The New Nifty Fifty + Peak Reopening and Is Stock Leadership Rotating from Large Growth to Small Value?
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Commentary The New Nifty Fifty + Peak Reopening And Is Stock Leadership Rotating from Large Growth to Small Value? KEY TAKEAWAYS • Today’s largest stocks bear a striking resemblance to—and in some ways differ markedly from—yesteryear’s Nifty Fifty. Jurrien Timmer • At the same time, we may be seeing a rotation in market leadership, albeit perhaps Director of Global Macro paused, from large cap growth to small cap value stocks. Fidelity Global Asset Allocation • I see the economy as near “peak reopening,” and I think the stock market is near “peak rate of change,” i.e., continued growth but at a diminishing rate. • At some point, the Federal Reserve may need to decide whether to intervene or to allow real yields to be set by the capital markets. Nifty Fifty Redux With large cap growth stocks back in the lead in recent weeks—propelling the S&P 500 to fresh all-time highs in the process—I figured now would be a good time to take a look at what I’ll call the new Nifty Fifty. (For those who’ve forgotten, the original Nifty Fifty were a handful of high-growth blue chips of the 1960s and ‘70s that withstood even the vicious 1973–1974 bear market.) I entertained this topic last summer, but a lot has happened since then. We can get a sense of similarity among historical patterns by comparing, in percentage terms, the relative return of the S&P 500’s 50 largest stocks (by market capitalization) versus the remaining 450 over time (Exhibit 1). The data shows that, over the long term, mega cap stocks have tended to lag the market, presumably because they have by and large been a bit ... boring: quality stocks with high price-earnings (P/E) ratios and steady but unexciting earnings growth. But interspersed along that declining trendline have been a few periods of notable mega cap leadership. EXHIBIT 1: Mega caps may lag, but when they’ve led, they’ve led. The original Nifty Fifty era consisted of so-called S&P 500’s Top 50 versus Bottom 450 Stocks, 1962–2020 one-decision stocks (i.e., bought, not sold), while the 1990s’ dot-com tech stock boom and bubble ran S&P 50 vs. 450 Trendline +20% +30% +35% afoul of “irrational exuberance.” Current mega cap Relative Performance 1.40 dominance has, I think, been driven largely by demand for free cash flow (FCF) in a world of slow growth and low interest rates, which seems to me something somewhat different from either of the prior episodes. 0.70 I think it’s still too early to tell, but this current era may have come to an end last fall. Following the 2020 U.S. presidential vote, many market observers sensed a new secular regime of coordinated (some might say activist) fiscal and monetary policy. With this shift, 0.35 1962 1972 1982 1992 2002 2012 2021 combined with the post-peak pandemic reopening of the economy, mega caps took a fairly decisive turn S&P 500’s top 50 and bottom 450 stocks as ranked by market capitalization. in relative return. From election day 2020 through Shaded bars indicate recessions. Source: Fidelity Investments, with special thanks to Fidelity senior market data analyst Sam Houston-Read; monthly the end of March 2021, the S&P’s top 50 largest data, rebalanced monthly, as of 4/30/21. stocks underperformed the bottom 450 by around 15 percentage points—after having outperformed by close to 50 points since 2014. The leftward section of Exhibit 1 charts the original The new Nifty Fifty made up roughly 55% of the Nifty Fifty era, the middle shows the dot-com bubble, S&P 500’s total market cap at the end of March 2021 and towards the right we have the current regime. (Exhibit 2), down from this cycle’s peak of about 58%. The constituency has changed over time—and there was never any “official” list—but a surprising number of agreed-upon nifty have survived, including AT&T, EXHIBIT 2: Have Nifty Fifty Fortunes Turned? Johnson & Johnson, and what is now Citigroup. S&P 500 Top 50 versus Bottom 450 Stocks And while recent leadership has been dominated S&P 50 vs. 500 S&P 450 vs. 500 by Microsoft and the FAANGs (Facebook, Amazon, Percent of Market Cap Apple, Netflix and Google/Alphabet), 1972’s Nifty 70% 67% 66% Fifty, topped by IBM, included many digital and electronics companies—along with several “techs” 60% 60% 58% 57% of the times, innovators such as Xerox, Eastman 55% 54% Kodak, General Electric, and, further outside the 52% box, American Express, 3M, and, of course, The Walt 50% Disney Company (which has always striven to stay 47% 46% ahead of its time). Nor have consumer desires changed 43% 45% all that much. Today’s mobile devices, while marvelous, 40% 42% 39% deliver the same functions prioritized in 1972: 33% 34% telephone (AT&T), TV (GE), camera (Kodak), computer 30% power (IBM), and shopping portal (Walmart). 1962 1972 1982 1992 2002 2012 2021 Shaded bars indicate recession. Top and bottom stocks ranked by market The mega cap growth environment in place since 2014 capitalization. Source: Fidelity Investments; monthly data, monthly rebalance, is the third such regime in six decades. 1/1/62–3/31/21. The New Nifty Fifty + Peak Reopening | 2 That high was just shy of the 60% seen in 2000 and is that mega caps’ outperformance since 2014 was well shy of 1973’s 66% max. Sector-wise, at peak the supported by an (almost) equally strong gain in relative “growthier” sectors made up 72% of the top 50 largest earnings. So, one might argue that, unlike what was stocks and only 30% of the bottom 450, percentages happening in 1998–2000, current mega cap leadership well in line with the 2000 extreme. On the flip side, has been justified by improving fundamentals and, if the more value-oriented sectors represented a mere so, may prove more sustainable. 10% of the top 50 while making up 52% of the bottom Of course, this doesn’t tell us whether or not the new 450. (By definition, all three iterations of the Nifty Nifty Fifty’s six-year dominance ended a few months Fifty have been growth-oriented, but I am using the back but it at least says to me we might not be in value/growth categorizations broadly because what the midst of a full-on valuation bubble. This in turn is considered growth today—technology, health care, suggests to me that even if the market is undergoing communication services—is not necessarily what was a secular shift toward small cap and value stocks, considered growth 50 years ago.) we may well avoid a repeat of mega cap growth’s While in terms of overall performance and sector catastrophic underperformance that followed the 2000 composition today’s Nifty Fifty look a lot like the peak. Without the havoc of a bursting valuation bubble, high-fliers of the late 1990s, the two eras exhibit quite I think we could potentially enjoy a smoother ride on different relative valuations. Back in 2000, the S&P’s the way to value and small cap stock leadership. 50 largest stocks traded at 40.5 times earnings while So, where might we find ourselves in the size/style the bottom 450 traded at a much lower P/E of 19.9x. rotation? Taking the secular bull markets of 1949–1968 That gap closed completely, though, during the 53% and 1982–2000 as analogs, I believe we may have bear-market downdraft created by the tech bubble’s reached the broader market’s “peak rate of change,” implosion (Exhibit 3). meaning the market may continue to climb but do Compare those figures with what we saw this past so at a diminishing rate. When I run the data, I see March: The S&P’s top 50 stocks traded at about a 30x evidence of a slowing second-order derivative within P/E multiple while the bottom 450 traded at a P/E of long-term uptrends; if my view is correct, the current 31x: no huge gap this time around. My conclusion cycle may represent more of a “rising tide lifts all boats” dynamic than something from the zero-sum days of the early 2000s. EXHIBIT 3: Reality may be less warped than one might think. And, indeed, I think that view fits with the market S&P Top 50 versus Bottom 450: P/E and Performance environment of these past few months: a broadening tape where some styles and sectors do better than S&P 50 vs. 450, Total Return P/E Premium (Discount) Trendline others (same as ever), but this time without a lot of 120% 1.40 total-market blood in the streets (Exhibit 4). 80% Peak reopening? Despite all the foregoing, mega caps have reasserted 40% 0.70 leadership over the past few weeks, which may have hit pause on the rotation from large growth to small 0% value. This change raises the important question of whether the market has fully discounted the post- -40% 0.35 pandemic economic grand reopening. Remember: 1962 1972 1982 1992 2002 2012 2021 Getting the cycle “right” is not just about having Shaded bars indicate recession. Source: Fidelity Investments; monthly data, a sense of what should come next but also of the monthly rebalance, 1/1/62–3/31/21. information reflected in the market’s price. The New Nifty Fifty + Peak Reopening | 3 EXHIBIT 4: Recent events have not unraveled absolute returns.