Macro Research

Value leadership is back – The shield against high inflation and policy rate hike

Value was the rock in the equity storm last year. After a decade of being the underdog, Value investing has finally reclaimed pole position. We like US Value and expect the outperformance against Growth to continue.

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  • Published on 14 Jan 2023

Value leadership is back – The shield against high inflation and policy rate hike | Open a FREE FSMOne account and manage all your investments conveniently in ONE place

  • US Value has fared well during periods of high inflation. Since 1975, US Value stocks tend to outperform Growth stocks in the 12-month and 24-month after headline CPI surpasses 3% for a sustained period of time.
  • US Value have also fared well during rate hike cycles, even when the Fed pauses. Since 1975, there have been eight major rate hike cycles and US Value has outperformed in four of them. While an end to the current rate hike cycle may be near, a Fed pause until 2024, would mean tight monetary policy year-round and a long runway for Value to shine.
  • US Value and Growth performance have closely tracked US financial conditions. Tighter financial conditions tends to drive broad equity weakness but Value is likely to display greater resilience.
  • Entering 2023, we continue to see merits in US Value as performance should be supported by the macro backdrop of high inflation, rate hikes, and tighter financial conditions. Value remains our preferred approach for exposure to US equities. We recommend the JPMorgan Funds - US Value A (acc) USD.

Value was the rock in the equity storm last year. After a decade of being the underdog, Value investing has finally reclaimed pole position and Growth investing has taken a backseat. While this is largely a global phenomenon, the outperformance was most prominent in the US where Value fell by a mere -7% last year, defying the market gyrations, while Growth sank by -32% (Chart 1). This has validated our call for Value over Growth (in April and September 2022) and US Value (in May 2022) last year as well as our inclusion of value exposure in our portfolios.

Value leadership is a view we continue to hold entering 2023, especially for the US equity markets. In this article, we examine US Value’s performance during a backdrop of high inflation, policy rate hikes (including a fed pause), and tighter financial conditions. This is the backdrop we expect in 2023, and we show how data supports a US Value outperformance.

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Chart 1: The outperformance between US Value and Growth is the most prominent globally

 

1. Outperformance during high inflation 


The Value factor has fared well during periods of high inflation, often outperforming its Growth counterpart, and US Value is no exception. Since 1975 (when data for US Value and Growth indices were available), whenever the US headline CPI surpasses 3% for a sustained period of more than a quarter, US Value stocks tend to outperform Growth stocks in the 12-month and 24-month after (Table 1). There have been eight periods where headline CPI exceeded 3% (including the current period; headline CPI exceeded 3% in April 2021) and Value has outperformed in six of them. During these eight periods, US Value’s return was also mostly positive in both the 12-month and 24-month after.

Table 1: US Value stocks tend to outperform Growth stocks in the 12-month and 24-month after headline CPI surpassed 3%


The strong performance can be attributed to the underlying exposure of US Value indices, which has a long-standing overweight (relative to US Growth indices) on inflation-sensitive sectors such as financials, energy, industrials, and materials. These sectors tend to perform well during periods when inflation is high and/or rising. In the financials sector, the profitability of banks and many other financial institutions are linked to interest rates, which are influenced by policy decisions that is ultimately shaped by inflation levels. In the energy and materials sectors, the revenue of many companies is positively linked to commodity prices, which tend to appreciate with higher inflation.

In addition, during these periods, Value tends to benefit from inflation-hedging flows and the re-allocation from Growth stocks. Unless US inflation dips drastically in 2023, surpassing consensus’ expectations (unlikely scenario in our opinion), positioning in Value will likely remain elevated, supporting Value’s performance.

2. Outperformance during rate hike cycles, including Fed pauses


US Value has also fared well during rate hike cycles, even when the Fed took a pause. As rate hikes are often set in motion by persistently high inflation, the results are fairly similar to our observations above. Since 1975, there have been eight major rate hike cycles by the Fed (including the current cycle which started in March 2022), measured from the first hike to the first cut to capture the performance during a Fed pause (Table 2). 

Across these eight cycles, US Value has outperformed in five of them. In fact, two of the cycles (’88 – ’89 and ’94 – ‘95) which saw underperformance were the result of an early Value rally, which took off before policy rates were raised. Both rallies eventually fizzled out near the tail end of the hiking cycle. In both cases, US Value outperformed but earlier in the cycle. 

In our opinion, the only instance where US Value truly underperformed was during the ’15 – ’19 hiking cycle where the inflation backdrop was considerably milder (average headline CPI was 1.9%) and US growth stocks demonstrated stellar performance. While we may be nearing an end to the current rate hike cycle, a Fed pause until 2024 would mean tight monetary policy year-round and a long runway for Value to shine.

Table 2: US Value stocks tend to outperform Growth stocks during rate hike cycles, including a Fed pause, particularly if the average inflation level are high 

Chart 2: A visual display of table 2 – US Value-Growth performance during rate hikes and the corresponding inflation levels 

 
Similarly, US Value’s returns were mostly positive during these eight rate hike cycles, with the exception being the ’99 – ’95 cycle. This strong performance can be attributed to Value indices’ shorter equity duration exposure on aggregate, as Value-oriented companies tend to generate the bulk of their cash flow in the near future. On the contrary, Growth-oriented companies tend to generate the bulk of their cash flow far out in the future, which results in a much higher equity duration on aggregate. A shorter aggregate duration makes Value-oriented equities less sensitive to changes in policy rates and consequently, less susceptible to a rate-driven valuation contraction like what US growth stocks experienced last year.

With US Value’s tendency to outperform its Growth counterpart during periods with elevated inflation and rate hikes, we believe that the ongoing outperformance can be sustained as US Value will likely remain the more resilient play entering 2023. This is anchored by our macro view that inflation will remain high and Fed fund rates should stay elevated with no rate cuts in 2023.

3. Outperformance during tighter financial conditions 


US Value - Growth performance has closely tracked US financial conditions (influenced by interest rates, equity prices, credit spreads, and USD strength) in recent years. A tightening of US financial conditions tends to drive broad equity weakness regardless of the stock’s orientation to Value or Growth. That said, the former tends to display greater resilience, especially if tighter financial conditions were driven predominantly by higher policy rates. 

This is observed during 4Q 21 to 4Q 22, when US financial conditions troughed in November 2021 (96.9) and peaked in October 2022 (100.96) after the Fed expeditiously hiked policy rates during that 12 months. As tighter financial conditions hurt Growth stocks more, US Value outperformed during this period, declining by -14% while the former collapsed by -35%.

Chart 3: US Value - Growth performance has closely tracked US financial conditions


 
As we enter 2023, we expect US financial conditions to remain tight, suggesting a continuation of US Value outperformance. In the first half of the year, policy rate hikes till the terminal rate of 5% - 5.25% should keep financial conditions tight. Beyond that, even with a pause in policy rate hikes, we see the possibility of financial conditions tightening for the remainder of the year.  

If economic growth and earnings decelerate before or during a recession (which is our base case), we think another leg down in equity markets and a widening of credit spreads is likely to keep US financial conditions tight mechanically. Above and beyond, we believe the Fed is motivated to tighten or keep financial conditions tight to cool the economy and rein in inflation. This is a view Powell and many policymakers repeatedly expressed last year and will likely carry over this year considering the current inflation backdrop.

US Value leadership to continue


Entering 2023, we continue to see merits in US Value as equity performance should be supported by the macro environment of high inflation, a continuation of tight US monetary policy, and tight financial conditions. While the macro backdrop has been unkind to US Growth, and will likely remain this way for a while – we have not completely discarded Growth stocks. For Growth exposure, we believe it is prudent for investors to remain selective. We prefer high quality Growth names given the strong balance sheets and earnings resiliency, which we believe can help to weather the recessionary storm. 

Aside from the macro reasons, we also like US Value for its attractive valuations, relatively stronger earnings fundamentals, and the underlying companies. To conclude, US Value remains our pick when seeking exposure to US equities, aside from a US Quality-focused approach. We recommend the JPMorgan Funds - US Value A (acc) SGD which not only offers strong exposure to the Value factor but also incorporates a quality screen to select high-quality Value-oriented companies. 

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The Research Team is part of iFAST Financial Pte Ltd


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