Low Quality Playbook, Ripped Off Band-Aids In Small Cap, Consumer Stabilization

Today in the podcast, a few thoughts on the composition of the snap back in stocks, where the earnings band-aid may have been ripped off within Small Cap, and the thing that caught our eye in our sentiment indicators. Three big things you need to know: First, low quality has started to work within Large Cap, something that’s frustrating investors, but began for Small Cap in June and typically happens after stocks have found their mid recession bottom. Second, we’ve been getting asked by Small Cap investors about where earnings sentiment has been most depressed within the Russell 2000 – similar to Large Cap it’s a number of key consumer/Tech/cyclical groups. Third, what jumped out most in terms of our sentiment indicators last week is that consumers of all political affiliations are feeling a little bit better in August, helping consumer sentiment stabilize a bit in the University of Michigan survey.