Latest Charts for the Visual Researcher
Growth vs Value, Stagflation, Buy Backs and Savings Rates
Fact 1: The relative valuation of growth vs value stocks has reached a level not seen since the peak of the dot com bubble in 2000.
Fact 2: What do you get when inflation keeps surprising to the upside and economic indicators keep surprising to the downside? Stagflation!
OK, we’re not experiencing 1970s-level stagflation at the moment, but look at that divergence on the far right of the chart below.
Fact 3: Share buybacks are responsible for a huge portion of S&P 500 total returns over the past decade. Many companies are sitting on mountains of cash so I wouldn’t be surprised if this trend continued.
Fact 4: Early in the pandemic personal savings rates spiked, contributing to the huge growth in demand deposits. A lot of this money eventually found its way into various investments, helping to prop up the markets. Today, savings rates have fallen back to their pre-pandemic level.