2019

Recession?

Gary Shilling's talks about the slowdown in commodities on Bloomberg

Any way you measure it, the market for commodities is suffering. The Bloomberg Commodity Index of 22 key raw materials ranging from oil to copper to soybeans has dropped about 10 per cent since reaching an almost three-year high in May. I've identified 10 forces that explain the weakness and why it will persist.

1. Slowing economic growth globally and a possible recession in the next year. 

Commodity producers seldom moderate supply to match weakness in demand, and commodity prices drop in recessionary climates.

Harbingers of a recession: 

Universally falling stocks, tighter Federal Reserve monetary policy, the soon-to-invert yield curve, weakening housing activity as mortgage rates rise, unsustainable corporate profit growth and soaring consumer confidence combined with lower savings rates. 

Globally, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's index of leading indicators is falling. 

Copper is an excellent gauge of worldwide economic activity since it's used in almost all manufactured goods and has no price-constraining cartel on the supply side or legal restrictions on demand. Copper prices are down about 16 per cent since June.

2. The strengthening [US] dollar is increasing the local currency cost of commodity imports in developing as well as advanced economies, and I forecast the greenback, the world's primary reserve currency, will continue to appreciate. Of my broad list of 45 commodities, 42 trade in US dollars. High costs cut commodity demand and prices.

3. Chronic excess capacity exists among commodity producers. Fixed costs are high but variable costs low. A major new copper mine costs $US5 billion to $US10 billion to develop, but the variable costs of mining another ton of copper are small. So profits leap after demand and prices are high enough to cover fixed costs. This spurs investment and expansion since miners seem oblivious to the resulting excess capacity and falling prices it spawns.

4. Slowing growth in China is curbing commodity usage as GDP advances drop from double digits before 2007 to 5.8 per cent in the third quarter. China's planned shift from goods exports and infrastructure spending to domestic consumer spending is disruptive. Furthermore, 53 per cent of GDP last year came from low commodity-intensive services, up from 34 per cent in 1995.

China's growth will slow further since its unemployed labour force is nearing exhaustion and because its emulation of Western technology, enhanced by stealing American technology or requiring tech transfers as the price of doing business in China, is over. China, like South Korea before it, is entering the "middle income trap". Furthermore, China's labour pool will shrink in future years as a result of her earlier one child-per-couple policy. The 15-to-64 year-old age group is set to fall from 1 billion in 2015 to 717 million in 2060.

5. As economies grow, proportionally less is spent on commodity-intensive goods and more on services. You can drive only car one at a time, but spend almost unlimited funds on travel, recreation, education and other services. This is true for developed counties like the US where outlays on services climbed from 39 per cent in 1947 to 69 per cent in 2017. It's also true for emerging markets like China, where the services component of GDP rose from 34 per cent in 1995 to 52 per cent in 2017.

6. Globalisation disrupts economic growth in the West to the detriment of commodities. In the last three decades, US manufacturing employment plunged from 17 per cent of total payrolls to 8.5 per cent. Many of those displaced are flipping hamburgers, driving for Uber and employed in other low-paid jobs. The resulting stagnation of real wages has spawned disruptive populism as voters throw out centrist politicians in favour of the far right and extreme left. Furthermore, the deflationary climate sired by globalisation has trained consumers to resist price increases, forcing many sellers to eat rising labour costs and pressure commodity producers.

7. The escalating trade wars disrupt economic growth and commodity demand as uncertain business people postpone capital outlays. Supply chains are also disrupted. Many American companies don't export to China but depend on intermediate goods from that country. In President Donald Trump's initial $US50 billion round of tariffs, 53 per cent were on intermediate imports from China and 50 per cent of the impending $US200 billion second round.

8. Mounting inventories depress commodity prices. Producers can't be sure initially whether weakening demand is momentary or serious and don't want to disrupt production. So inventories climb. After Trump's tariffs curtailed exports of soybeans, stockpiles soared. Lack of pipelines to move oil has created a $US6.75 per barrel discount for oil in Texas' Permian Basin compared to West Texas Intermediate crude at $US52 per barrel and excess inventories. Similarly, Western Canada Select oil from oil sands in Alberta is discounted $US34 to WTI.

9. The realisation that a peak in oil demand, not supply, is in the cards as rising supplies of natural gas and LNG as well as renewables replace oil. Renewables such as hydro, wind and solar accounted for only 12.1 per cent of electricity generation last year, but the IEA forecasts them to account for 56 per cent of new generating capacity through 2025.

Due to conservation including more efficient vehicles, energy conservation per dollar of economic activity since 2017 declined by 43 per cent in Canada, 61 per cent in the US, 48 per cent in Japan and 70 per cent in the UK. Mushrooming electric vehicle sales will slash crude demand since transportation accounts for about half of oil use and autos are around half of that, or 25 per cent of the total.

10. Real commodity prices, or those after taking inflation into account, fall steadily in the long run as efficiency, substitute and human ingenuity consistently beat temporary shortages. Major wars cause only temporary spikes.

DYI:  The possibility of recession as this year unfolds is growing by the day.  So far only credit spreads between high quality corporate bonds and high yielding bonds of the same maturity have widened signaling a slowdown in the economy.  However yield inversion between the 2 year T-note and the 10 year bond grows closer adding fuel to the possible 2019 recession.

So hold onto your hats and cash better values lie ahead!

DYI