CIO Scott Martin Interviewed on Fox Business News 7.8.21 Part 1

Kingsview CIO Scott Martin discusses the pace of the interest rate plummet, the housing market, and earnings in the S&P 500.

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Program:  Cavuto Coast to Coast
Date: 7/8/2021
Station:  Fox Business News
Time:  12:00PM

NEIL CAVUTO: Let’s get the read from Scott Martin, Kingsview Asset Management. We’ve got Luke Lloyd back with us as well as Strategic Wealth Partners. Luke, to you first on whether the bond market is telling us something that the stock market doesn’t want to hear. What do you think?

LUKE LLOYD: Yeah, Neil, investors can’t have it both ways. There are two narratives going on right now. Investors get scared when yields rise because of inflation concerns and then investors get scared when yields go lower because of economic concerns and the delta strain of the virus. You can’t have it both ways. The question you have to ask yourself is, what is the best case scenario? And then what is the most likely scenario? The best case scenario? Yields continue to rise because there are no more shutdowns in the economy remains high. What is the most likely scenario? I think that same scenario is the most likely the US can afford or handle another lockdown and half of the population is fully vaccinated. I think these concerns are just temporary and the stock market continues to slowly grind higher.

CAVUTO: Interesting because, Scott, you know, you could make the very argument that this is happening, it’s going to be beneficial to stocks, right? Because the lower those yields go, obviously dividend yields of the S&P 500 are a lot higher. You could make the argument that you’re getting squat in bonds. It might be safe, but you’re not getting much bang for the buck. So it might as investors try to regroup through this, be a good thing for stocks. What do you think?

SCOTT MARTIN: Right, that’s the funny thing, Neil, it’s just I think if you look at the pace of this interest rate plummet, as you kind of highlighted at the beginning of the show there, that’s concerning. I mean, we were up near one point seven three percent in the 10 year just a few months ago. Everybody calling for two, two and a half even heard some threes out there by the year and now everybody’s calling for maybe one. And so I think it’s the pace of that fall in the yield that’s really concerning. And then also, if you juxtapose that, though, versus stocks, like you said, yield on stocks, dividend yields, their earnings yield on the S&P, the fact that a lot of techland is highly leveraged, therefore, their borrowing costs are falling by the day as the 10 year rate is falling in itself. Those are reasons to be somewhat constructive, but it just goes to show you how the market gets in these weird moods, whereas Luke kind of pointed out where maybe it’s investors wanting both things both ways or just the fact the market gets in this kind of sell first, ask questions later kind of mood and any news is a bad news and a reason to go for the sidelines.

CAVUTO: You know, you could use it. I think you guys are very good at spelling out the big picture here. Look, you could use the argument here that this could be a worrisome development for technology stocks. But however you look at their downdraft today, they’re still up, up and away over the last year. Amazon going into today, it gained about one hundred and thirty dollars billion in market cap. So I’m beginning to wonder whether this is just a a slight adjustment to that and nothing more ominous. How do you play technology stocks?

LLOYD: Yeah, I think it is a slight adjustment all around, but all all around. I think that’s actually bullish for US domestic stocks. And the reason why is, you know, first off, the US economy is essentially so hot right now and that’s causing issues. Companies can’t hire enough workers to grow like they want to, and that’s scaring investors. And then you have the Delta variant freaking people out again, about Covid. You know, as Americans, sometimes we get tunnel vision and forget about the world. In America, things are looking pretty good. We are open and partyin over here where you take a look globally, things aren’t that pretty. Many countries are still shut down. Listen, you know, here’s the thing. I think this is an opportunity for US domestic stocks to outperform international stocks over the coming years. Not only are we open, but international investors want to own US stocks because we are open. This is bullish for US stocks and technology stocks over the next coming years.

CAVUTO: You know Scott, you could also use the argument that lower rates, whatever the rationale behind them, certainly will help those looking for a home or those who want to refinance the one they’re already in. That typically happens with these type of spurts and activity. And we’ve seen housing ebb a little bit, maybe because of the price of homes themselves have gotten so high. But what do you expect on the housing front?

MARTIN: Housing feels a little bubbly to me and Neil, not so much, say, 05, 06 or even in the mid teens, but it just feels a little bit hot right now to kind of hot to handle. You’re right, though. I mean, Reifies have definitely been a big boom in the last couple of years for consumers, and that could happen again. My goodness, rates are falling here with the Fed still in play, buying a ton of mortgages, all they can handle. So, look, I mean, housing, staying strong here, I think does help us pull through some of the difficulties here with maybe a resurgence with the Delta variance, maybe just a slowdown in general with the economy. But the one concern I do have to Luke’s point, though, is this overseas issue. Yes, I agree. Domestically, things are pretty strong. But if you look at the S&P, five hundred boys and girls, half of the earnings in the S&P 500 come from overseas. So if the global situation isn’t as good as, say, the US situation, eventually that does concern me for the overall performance of equities going forward.

LLOYD: That’s why you don’t own the S&P Five Hundred.

CAVUTO: Yeah, you could say that. Or the Nasdaq a proxy that. But I do want to pursue that a bit with you later in the show, because I want to get into the fact whether China created this technology round and might be doing that right now. But that’s a little later in the show. In the meantime, I want to go to my buddy.

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