Hello everybody,
This week, I gave some thought to why the S&P500 keeps rising. Yes of course, the trend is your friend and all that. But why does the trend persist? Where does the money come from?
First of all, the number of Americans (US residents) participating in the stock market has decreased rather significantly over the last decade, from about 65% of the adult population to about 55%. That means that Americans can not be the source of the money. Indeed, it turns out that about $8 trillion of FOREIGN private capital is invested today in the US stock market, or about 35% of the S&P500 market capitalization. In 2002, the figure was $1.4 trillion (15%). So, it seems obvious that to a large extent, foreign money helped engineer the US stock market rise.
But the question remains, why? Why would Europeans and Asians invest in the US, when more often than not, there is a vibrant stock market locally? The answer, I believe, is the excess of US dollars resulting from the positive (for the rest of the world) balance of trade with the US. Notably, the aggregate balance of payment surplus for the world in its trade with the US almost exactly tallies with the amount of money pumped by the world into the US stock market over the same period since 2002.
So, rather than convert the dollars and use the money locally, the countries and businesses send it back to where the assets are denominated in the US dollars in the first place, that is, in the US itself. And it means that, fighting the US trade balance deficit, which he hates, President Trump at the same time undermines the growth of the US stock market, which he loves. Somebody, tell him to stop the trade wars he has begun, or he will see a stock market crash that will bring him down as president.
Good luck, and happy President's Day!
ELP team
This week, I gave some thought to why the S&P500 keeps rising. Yes of course, the trend is your friend and all that. But why does the trend persist? Where does the money come from?
First of all, the number of Americans (US residents) participating in the stock market has decreased rather significantly over the last decade, from about 65% of the adult population to about 55%. That means that Americans can not be the source of the money. Indeed, it turns out that about $8 trillion of FOREIGN private capital is invested today in the US stock market, or about 35% of the S&P500 market capitalization. In 2002, the figure was $1.4 trillion (15%). So, it seems obvious that to a large extent, foreign money helped engineer the US stock market rise.
But the question remains, why? Why would Europeans and Asians invest in the US, when more often than not, there is a vibrant stock market locally? The answer, I believe, is the excess of US dollars resulting from the positive (for the rest of the world) balance of trade with the US. Notably, the aggregate balance of payment surplus for the world in its trade with the US almost exactly tallies with the amount of money pumped by the world into the US stock market over the same period since 2002.
So, rather than convert the dollars and use the money locally, the countries and businesses send it back to where the assets are denominated in the US dollars in the first place, that is, in the US itself. And it means that, fighting the US trade balance deficit, which he hates, President Trump at the same time undermines the growth of the US stock market, which he loves. Somebody, tell him to stop the trade wars he has begun, or he will see a stock market crash that will bring him down as president.
Good luck, and happy President's Day!
ELP team
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