TAKING STOCK: 2021 Equity Market Outlook

Moving past unprecedented. Positive COVID-19 vaccine news in the final months of 2020 has markets looking to 2021 with optimism — and hope for a return to something more “normal.” Highlights of our outlook for the start of the new year. Vaccine progress is a key market driver. We see a value resurgence with near-term staying power. Stock-level dispersion and leadership rotation augur well for active.

The final quarter of 2020 will be remembered for many reasons, but perhaps none more consequential than the realization of at least three viable COVID-19 vaccines. Markets were cheered by the prospect of an end to the global pandemic and its weighty economic impact. Cyclical value stocks, those most beaten down in the COVID crisis, staged a late-year surge over growth stocks. We see value equities positioned for continued gains, but do not count out those growth companies with dominant and emerging business models that can continue to meet or exceed lofty shareholder expectations.

Many investors retreated to cash in a year of extraordinary uncertainty. We could see more assets make their way to equities in 2021 amid a market-friendly election outcome and a light at the end of the COVID tunnel. A resumption of buyback activity is another potential driver. The Windsor Global Fund upgraded its pro-risk stance towards a tactical overweight on equities strong returns.

Are there risks out there? Of course. But there is also cash on the sidelines, pent-up demand and a vaccine in flight — “potential for a roaring 2021.” Americans sitting on more cash U.S. personal saving rate over the past five years. The saving rate has increased 122% since 2019.

This year’s turning of the calendar may be the most anticipated and welcomed of any in modern memory. After a fateful year that seemed to pack a decade of market and economic activity into 12 months, we see some key dynamics that may be ripe for rotation in 2021 — and others that are likely to stay with us for a while.

1. Ripe for rotation

Active reactivated the period following the Global Financial Crisis was generally marked by a steadily rising tide that lifted all boats. By the end of 2019, the S&P 500 Index had risen nearly 500% from its March 9, 2009 bottom. The U.S. economy delivered relatively stable and modest growth, fueled by easy monetary policy and low interest rates, while low inflation allowed the pattern to press on. As 2020 began, the cycle was aging, and the stage set for greater stock-level dispersion. Then COVID-19 hastened the cycle’s end and ushered in a new recession/recovery, a backdrop that is already revealing winners and losers. This sets up a fertile backdrop for active stock picking. In and around recessions, markets tend to get concentrated. We saw that in extreme fashion in 2020, as the top five S&P 500 constituents generated 127% of the index’s return during the first nine months of the year. It is natural for that concentration to wane as the economy emerges from its downturn. We expect investors to begin to step beyond the “obvious winners” and deploy cash into beaten-down sectors and stocks that could benefit in recovery (see point #2). This is where active investing can have an upper hand over index tracking.

2. Value comeback

Price did not matter for most of 2020 — at least not in the conventional sense. Investors were not seeking low valuations. Growth stocks supercharged by low interest rates, digitization, work from home and other pandemic-related trends were continuously bid up and led the market higher. It was not until November, with positive vaccine news and election relief, that value took the mantle. Make no mistake: Long-term growth is important and a big driver of earnings and stock returns. But in the near-term, we see an opportunity for value investors. While some growth businesses may be permanently accelerated by COVID, for others, the 2020 bump was a temporary pull-forward of demand. We had put software and e-commerce in the former category and select consumer electronics in the latter. Cyclical value stocks, those with ties to economic growth and low valuations, have been most depressed and should enjoy a larger bounce with market and economic recoveries.

In fact, changes in leadership are common arising out of recessions, with value tending to outperform in the early stages of recovery, as shown in the chart below. Corporate earnings comparisons also could matter more in 2021. Many value cyclicals will have an easier time beating dismal 2020 figures versus growth companies with a much higher bar to pass to impress investors. Then there are buybacks, which slowed dramatically in 2020 and should resume in 2021. Buybacks are more accretive for value stocks, as buying shares at lower valuations (removing them from the market) has a greater proportionate impact on the value of the remaining shares Value has dominated coming out of recessions Value stocks’ excess return over broad index, 24 months after recession bear market.

3. Dividends to deliver

Dividend investing fell short in 2020, even as the storyline seemed clear cut: Declining bond yields should have created demand for income-oriented stocks. Dividend cuts arguably scared investors away. The good news is that S&P 500 dividend cuts peaked in May and have since stabilized. We expect dividend growth to resume in 2021 as vaccine distribution and greater clarity in general give company managements the confidence to release excess cash in the form of dividends and buybacks. With interest rates around the world set to stay low for longer, company dividends are likely to provide better income than bonds for some time. In addition, companies can — and many often do — increase their dividends whereas bond coupons are fixed to maturity. Dividend growth that compounds over time is a compelling proposition in an environment of sub-1% U.S. Treasury yields. Tax considerations matter as well. Most equity income is taxed at a capital gains rate that is lower than the ordinary income tax rate paid by bondholders. And divided government means a low likelihood for tax changes that could have seen the dividend tax rate nearly double to more than 40% for some investors. One final tailwind for dividend stocks: Many of the COVID beneficiaries are low-dividend payers. That leaves a gap for dividend growers to fill, even as appetite for these growth engines continues. Dividend benefit compounds across time.

Divided government

The outcome of the U.S. election certainly brings change. But at the core, the country will continue to operate with divided government — and that is generally pleasing to investors. It sets the stage for a “not too hot, not too cold” scenario. Big policy changes will be difficult to pass, providing a measure of stability that markets like. Yet Congress has also shown it can act in an emergency, evidenced in two COVID relief packages in 2020. This does not rule out the type of drama and uncertainty that could stoke bouts of volatility, but we’d expect such episodes to be transitory.

Rates low, valuations high

Interest rates are likely to stay low for longer. Central banks and governments around the world are committed to seeing their economies through the crisis and recovery. A low-rate environment translates to a higher equity multiple. It also makes equities more rate-dependent, in that investors will only stick with stocks for as long as the risk/reward favors the riskier asset class. This also implies that inflation will be a bigger issue for equities. Aggressive policy is seeding future inflation, which could compel a change in rate policy. While not a 2021 issue, rates and inflation bear watching by equity investors over a three- to five-year horizon.

Strength in tech and healthcare

Notwithstanding our outlook for a value resurgence, we see good reason to stick with key sectors that worked in 2020, particularly technology and healthcare. Tech will still be the place to tap high growth potential. Low rates also help those stocks with longer duration — and tech is just that. The healthcare sector was strengthened by the election outcome, with low likelihood of sweeping policy changes in a divided Congress. Healthcare stocks also boast relatively attractive valuations and vaccine discovery highlights the innovation prowess of the industry. Overall, we like a barrelled strategy to balance structural growers with cyclical exposures that could benefit as the economy heals. We also favour a goals-oriented approach to sector selection: Seeking quality in your portfolio? We like healthcare. For value, our focus is on energy and financials, and for growth, our sights turn to technology.

“We have a positive medium-term outlook for economies and corporate earnings. We’re in the early post-recession recovery phase of the cycle, which implies an extended period of low-inflation, low-interest rate growth that favors equities over bonds.”

2020 was a year of surprises. There was the speed at which the pandemic escalated, the severity of the lockdowns, the size of the government stimulus measures globally, and the magnitude of the equity market rebounds. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that global equities, as of late November, have gained around 12% since the beginning of the year—an outcome few would have predicted during a global pandemic. With the US elections behind us and effective vaccines on the way, investors have become bullish, pushing the S&P 500® Index to record highs.

Likewise, we have a positive medium-term outlook for economies and corporate earnings. We are in the early post-recession recovery phase of the cycle. This implies an extended period of low-inflation, low-interest rate growth that favors equities over bonds. There are some near-term risks, however. Investor sentiment has become overly optimistic following the vaccine announcements, markets vulnerable to negative news. This could include renewed lockdowns in Europe and North America as virus cases escalate, logistical difficulties in distributing the vaccine and negative economic growth in early 2021 if government support measures are unwound too quickly. Geopolitics could also deliver negative surprises from China, Iran or Russia as the new Biden administration takes power in the U.S.

Our cycle, value, and sentiment (CVS) investment decision-making process scores global equities as expensive (with the very expensive U.S. market offsetting better value elsewhere), sentiment as overbought and the cycle as supportive. This leaves us slightly cautious on the near-term outlook, but moderately positive for the medium-term with expensive valuation offset by the positive cycle outlook.

Overall, we see the following asset class implications for 2021:

• Equities should outperform bonds. 
• Long-term bond yields should rise, though with steeper yield curves likely limited by continued low inflation and central banks remaining on hold.
• The U.S. dollar will likely weaken given its countercyclical nature.
• Non-U.S. equities to outperform given their more cyclical nature and relative valuation advantage over U.S. stocks.
• The value equity factor to outperform the growth factor. 

A return to normal by the second half of the year should help extend the rotation that began in early November away from technology/growth leadership toward cyclical valued stocks. During the COVID-19 pandemic, technology and growth stocks enjoyed tailwinds from a boost to earnings and lower discount rates. These tailwinds should become headwinds once a vaccine is available and lockdowns have been eased. This should allow the normal early-cycle recovery dynamics to resume, with investors rotating towards relatively cheaper value and non-U.S. stocks that will benefit from the return to more normal economic activity.

The major economies have escaped the pandemic and lockdowns with relatively little long-term economic damage thanks to substantial monetary and fiscal support. Wage subsidies and job retention schemes have prevented unemployment rates from rising significantly in most countries. In the United States, corporate bankruptcies and delinquency rates on consumer loans were lower in the September quarter than the same period in 2019. The hospitality, tourism, transport, and retail sectors have been hit hard, but the overall balance sheet damage to corporates and households has been relatively limited despite the large lockdowns.

The most notable damage from the pandemic is rising government debt. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects that gross government debt for the G71 economies will rise by 23% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020. High debt makes government finances vulnerable to rising interest rates. This is unlikely to be a significant problem in the next couple of years, but it will matter when spare capacity is eventually exhausted, and inflation starts to rise.

There is speculation that governments will soon start to trim deficits through tax hikes and lower spending, slowing the recovery. This seems unlikely anytime soon. The two charts below show that despite the increase in debt levels, net interest expenses are projected to trend lower for all the major economies. By 2023, Japanese government net interest payments are expected to be close to zero, despite gross debt more than 250% of GDP. Two-thirds of Japanese government debt has a negative yield.

Governments will come under pressure to reduce deficits only after bond yields rise meaningfully and markets question debt sustainability. We expect fiscal austerity and tighter monetary policy are still some years away. “Our cycle, value and sentiment (CVS) investment decision-making process scores global equities as expensive, sentiment as overbought and the cycle as supportive.”

The announcement of a successful COVID-19 vaccine in early November has led to tentative signs of a market rotation away from technology-heavy growth stocks towards more cyclical value stocks. Technology stocks received two benefits from the lockdowns. The first was the boost to earnings as consumers worked from home, spent online, and made technology purchases. The second was from the decline in government bond yields. Technology stocks are regarded as long-duration as they are expected to grow their earnings over the longer term. The decline in bond yields made the present value of those future earnings more valuable.

The rotation away from technology stocks is likely to continue into 2021. The boost to tech-stock earnings from the lockdowns has peaked and there could be a demand shortfall in coming quarters since the pandemic brought some technology spending forward. Higher bond yields will also be a headwind for tech stocks. In contrast, the global recovery and higher bond yields should help value and cyclical stocks. Financial stocks are heavily weighted in value indices, and we expect these will benefit from higher margins as yield curves steepen, and from stronger revenues as credit growth improves. In late 2020, banks, globally, are trading at a large discount to the broader market.

The post-vaccine recovery outlook should also help non-U.S. markets outperform the U.S. The S&P 500 is overweight the technical and healthcare stocks that dominate the stock market, while the rest of the world has more of the financial and cyclical stocks that make up the value factor. Investors are likely to favor the relatively cheaper value and non-U.S. stocks that will benefit from the return to more normal economic activity.

The vaccine announcements and passing of US uncertainty have removed two of the near-term worry points about the outlook. The major risk now is the amount of investor optimism since the vaccine announcements. Our composite contrarian sentiment indicator is not yet at the overbought threshold in early December, but it is getting close. Investors are positioned for upside gains, which makes markets vulnerable to disappointing news. This could come from the current upswing in virus cases and a potential demand shortfall in early 2021 as government support programs expire and are not renewed. In particular:

• Infection rates are picking up across the United States. Schools have been closed in New York and there is a growing risk of more widespread lockdowns.
• Although infection rates are coming down in Europe following the recent lockdowns, there is the risk of a renewed spike in infections in early 2021 as lockdowns are eased.
• It seems likely that the Republicans will retain control of the U.S. Senate in 2021, making a further fiscal stimulus package subject to difficult negotiations with Democrats in the incoming Biden administration. A stimulus package may be small and delayed until late Q1, creating the risk of negative GDP growth in the first quarter of 2021.

The other risk for equity markets in 2021 is rising bond yields. Equity markets can often navigate rising bond yields if the reason is better prospects for economic growth, but a rise in excess of 50 basis points may provide a test. Technology stocks received a large boost to valuation from lower discount rates. The large tech stocks make up around 25% of the S&P 500 capitalization. They have accounted for almost all the gains in the overall market for 2020 through November. A bond market-led reversal in tech stocks could stall the overall market even if the remaining 75% of the S&P 500 makes post-pandemic gains.

We remain bullish about the economic outlook. There likely will be two distinct phases to the path forward. The first, over the northern winter months, appears challenging. COVID-19 infections are exploding across the country and leading to partial, localized lockdowns again. These lockdowns are a far cry from April when 95% of Americans were under stay-at-home orders, but the measures should slow the pace of positive economic performance into year-end. The post-vaccine period should deliver another strong, V-leg for the recovery that delivers real GDP growth more than 5% in 2021. Vaccines should allow dislocated sectors (e.g., restaurants, travel, hotels) to bounce back strongly in the second half of 2021.

Meanwhile, the Fed continues to maintain an ultra – accommodative policy stance. Even with our expectation for a robust 2021, the Fed’s focus on generating an inflation overshoot will leave plenty of runway for the expansion to strengthen and broaden. The three biggest challenges for U.S. investors are the concentration risk in major U.S. equity benchmarks that are skewed toward the stay-at-home mega cap technology stocks; moderately expensive valuations in equity and credit; and an increasingly optimistic industry consensus which has gravitated closer to our macro view.

The second wave of virus infections has reversed the Q3 V-shaped recovery and the region is on track to record negative GDP growth in Q4. The new lockdowns are working, however, and infections across the region peaked in early November. Lockdowns are being eased in some countries heading into Christmas, but the likelihood is that this winter will see ongoing virus outbreaks and renewed lockdowns until a vaccine becomes widely available, possibly by spring. Europe is poised for a strong post-vaccine recovery. Its economy suffered a big hit from the pandemic, so can rebound from a low base. Europe is more exposed to global trade than the U.S. and will be a beneficiary of a recovery in Chinese demand.

After five years of underperformance, we expect the MSCI EMU Index should outperform the S&P 500 in 2021. Europe’s exposure to financials and cyclically sensitive sectors such as industrials, materials and energy, and its small exposure to technology, give it the potential to outperform in the post-vaccine phase of the recovery when economic activity picks up and yield curves steepen.

COVID and Brexit uncertainty have battered the United Kingdom and GDP is on track for an 11% contraction in 2020. The distribution of a vaccine and a Brexit deal could see the UK economy have one of the biggest rebounds in 2021 with GDP bouncing back by 6-7%. Longer-term, the non-tariff barriers on trade in services, even if there is a Brexit deal, will be a drag on growth, but the cyclical forces driving the GDP rebound should dominate over the next couple of years.

The Bank of England is likely to keep rates on hold during the recovery phase and this should keep gilt yields contained, at most rising in line with U.S. Treasuries. The FTSE 100 Index has been the worst-performing regional equity market by a wide margin so far in 2020 through November but could be one of the better performers in 2021. It is cheap relative to other markets and is overweight the financials, materials and cyclical sectors that will benefit most from the global recovery.

Japan’s rebound from the pandemic is likely to lag other developed economies despite its less severe COVID outbreak. This reflects the structural weaknesses that were in place before the pandemic, such as subdued consumption due to the ageing population. Mobility has been slower to recover, reflecting the cautious attitude towards the pandemic from Japan’s older, more vulnerable population.

The policy priorities of the new prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, will be an important watchpoint early next year. Suga has already expressed interest in reforms to improve productivity levels at small and medium enterprises (SME) through subsidizing capital expenditure. This would be an encouraging development, given the low productivity level at Japanese SMEs.

The Olympics, assuming they go ahead in 2021, will still give a boost to the economy although smaller than previously expected given they are likely to be at a reduced scale.

The Chinese economy has returned to almost pre-pandemic output levels—a significant achievement given the depth of the first quarter downturn. The IMF does not expect other large countries to return to pre-COVID economic levels until at least 2022.

Consumption has played catch-up to production and this is important for the outlook for government policy. The Chinese government has a focus on the concept of dual circulation which aims to rebalance the economy towards domestic demand and away from reliance on exports and capital investment. The government believes this transition is needed to ensure that China does not fall into the middle-income trap.

The government and People’s Bank of China have been discussing when to start reducing the amount of stimulus. The most likely outcome is a continuation of the hand-over from monetary policy to fiscal stimulus. Fiscal policy should remain supportive through 2021. More stimulus may be announced at the National People’s Congress meeting (likely in March 2021) as the government continues to support consumption.

The trade war between the U.S. and China should be less heated under President-elect Joe Biden but we do not foresee a return to pre-Trump era relations with China. Two key watchpoints will offer clues to the future of U.S.-China relations. The first will be the initial meeting between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, and subsequent discussions about the future of the current tariffs and the Phase One trade deal. The second watchpoint will be Biden’s attempt (and ability) to forge a multi-country alliance to coerce China into improving access to its markets.

Canada seems likely to be a bigger beneficiary from the post-vaccine rebound than the United States. Unlike the U.S., there are no concerns about political gridlock, and fiscal support is likely to remain in place for as long as needed. Canada’s economy contracted by an annual rate of 13.4% over the first half of 2020 and fiscal policy has been critical to the recovery since then. The near-term risk is that virus cases are rising at a worrying pace, forcing provincial policy makers to reimpose business restrictions.

We expect the Canadian economy will grow by 5% in 2021. Canada’s exposure to commodities, particularly oil, will benefit from the rebound in the global economy. Business investment may be slower to materialize but the housing market and improving commodity prices should serve as the foundation to the recovery. The S&P/TSX Composite Index has lagged the S&P 500 by a wide margin this year. It should recover some of this underperformance in 2021 in line with the global recovery. The Canadian dollar should also rebound in line with its commodity price correlation, with the potential for a $0.79 CAD/USD exchange rate.

Australia and New Zealand have controlled the virus outbreak better than most other countries and, with relatively open economies, are poised to be beneficiaries from the post-vaccine global recovery. A direct benefit of the vaccine will be the return of inbound tourism. This will particularly benefit New Zealand given its reliance on Australian visitors.

The re-election of Jacinda Ardern’s Labor government in New Zealand means a continuation of the supportive fiscal stance for the economy, while in Australia, the Liberal government has committed to deficit spending until the unemployment rate is below 6%. This will not be until 2022, as per their forecasts.

The central banks of both countries have become more aggressive in their accommodation, with the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) undertaking a quantitative easing program and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) implementing a Funding for Lending scheme (under which the RBNZ provides the banks with funds for lending, like the European Central Bank’s targeted longer-term refinancing operations program). Next year will likely see an expansion of the RBA’s quantitative easing (QE) program, and there remains a possibility of negative interest rates in New Zealand.

The recovery in the global economy, led by China, should benefit the equity markets in both countries. The offset, however, is that a return to economic normality will place upward pressure on both the Australian and New Zealand dollars.