The Mag 7 Earnings Preview: Get Ready For A Bubble Burst
There is more evidence that the economy is slowing, with some leading indicators at the levels generally associated with a recession. At the same time, the S&P 500 is trading at valuation multiples historically associated with bubble.
Thus, if the stock market is in a bubble, and we are facing a recession, then investors should prepare for a bubble burst and a recessionary bear market - a major drawdown.
The stock market bubble is concentrated in several mega-cap tech companies, known as the Magnificent 7. Despite the obviously slowing economy, these mega-cap stocks keep climbing under the Gen AI theme, pushing the S&P 500 index into new highs.
This mega-cap bubble is likely to burst only when the mega caps disappoint on their earnings report, either missing the earnings/sales estimates, or providing weak guidance. In fact, the dot-com bubble burst in March of 2000 with the weak Yahoo earnings report.
The current situation is very similar to March 2000 - the economy is slipping into a recession, and the monetary policy is tight, while the stock market is in a bubble. The key question then is whether the mega-cap bubble stocks will disappoint during the upcoming Q2 2024 earnings season, like in March of 2000.
In my opinion, the slowing economy is likely to be reflected in the corporate earnings reports in Q2 2024. Thus, there is a high chance that we could see a major miss in the earnings by one of the mega-caps, which could burst the bubble.
The bottom-up analyst earnings estimate for Q2 2024 for the S&P 500 is 8.1% earnings growth YoY, and 9.2% YoY earnings growth for 2024, as shown on the CFRA table presented below.
More importantly, analysis predicts 14.6% earnings growth YoY for 2025.
For 2024, the earnings growth is concentrated in Information Technology, Communication Services, and Consumer Discretionary sectors, which include the Mag 7 stocks. However, accelerated earnings growth is expected across all sectors in 2025, including the value and small stocks.
Thus, analysts are very optimistic on Mag 7 stocks in 2024, and see a major earnings growth broadening in 2025, which can only be justified with accelerated economic growth in 2025.
Yet, the economy is currently sharply slowing, and we could already be in a recession based on some key indicators, like the Sahm Indicator. Thus, obviously, the earnings estimates are unrealistic for 2024 and 2025 - they don't even assume a minor slowdown. So, that's part of the bubble - unrealistic earnings expectations.
Thus, in my opinion, the mega-caps are likely to start feeling the current economic slowdown and, consequently lower their earnings guidance, which is likely to burst the bubble.
So, let's look at the situation with each Mag 7 stock since the Q1 2024 earnings report. First, the S&P 500 (SP500) increased by 7% over the last 3 months, since the beginning of the Q1 2024 earnings season.
However, over the last 3 months, only 231 of S&P 500 stocks went up, while 272 went down. Also, the equal weighted S&P 500 (RSP) is actually down by -1.63% over the last 3 months.
Thus, the Mag 7 stocks are leading the index higher, while most stocks are actually going down.
Here is the theme behind each Mag 7 stock.
Stock | Last 3 months | PE ratio GAAP ttm |
NVDA | +43% | 74 |
AAPL | +34% | 36 |
TSLA | +53% | 65 |
GOOG | +25% | 29 |
META | +2.38% | 31 |
AMZN | +8% | 56 |
MSFT | +10% | 41 |
The Mag 7 stocks have been leading the S&P 500 higher over the last 3 months. However, the move has been driven by speculative non-fundamental themes, such as stock splits, and buybacks.
In my opinion, Meta is an example of what's coming to the rest of the Mag 7 stocks - Meta missed the guidance for Q2, and it's likely some other Mag 7 stocks will miss the guidance for Q3.
A slowing economy is a systematic event, and it will have to start affecting the business operations of the Mag 7 companies. Thus, the non-realistic earnings expectations will have to meet the reality, and it could happen during the Q2 earnings season.
Given the importance of the Mag 7, the S&P 500 (SP500) is likely to sharply drop as the Mag 7 bubble bursts.