Venture: Update
Issue 122
The problem for value investors in this market is not the lack of cheap companies to buy, but the lack of interest in them. We are in a market where expensive stocks are doing much better than cheap ones. That is, anything linked to energy and AI, which is sheltered from the real world, is powering ahead, leaving the rest behind, facing a weak consumer.
Consumer Sentiment Is Weak
The cost-of-living crisis is not just impacting politics, but markets. As I wrote in Global Trends this morning, this is a thin market led by Energy and Technology Hardware. These themes are not cheap. Notably, 47.5% of stocks are underperforming the market, in relative downtrends, making it unusually difficult to find cheap stocks that are going up.
I suspect this will last so long as the Strait of Hormuz remains closed.
