The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: CB Richard, Fortescue And WPP

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL –April 2, 2019 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: CB Richard Ellis (NYSE:CBRE) , Fortescue Metals (OTC:FSUGY) and WPP (NYSE:WPP) .

Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:

Will U.S. Jobs Bounce Back This Spring?

In the Global Week Ahead, Friday’s nonfarm payroll update for March is the big moment.

Spring is here. The U.S. jobs market can bounce back with it.

• Consensus has +145K for Federal payrolls for Friday’s print.
• ADP’s nonfarm payroll data (+160K) comes out ahead, on Wednesday.
• A weak February labor market saw +20K U.S. jobs created.

In short, the U.S. could witness a burst of pent up hiring activity in March, after a Federal government shutdown and adverse winter weather depressed broad labor market sentiment.

However, one can’t ignore negative signals sent by consumer surveys. The latest Conference Board consumer confidence reading for March reported a sharp deterioration in the measure of jobs availability being reported by consumers.

Wage growth (currently at +3.4% y/y) is another key indicator out with nonfarm payroll data.

Next are five big Reuters world market themes.

These likely dominate thinking of both investors and traders in the Global Week Ahead.

(1) Yield Curve Inversion

Which is it — growth or gloom? With 10-year U.S. bond yields below 3-month T-bill rates for the first time in more than a decade, recession fears are swirling. After all, an inverted yield curve, when longer-dated yields drop below shorter maturities, has proved to be fairly reliable predictors of U.S. recessions in the past. As a result some investors are busy putting cash behind bets the Fed is gearing up for rate cuts.

But there are many who scoff: they point to a world economy chugging along at a decent clip, dovish central banks and company earnings that are still growing, albeit more slowly. So while Treasury yields are down 30 basis points this quarter, world stocks are up more than 10 percent. Recession skeptics may also note that U.S. equities are not far off record highs and credit spreads have retraced most of their December losses.

Also, while past recession discussions have focused on inversions of the 2-year/10-year U.S. curve, that hasn’t reacted so far. Fed policymakers too, such as voting member John Williams (NYSE:WMB), say they are not worried about a recession this year or the next. Others, such as James Bullard, seem to be endorsing the “this time is different” argument, hinting that the curve’s predictive power has weakened.

But policymakers around the world have already taken heed. The ECB has hinted at further rate cut delays and at tiering interest rates to help banks; other central banks, from New Zealand to Canada, are hinting at rate cuts ahead.

(2) Brexit’s End of the Road

No. No. No. No. Parliament’s cold response to Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal so far means the manner of Britain’s exit from the European Union — originally scheduled for March 29 — is unknown.

Brussels has let Britain delay its departure while May battled to find a way forward but there is little enthusiasm in parliament or the population even for the stripped-down version of May’s twice-defeated deal. But lawmakers have also given the thumbs-down to a series of other amendments, including revoking Brexit, delaying it further or holding another referendum.

Dismayed investors have been avoiding the pound but the resulting shortage in trading volumes just exacerbates price swings. The question now is whether the most hardline Conservative euro-skeptics and Northern Ireland’s DUP, the party propping up May’s government, can ever be convinced to back an exit deal before the new April 12 deadline.

If the withdrawal agreement does somehow scrape through, sterling would likely surge above $1.35. For the time being though, the bleak, if unlikely, alternative scenario — a chaotic no-deal departure — persists.

Options markets aren’t optimistic. The price investors are willing to pay for one-month sterling protection — insurance against sterling falls — is at the highest since the 2016 referendum vote.

(3) The ISM Manufacturing Index

U.S. factory job growth was its weakest in February since the summer of 2017 but still managed to extend the streak of monthly gains to 19, the longest in nearly a quarter century. If, as expected, Friday’s March payrolls report makes it 20 in a row — economists polled by Reuters predict a 10,000 increase — it would mark the longest uninterrupted run of manufacturing employment expansion in a generation, matching the run from January 1983 through August 1984.

But while comparable in length, the current manufacturing renaissance pales in terms of total jobs created. Back then, U.S. factories added 1.34 million workers, more than three times the 417,000 new jobs since the current streak began in August 2017.

For early clues on the jobs data, cast an eye toward Monday’s ISM Manufacturing Index. Its employment component is closely correlated with the Labor Department’s manufacturing payrolls series.

ISM’s February reading on factory employment, at 52.3, was the weakest in more than two years. Should it drop below 50, the level separating expansion from contraction in the ISM series, it could signal an end to manufacturing employment’s long run. The last time ISM had a sub-50 print was September 2016. That month, U.S. factories cut 3,000 jobs.

(4) U.S. China Trade

A month has passed since the United States and China missed an initial deadline to agree on a trade deal. The first face-to-face meetings between the two sides since that deadline were apparently “constructive” and “productive.” Now Chinese Vice Premier Liu He is to travel to Washington for further talks.

In the meantime, though, tariffs on Chinese goods worth $250 billion are in play and that is hurting China, as well as its Asian neighbors who are linked to it, through complex supply chains. March Purchasing Managers Indexes are expected to show a further deterioration in sentiment across the region, and another source of pressure is the worry of a recession in the United States.

The one thing preventing panic is the hope Beijing will provide enough stimulus to offset slowing trade. Central bankers around Asia have started hinting at interest rate cuts, relieved at the end of the Fed’s policy-tightening campaign. But the upcoming activity data might show how soon they need to act.

(5) Turkey

Last year’s lira crisis tipped Turkey into a painful recession, ended its credit-fueled economic boom and complicated President Tayyip Erdogan’s task of selling his economic success story to voters. They are headed to the ballot box on Sunday for the first time since last year’s currency meltdown.

Polls suggest Erdogan could lose Ankara, the city from which he has ruled Turkey with an increasingly iron grip since 2003. His AK Party could face a tough race in Istanbul, where Erdogan was once mayor. But policymakers’ efforts shore up the currency before the election has run into trouble and moves to curb offshore lira supply has pushed investors into selling Turkish stocks and bonds.

The question now is how quickly policymakers will normalize their approach to markets. And even if they do, will pressure on the lira ease up and can they win back the trust of investors, some of who will have taken losses from the recent episode?

For an economy that’s already reeling, how much damage have these unorthodox measures inflicted? And finally, will the stress percolate to European banks active in Turkey? BBVA (MC:BBVA), Unicredit (MI:CRDI), ING, HSBC and BNP Paribas (PA:BNPP) all have varying degrees of exposure.

Top Zacks #1 Rank Stocks—

CB Richard Ellis: This $16B market cap real estate group is a Zacks #1 Rank player. And a Zacks VGM score of A.

CBRE Group, Inc. is a commercial real estate services firm providing advisory services, capital markets services, valuation services to occupiers, owners, lenders, and investors in office, retail, industrial, multi-family, and other commercial real estate assets. The company also offers investment management services to pension plans, foundations, endowments and outsourcing services. CBRE Group, Inc., formerly known as

CB Richard Ellis Group, Inc., is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.

Fortescue Metals: This is a $16B market cap iron ore miner in Australia. The Zacks #1 Rank and a Zacks VGM score of A are solid.

Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. is engaged in the exploration and mining of iron ore properties. Its properties primarily include the Cloudbreak and Christmas Creek mine sites and the Solomon project located in Pilbara, Western Australia. Fortescue Metals Group Ltd is based in East Perth, Australia.

WPP: This is a $13B market cap global advertising company. The Zacks VGM score is A.

WPP is in marketing communications services. They are made up of companies in: Advertising; Media Investment Management; Data Investment Management; Public Relations & Public Affairs; Branding & Identity; Healthcare Communications; Digital, eCommerce & Shopper Marketing; Specialist Communications.

Media Contact

Zacks Investment Research

800-767-3771 ext. 9339

support@zacks.com

http://www.zacks.com

Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit http://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.