Coronavirus Stimulus Vote Could Come After Election Day White House officials and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi opened the door to passing a coronavirus relief package after the election, a signal that time and political will has likely run out to enact legislation before then.
(…) “I’m optimistic that there will be a bill. It’s a question of, is it in time to pay the November rent, which is my goal, or is it going to be shortly thereafter and retroactive?” Mrs. Pelosi, a California Democrat, said Wednesday on MSNBC.
Larry Kudlow, a top White House economic adviser, said on CNBC Wednesday that negotiators were “running out of time, at least between now and the election” and that wrapping up work on a relief package in a lame-duck session, after the election but before the next administration begins, “could be a possibility.”
Punting a relief bill until after the presidential election would likely imperil its passage for months, since the election could change the political calculus. If Democratic nominee Joe Biden wins the White House, Democrats would have an incentive to wait until he is in office, where then they would have increased leverage to push for a larger bill, with more Democratic policy provisions. The dynamics are more uncertain if Mr. Trump wins re-election, but he is expected to be less motivated to strike an agreement without an election on the horizon. (…)
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows acknowledged the difficulty a deal would face after Nov. 3. “I don’t think our chances get better after [the] election,” he said on Fox News. (…)
Clearly the best outcome for everybody except… the American people. How big a blunder? We’ll see what happens…
Fed’s Brainard Says More Spending Needed to Avoid Recovery Imbalance
(…) “Apart from the course of the virus itself, the most significant downside risk to my outlook would be the failure of additional fiscal support to materialize,” said Fed governor Lael Brainard in remarks set for delivery in an online discussion on Wednesday. (…)
“Premature withdrawal of fiscal support would risk allowing recessionary dynamics to become entrenched, holding back employment and spending, increasing scarring from extended unemployment spells, leading more businesses to shutter, and ultimately harming productive capacity,” she said. (…)
U.S. Economy Seeing ‘Slight to Modest’ Growth This Fall, Fed’s Beige Book Says Report finds recovery proceeding on separate tracks, while employment growth remains slow
The report found that the recovery was proceeding on separate tracks, with the manufacturing, residential housing and banking industries reporting steady growth, while consumer spending and commercial real estate remained weak. (…)
The report painted a picture of a disjointed employment situation, where many companies continued to lay off some workers while also struggling to recruit others. Employers blamed the labor situation on employee health concerns and on a lack of access to child care. Many companies have raised wages or offered flexible work arrangements in response. (…)
Here’s the actual wording in the Beige Book: “Employment increased in almost all Districts, though growth remained slow. Employment gains were reported most consistently for manufacturing firms, although firms continued to report new furloughs and layoffs.”
Speaking of layoffs:
Job cuts announced by U.S.-based employers jumped to 118,804 in September, up 2.6% from August’s total of 115,762, according to a monthly report released [2 weeks ago] by global outplacement and business and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.. September’s total is 186% higher than the 41,557 job cuts announced in September 2019. In September, market conditions caused 45,213 of the announced cuts, followed by 33,713 job cuts due to demand downturn, and 11,562 cuts due to restructuring. COVID-19 is the reason for 8,529 cuts last month.
OCTOBER SALES MANAGERS SURVEY REVEALS US ECONOMIC ACTIVITY CUT AGAIN BY COVID
Tomorrow we get the flash PMIs. This is the Sales Managers Survey for the first month of the fourth quarter:
- Headline Sales Index fell back into negative territory in October.
- Business Confidence declined, again falling below the 50 “no growth” line.
- The Sales Growth Index fell sharply, with panelists reporting the resurgence of the Covid virus is once again impacting on sales.
- The Staffing Index fell sharply again, indicating employment levels remain a lot lower than one year ago.
- The Profits Index remains way below the 50 level.
UNITED STATES: STAFFING LEVELS INDEX
HOUSING:
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Hamptons Sales Prices Reach 15-Year High
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Stephen Ross Cuts Price on New York Penthouse to $62.5 Million from $75M
BTW, (…) Lumber futures have tumbled from August’s record highs, though they’re still up 26% this year. (…) Elevated wood costs lifted the selling price of an average, new single-family home in the U.S. by $15,841 since mid-April, according to David Logan, director of tax and trade policy analysis for the National Association of Home Builders.
According to the NAR, the U.S. housing affordability index jumped 6.2% between December 2019 and April 2020. It has since dropped 7.5%.
Retail Sales Slow in Canada After Strong Run Peters Out
Sales eked out a gain of 0.4% in August, Statistics Canada said Wednesday in Ottawa. That fell short of the 1.1% median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists. Excluding vehicles, receipts rose 0.5%, versus a forecast gain of 0.9%. (…) Core retail sales, which exclude gas and autos, rose 0.4% in August, partly reversing a decline in the previous month, Statistics Canada said. (…)
VIRUS UPDATE
Hospitals Across the U.S. Are Crammed With Covid-19 Patients
U.S. hospitalizations for Covid-19 hit the highest point since Aug. 22, with New York doubling its count from early September and at least 10 other states reporting records.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, meanwhile, cited four national studies that predicted a probable in-patient increase of as much as 6,200 daily over the next four weeks.
The U.S. on Tuesday had 39,230 people in hospitals, according to the Covid Tracking Project. Of those, 8,178 were in intensive-care units; it’s been two months since the U.S. had more under such care. The number on ventilators, 1,889, reached its highest since Sept. 10.
Across the country, 37 states are reporting increased hospitalizations, including 21 states that have recently reported new records or are approaching previous highs, according to Johns Hopkins University data. While the trend is national, the hardest-hit region is the Midwest, according to the university. (…)
Pandemic Out Of Control in Parts of Spain, Health Minister Says
From Fathom Consulting:
So far, the economic recovery has been about as V-shaped as could have been expected in many places (see the chart below, for those countries that report monthly GDP). But the recent spike in cases in Europe – and subsequent increase in localised lockdowns (with national lockdowns not ruled out) – increase the possibility of the final stages of a V-shaped recovery not materialising, or indeed the prospect of another letter forming. But there are three reasons we are sticking with a V (or at least a V drawn by someone with a shaky hand) as our central case for now. First, new restrictions are likely to be less onerous than they were in Q1 and Q2 this year. Second, many people have adapted their routines to live with lockdown measures (i.e. find ways to work from home and to consume despite restrictions). Third – and this one is key – government support packages remain generous.
Our measure of Chinese economic activity – the CMI 3.0 (blue line in the chart below) – suggests that annual growth was a more modest 3.4% in September (and 1.8% in Q3 as a whole), although this is still an impressive outturn.
A less positive aspect of China’s GDP print (at least from a sustainability perspective) was the increase in real estate investment growth, which was 5.6% higher in the first three quarters of 2020 relative to the same period last year. This was significantly higher than total investment, which climbed 0.8% over the same period. China’s housing market is suffering from huge overcapacity, which is reflected by the time taken to finish construction (one of our suite of proprietary indicators) below. The jobs market in China has also showed elements of improvement according to official figures revealed this week, with the surveyed unemployment rate falling to 5.4% in September1, from 5.6% in August. Nevertheless, the underemployment rate is likely to be far higher, a point reflected by another one of our proprietary indicators, the CUUI (China Urban Underemployment Indicator).
While on China and its all-important housing sector, this has all the looks of an accident waiting to happen:
Evergrande’s Push to Calm Investors Receives Mixed Response
(…) Evergrande has come under intense investor scrutiny in recent weeks after fears of a cash crunch triggered a sell-off in the company’s bonds and shares. While few expect the developer to default any time soon, it’s facing pressure to pare back a $120 billion debt pile and increase cash reserves.
In one of its calls with investors on Friday, Evergrande officials said the agreement signed late last month with strategic investors to waive a January deadline on about $13 billion of repayments doesn’t include any put options.
The officials also said China’s government may roll out measures to support some developers either by the end of this month or early next month, allowing firms to swap short-term debt into long-dated obligations to keep the real estate market stable, according to the attendees, who asked not to be identified because the call was private. (…)
Investors, however strategic, do not simply waive $13B of repayments. In any case, here’s the government’s measures announced this week:
China debt crackdown: regulators asking property developers for more details than expected
(…) The twelve companies, which collectively account for 28% of the homes sold in the country so far this year, were selected for a pilot debt reduction scheme as policymakers look to reduce broader financial risks.
The new policy will effectively limit developers’ annual debt growth to around 15% on average. (…)
According to Chinese media, the cap for the debt-to-assets ratio will be set at 70%, the cap for net debt to equity will be set at 100% and the developers should also have enough cash to match their short-term liabilities. (…)
Analysts at ANZ estimate about one-fifth of real estate companies with China A-shares have leverage ratios exceeding the thresholds.
A sharp reduction in leverage could rattle credit markets and weigh heavily on the property sector, a key driver behind China’s swift economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis.
China Evergrande Group 3333.HK, the country’s most indebted property developer, has been among those scrambling to raise money, with fears of a cash-crunch sending its shares and bonds skidding last month.
Bloomberg seems to count differently than ANZ analysts: “According to Bloomberg’s analysis of 180 listed property companies, 8% of them are in the red group, 15% are in the orange, 30% in the yellow and less than half, or 47% in the green category. Therefore, well over half of the combined balance sheet of the entire real estate sector would face material deleveraging pressure over the medium term.”
Bloomberg also informs us that “less than two weeks after the August proposal surfaced, Evergrande started to offer aggressive discounts…” in an already oversupplied market per Fathom Consulting.
Almost Daily Grant:
Evergrande, which dabbles in electric vehicles, movie theaters and life insurance in addition to its core business, continues to wheel and deal as it contends with a fearsome debt load of $120 billion (of which $5.8 billion comes due within in the next two months). The company is haggling with banks [the so-called strategic investors] over a HK$11.4 billion ($1.5 billion) three-year, senior secured loan to refinance an $HK8 billion loan coming due next month, Bloomberg reports today. (…)
The prospect of an imminent cash crunch briefly loomed large last month, following news of an Aug. 24 letter purportedly from Evergrande to regional authorities in Guangdong warning of systemic risks including cross-defaults in the event it is unable to secure permission to list its shares in mainland China by Jan. 31. Failure to list by that deadline would trigger some RMB 130 billion ($19 billion) in repayments to investors, equivalent to nearly all of its cash and cash equivalents as of June 30. Evergrande, which decried the letter as fabricated, managed to come to a deal with those investors a few days later, successfully kicking the can down the road.
Fake letter or not, might government assistance indeed be forthcoming? Bloomberg reported last Friday that company insiders believe the Chinese government “may roll out measures to support some developers either by the end of this month or early next month,” with debt swaps among the likely remedies.
That doesn’t mean that the powers-that-be are going to take it easy on Evergrande, which carries net leverage of 11 times Ebitda, nearly twice the second-most encumbered Chinese developer and triple the industry average. (…)
Chinese authorities are clearly pro-active here, trying to avoid their own Lehman moment. Banks only become strategic investors when a systemic risk looms. In Chinese, the word “banks” translates into Chinese government. We’ll see what happens…
EARNINGS WATCH
We now have 84 reports in, an 86% beat rate and a +16.9% surprise factor leading to a 7.6% decline in earnings for these companies on revenues down 1.4%.
Q3 earnings are now seen down 18.0% (vs -21.4% on Oct. 1) and Q4 -12.8% vs -13.6%.
Trailing EPS are now $137.20, on their way to $131.97 for the full year 2020 and $166.27 for 2021.
Analysis: Biden tax increase might not be so bad for big banks Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s plan to raise corporate taxes would have a modest impact on profits of big U.S. banks and probably not before 2022, analysts said.
(…) Biden’s plan would raise the current 21% corporate rate to 28%, putting back only seven of the 14-point reduction enacted during the Trump administration.
That seven-point hike would reduce big banks’ earnings per share by a median of 7.4% based on 2021 estimates, according to Morgan Stanley analyst Betsy Graseck. (…)
A Democratic sweep might benefit banks in another way, by launching proposed infrastructure projects. That government money would flow through to businesses and their employees, making it easier for them to repay their loans, analysts said.
Big U.S. banks have put set aside more than $60 billion for potential loan losses since the pandemic started. If those losses do not materialize, the banks will be able to bring the money back into reported earnings.
More government infrastructure spending could also support demand for loans and increase inflation. Higher interest rates would lift bank revenue from loans and securities.
Combined, those factors could offset two-thirds of the 7.4% drag on bank earnings from a 28% corporate tax rate, Morgan Stanley’s Graseck estimated. (…)