Should I Press the PANIC Button? Crypto and Tech Stocks Crash

OK. To say that there’s “blood in the streets” right now, is a blatant understatement.

Not only in the obvious political and economic space,…

But in a truly global umbrella space, affecting us all…. BIG and small.

We’ve been holding our breath, and holding back from expressing our concerns regarding this matter since the turn of the year.

However, after reading this received email piece below, (in conjunction with pure observation of the current world stage) from natural resources investment legend, Marin Katusa, we can no longer keep shut.

The global rout in stock markets has erased $11 trillion in value in just 5 short weeks.

For good reason…

War in Europe
Global inflation
Central bank tightening
Lofty valuations

…All set us up for a crash.

And it’s all happening in Real-Time… Now.

In the United States, the S&P 500 is getting close to bear market territory. As of this writing, it’s down 19% from its 2021 high.

Thanks in large part to massive stimulus packages in the US and abroad…

Valuations were becoming extreme and approaching dotcom valuation points.

Below is the 1-year forward price to earnings ratio for the S&P 500.

Analyst Tip: Recall while it is common to use “trailing P/E” this metric uses the last 12 months of earnings, which is useless. It’s because the stock market doesn’t care what happened last week, it cares about what will happen next week.

Now that Prices and Earnings Matter Again…

The average Price/Earnings Ratio since 1990 is 15.2x.

This means that the market capitalization of companies in the S&P 500 trades at 15.2 times the earnings of companies in the index.

The higher the ratio, the more overvalued the index or stock is.
The lower the ratio, the cheaper or undervalued the stock or index is.

Given all the uncertainty in the world right now, it seems plausible that the S&P 500 should reflect that and should trade at best on par with its historical average.

Though one could certainly make the case it should be trading significantly lower.

Investors around the world are getting defensive…

One way we can look at this is through the ratio of put options purchased to call options purchased.

Investors who are bullish buy calls.

And those who are bearish typically buy puts.

When the ratio is less than 1, it means more call options are being bought than puts and suggests the market is optimistic.
If the ratio is greater than 1, it suggests the market is pessimistic.

The chart below shows the ratio of puts purchased to calls purchased for US, Japanese and European markets.

Around the world, investors are buying more puts on average than usual, with all 3 major markets seeing more put buying than the 10-year average.

Follow the Money Flow…

Diving under the hood of the S&P 500, we can look at the sectors which are receiving the most dollars invested right now.

Again, we can use the forward-looking P/E ratio as a clue.

In the chart below you can see the massive spikes in P/E for the consumer discretionary sector.

This is composed of companies that provide products to consumers which they don’t need to sustain themselves.

Contrary to the consumer discretionary is the consumer staples segment, which includes companies that produce goods which we need on a regular basis.

Today you’ll see that the discretionary group has been crushed, as expectations of future spending on non-required goods falls.

On the other hand, consumer staples are seen as a “safe haven” and money is flooding into the segment. Pushing the P/E ratio up to its highest levels since the dotcom bubble popped.

What are Investors Buying Right Now?

For this, I’ve taken a lot of heat…Insults…

Social media slander…

But I don’t care.

I’ve said it many times and got laughed at. But proven correct: the U.S. Dollar remains a haven.

And I believe will remain so for at least the remainder of the year.

The U.S. Dollar is up 6.4% for the year versus other major currencies.

Whenever I say that I get the counterargument that “cash is losing to inflation”.

That’s true. But the amount of share price destruction is greater, and without cash, an ‘alligator investor’ (like us) cannot pounce on opportunities.

Just like in the past crises Federal Reserve or the U.S. Dollar.

The U.S. Dollar has and remains my currency if choice and it’s where I keep the bulk of my cash. Yes, even though I’m Canadian.

But Marin, Bitcoin Fixes This…

Other “stores of value” such as bitcoin have taken it on the chin.

I have no qualms with bitcoin and consider it an asset class, but I see it more as a risk-on asset, rather than a risk-off.

This is coming to fruition here as it is flirting with a long-term support point at $30,000.

Will it hold? We will see, but things don’t look good in crypto land…

Just like junior resource exploration, stocks that go liquid, if Mother Bitcoin drops further, many crypto coins (and even NFTs) could get illiquid fast.

Stagflation

Stagflation is a topic I have addressed multiple times to my premium subscribers and see this as a continuing trend in the near to medium term.

Stagflation is a deadly combination of above-average inflation coupled with below-average economic growth.

Doesn’t this sound familiar with what we have today?

Sure does to me. But don’t get stuck into a framework.

Right now, though, inflation around the world is high. and well above the target levels of central bankers.

Economic growth is slowing due to the war in Europe, supply chain issues, a stronger U.S. Dollar, and COVID outbreaks in China.

To combat this, bankers are going to try to raise rates and pull back on the flow of “money” to slow inflation.

This is a standard play in the playbook. However, what is not in the playbook is weening the world off the Financially Transmitted Disease known as ZIRP or zero-interest-rate-policy.

The global markets for the past decade are used to, or let me out it differently, addicted to massive amounts of cheap or even free capital.

This era has ended, and many businesses and individuals are not set up to survive a plethora of rising interest rates and a rising U.S. Dollar.

At Katusa Research, Warren Buffet’s two rules apply:

Don’t Lose Money
Don’t Forget Rule #1

The focus is to practice ‘alligator investing discipline’ and how to keep your head while others are losing theirs.

We’ve come to crossroads in many markets, and the most important thing is to own only fundamentally valuable companies and to have CASH available as attack capital.

If you were/are caught off guard in this recent correction…

Want to add some defense to your portfolio, or are looking to gain an edge over the long term…consider learning more about Marin’s research service, Katusa’s Research Opportunities.

[In addition, besides holding Cash (U.S. Dollar) and select junior resource gold investment companies, as Marin suggests, adding ‘safe haven’ Gold IRAs to your savings and long term portfolio fortifies the assurances of a hedge against the current and worsening geo political, financial, and economic global turmoil.]