Among the components of the 60-year economic super cycle due to
bottom this fall is the 10-year cycle.
It is this cycle which is the core component of the super cycle and is
responsible for this year’s financial market behavior. The upcoming bottom of this cycle, followed
by the commencement of a new 10-year cycle, will also herald a major
opportunity for investors in the coming 1-2 years.
The 10-year cycle is unique among the Kress cycles in that it’s
one of the few cycles whose peak is not a separate cycle. When other cycles in the Kress series peak,
the half-cycle component forms a distinctive cycle by itself. For example, when the 4-year cycle peaks the
2-year cycle bottoms simultaneously; and when the 12-year cycle peaks the
6-year cycle bottoms. Since there is no
5-year cycle in Kress cycle theory, the 10-year cycle peak is a true peak.
Another unique aspect of the 10-year cycle is that it’s the only
one of the twelve yearly cycles that bottoms at the same time each decade,
namely in the fourth quarter of year four.
This is the reason for the “Year Five Phenomenon” which sees the stock
market rally in every fifth year of each decade. The lifting of the 10-year cycle downside
pressure at the end of year four creates a major lift for equity prices during
the year that follows.
In the 10-year cycles of the past two decades the cycle has been
relatively benign. This normally happens
when bull market conditions are prevalent.
Only when a bear market is underway, as in 1974, does the 10-year cycle
bottom emphatically. The last two
10-year cycle bottom years, in 1994 and 2004, saw lateral trading ranges
develop in the Dow and S&P for much of the year prior to the cycle bottom. After the cycle bottomed in October ’94 and
October ’04, the indices broke out of their ranges and went on to higher levels
as a new 10-year up cycle kicked off.
The “hard down” phase of the 10-year cycle in 2014 has produced a
lateral trading range in the Russell 2000 Small Cap Index (RUT). In the Dow, however, the influence of the
10-year down cycle has been much more benign and the end result has been an
upward-sloping trading range for the Dow (see chart below). The implication behind this pattern is that a
secular bull market is well underway.
Accordingly, the upcoming cycle bottom will likely produce higher stock
prices in 2015 as a new 10-year cycle will act as a favorable tail-wind for
stocks (instead of an unfavorable head-wind).
As previously mentioned, the 10-year cycle bottom will serve as a
catalyst for the famous “Year Five Phenomenon” in 2015. This
is one of the facets of the 10-year cycles that is worth delving into, namely
the tendency for the year following the 10-year cycle bottom to be a stellar
one for stock market investors. Since
the 10-year cycle always bottoms around the start of the fourth quarter of the
fourth year of the decade, the fifth year of the decade is the year that typically
gets a major boost from the newly formed 10-year up-cycle. The 10-year cycle then peaks around the start
of the fourth quarter of the ninth year of the decade. Thus the years X-5 and X-9 of the decade
nearly always see impressive gains made in equity prices.
In
his book, The Right Stock at the Right
Time (John Wiley & Sons, 2003), author and trader Larry Williams made
the following observation about the fifth year of the decade:
“What
we see is that in 11 out of 11 times the fifth year in the decade produced a
rally or a market-up move, making it the strongest year in the 10-year
pattern….Without a doubt the fifth years of the decades have been where the
bulk of wealth has been made. [Yale
Hirsch’s] work showed a total gain of 254 percent in the five years…” Clearly, there is money to be made in 2015
with the “Year Five Phenomenon” at work.
Once the 10-year cycle bottom is in the rearview mirror, we should
see some important changes taking shape.
A major reason for the sluggish economic recovery until now has been the
head-winds created by the long-term cycle.
With a brand new cycle underway starting in October, 2015 should be a
breakout year for the U.S. economy.
Consumer spending will increase as the momentum behind the recovery gets
a huge push from the newly formed cycle, as will business investment
spending.
Equities should also post yet another positive year as the “Year
Five Phenomenon” kicks in thanks to the 10-year cycle bottom. Watch for small investors to start coming off
the sidelines next year. They’ll put
more of their money into stocks as they slowly recognize the reality of the
secular bull market. Commodities should
also benefit from the cycle bottom as investors begin to minimize their heavy
holdings of cash and Treasury.
