Valuation Slump.

Bloomberg article from yesterday about the long valuation slump of US equities.  {Excerpt with my highlights.}

U.S. Stocks in Longest Valuation Slump Since Nixon

QBy Inyoung Hwang and Whitney Kisling 

Valuations for U.S. equities have been stuck below the five-decade average for the longest period since Richard Nixon’s presidency, a sign investors don’t trust earnings even after a three-year bull market.  Analysts estimate profits in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will reach a record $104.78 this year after increasing 125 percent since the end of 2009, the fastest expansion in a quarter century, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. American companies are boosting income so much that even after stocks doubled, the S&P 500 hasn’t traded above its 16.4 mean ratio for 446 days, the longest stretch since the 13 years beginning in 1973.

Battered by the 14 percent decline in the S&P 500 since 2000, the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and the so-called flash crash 21 months ago, investors are staying away from stocks, even after record profits, 10 quarters of U.S. economic growth and promises by the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates near zero through 2014. Of the $37 trillion erased from global equities in the credit crisis, $24 trillion has been restored.....

......The S&P 500 trades for 13.7 times profits. It was last above the mean valuation since 1954 on May 13, 2010, less than a week after $862 billion was erased from U.S. equity values in 20 minutes, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The slump has surpassed the two longest periods of the last quarter century, in 2008 and 1988.

Profits for the 169 companies in the S&P 500 that reported earnings since Jan. 9 have risen 3.2 percent from a year earlier and beat analyst projections by 2.9 percent, the data show......Companies in the S&P 500 earned $657 billion in the first nine months of 2011, including $225.2 billion between April and June, the most for any quarter in at least 12 years. That’s 72 percent more than the comparable period in 2008. U.S. GDP, which grew at a slower-than-forecast 2.8 percent rate in the fourth quarter, totals about $13.4 trillion, data compiled by Bloomberg and the Commerce Department show.....

....The last two times the S&P 500 slumped below its historic average, equities rallied. The benchmark index is up 42 percent since it climbed above the five-decade mean in June 2009. It spent 14 months below the average level from August 1988 through October 1989 before quadrupling within eight years starting in October 1990, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

......Multiples for the benchmark gauge rose as high as 13.82 this year. Should earnings match analyst forecasts and climb to $104.78 a share, the index would have to reach 1,718.39 to trade at the average ratio of 16.4, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s more than 30 percent above its last close.  The U.S. economy has expanded by an average of 2.4 percent a quarter since 2009. While that helped push the S&P 500 up 95 percent, the index’s price-earnings multiple is down 43 percent. The decline is part of a decade-long retreat in U.S. equity valuations since the S&P 500 peaked at 31.2 times earnings in December 1999......

....Customers of U.S. stock mutual funds have pulled out more than $146 billion since May 2010 as the S&P 500’s valuation shrunk by as much as 33 percent.The longest valuation slump lasted from June 1973 through January 1986, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The start coincided with the Watergate scandal that led to Nixon’s resignation and the Arab oil embargo, marking the end of a three-year bull market as shares declined 32 percent over 16 months.....

......Analysts say the current slump is different from the one that started more than 38 years ago. Equities face less competition from fixed-income investments and inflation compared with the 1970s and 1980s. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note peaked at a record 15.84 percent on Sept. 30, 1981. The consumer price index surged during the oil crisis in 1973, rising from 2.7 percent in June of 1972 to 12.3 by the end of 1974. It peaked at 14.8 percent in March 1980.  Today, the 10-year yield is 1.89 percent and touched an all-time low of 1.67 percent four months ago. Consumer prices increased 3 percent from the previous year in December, according to Labor Department data......

Link:  Bloomberg:  Valuation Slump.

*Long ETFs related to the S&P 500 in client and personal accounts.