige Book release (6/10/09) points out that “With few exceptions, the District Banks reported that prices at all stages of production were generally flat or falling.” Mr. Strauss points out that “there is still tremendous slack in the economy.

utilization (a measure of how much production capacity our economy is using) is still extremely low by historical standards”.

While Mr. Strauss does not give personal views on inflation, he does note that “if you look at the TIPS (see Spring 2009 newsletter) market or the surveys they seem to be pointing to relatively contained inflation…however, there are a lot of challenges regarding the fiscal deficits and the very significant increase in the Fed’s balance sheet. We are very much aware of the risks out there and it will be up to the Fed to be nimble and aggressive to make sure inflation stays under control”. We at Beacon Hill also take note that while the Fed controls monetary stimulus, other parts of the government will need to be nimble and aggressive at reining in fiscal stimulus (historically that can be much more difficult). Regarding unexpected spikes in inflation, Mr. Strauss did not explicitly comment on predictions but conf i r m e d o u r thoughts that “bad things happen with probably a higher probability that we would have thought a year ago”.

The views of William Strauss are his personal views and do not reflect the views of the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank or the Federal Reserve System.

INVESTOR CONFUSION

Investment Advisors

1.  Revenue is generated directly through fees from the client.
2.  What they offer? Investment Advice
3. Do they have a duty to you? As a Fiduciary, they legally must hold your interest above theirs and must monitor your portfolio regularly.

Financial Advisors (Brokers)

1.  Revenue generated by Sales Commissions, Sales Incentives and Back-door fees.
2.  What they offer? Transactions with advice “solely incidental to a transaction.”
3.  Do they have a duty to you? As a Non-Fiduciary, no legal duty to hold your interest above theirs and no legal duty to monitor your portfolio.

Did you know 74% of respondents* were not aware that only Investment Advisors have a fiduciary responsibility to act in investors’ best interests in all aspects of the financial relationship?

*TD AMERITRADE survey of 1,000+ U.S. investors conducted by Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, 2006


IN DEFENSE OF DIVERSIFICATION

There has recently been a popular uprising against the idea of diversification in the press and in public opinion. While the past year has been difficult for most, diversification has been a saving grace for many portfolios. Lower risk assets have buoyed the performance of diversified portfolios as can be seen by the comparison of the equity markets (S&P 500) to fixed income markets (BarCap Aggregate Bond Index) and to a few Beacon Hill Asset Allocations.


SEEN IN THE PRESS

“Small Business Owners– Ways you can embrace retirement in a bear market!” by Mark Fissel
AffluentMagazine.com 6/15/09

“6 Ways to Profit from the Falling Dollar” by Roger Fillion
Fidelity.com 6/11/09 (Clint Edgington)

“The New Retirement Realities: What to do and How to cope.” by Tom Gray,
Achieve Solutions 1/15/09 (Clint Edgington)

“Ohioans taken in by Ponzi schemes,”
by Steve Wartenberg
Columbus Dispatch 12/21/08 (Clint Edgington)

“Practice triage in your spending…”
by Gregory Karp,
Chicago Tribune 11/30/08 (Clint Edgington)

“Market Fears, Stay the Course,” by Clint Edgington,
Columbus Dispatch 10/5/08

Clint Edgington, CFA
Partner
Beacon Hill Investment Adivsory
Mark Fissel, RFC
Partner
Beacon Hill Investment Adivsory