Warren Buffett’s favorite market indicator hits 205%, signaling stocks are way too expensive and a crash may be coming

The “Buffett indicator” compares the stock market’s valuation to the size of the economy. Back in 2001 he remarked in a Fortune Magazine interview that “it is probably the best single measure of where valuations stand at any given moment.” Therefore, unfortunately, for traders, there is no way of using the indicator because of the limitations we have mentioned above. However, many long-term investors can use it to predict whether stocks are overvalued or not.

As the report shows, quick service restaurants are a popular dining option across America, and the successful ones have the potential to generate billions of dollars each year. Subway’s popularity is reflected in its sales figures, as well—in 2021, Subway generated about $9.4 billion in sales, about double its closest rival Arby’s. Top performing energy stocks as of September 30th, 2022 included Occidental Petroleum up 112% year to date , and Marathon Petroleum which rose 52% YTD. The energy sector has been the noticeable standout and performed significantly well since the beginning of the year, as sanctions surrounding Russia impacted oil and gas supplies resulting in sharp price increases. So, while we might not need to fasten our seatbelts just yet, this historically high ratio is certainly worth paying attention to. While the Bureau’s data is published quarterly, it doesn’t provide the latest figures.

India Historical GDP Growth

Whenever it has moved too far from the long-term averages, it has signalled a likely correction in over-optimism or over-cautiousness among market participants. Relli added that the impact on denominator is estimated to be much higher than that of the numerator. Hence, the actual indicator number may still be lower than the long-term average. “If one includes this portion, then the denominator will rise. Also in India, a lot of PSUs and private companies are not listed and hence the numerator is also depressed.”

Buffett praised his namesake gauge in a Fortune magazine article in 2001, touting it as “probably the best single measure of where valuations stand at any given moment.” Long Reads Tata Group’s Silent Transformer N. Chandrasekaran has led the transformation of Tata companies and the group’s foray into new-age businesses, changing the way the conglomerate operates. In contrast to the Wilshire 5000, the numerator in the chart above includes the total value of public and private equities. However, it only gets published quarterly and therefore is always lagging a bit behind.

buffett indicator india today

The iconic burger joint McDonald’s comes in third, with more than 13,000 restaurants across the country. While the restaurant has fewer stores than Starbucks and Subway, it generated $46 billion in 2021 sales, which is more than Subway and Starbucks combined. The above visualization from Jan Varsava shows U.S. dividend-adjusted stock performance for each company in the S&P 500 index in 2022, from the start of the year through the end of September. Tracking indexes over the course of a year reveals a lot about market trends and sentiment.

The market-capitalisation (m-cap) of BSE-listed firms has topped the $3 trillion mark, making India the world’s eighth-largest stock market after the US, China, Hong Kong, Japan, UK, France and Canada. The information and publications are not meant to be, and do not constitute, financial, investment, trading, or other types of advice or recommendations supplied or endorsed by TradingView. Amit Kumar Gupta has over 15 yrs of experience in investment analysis and portfolio management. While the Buffett Indicator is a great high-level metric, a price/sale ratio is also fairly crude.

Is your tool using the right computation for the indicator?

Today, the Federal Reserve has added more than $7.3 trillion in its balance sheet. The goal is to hold them for a long time hoping that investors will one day realize their value and put a good valuation on them. This is why Buffett has invested heavily in companies like Apple, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Coca-Cola and American Express, among others. A first look at India’s Buffett Indicator chart suggests the market may be somewhat undervalued. Currently, the ratio is at around 70% as of 28 January 2021, or less than half of what it was in 2007. German economic power is largely a function of its Mittelstand, for example.

buffett indicator india today

Warren Buffet is highly regarded as one of the most capable value investors. His insight and experience have armed him with the ability to develop his own financial metric, “The Buffet Indicator”. Used to measure the economy, it is the ratio of the stock market capitalisation of a country to its GDP. The current ratio of total market cap over GDP for India is 102.72%. If we assume that the ratio will reverse to the recent 10 years mean of 88.38% over the next 8 years, the contribution to expected annual return is -1.86%. Historical Total Assets of Central Bank of India in billions of national currency, which is obtained from each country’s central bank balance sheet.

How to use the Buffett indicator

Your ability to open a DTTW trading office or join one of our trading offices is subject to the laws and regulations in force in your jurisdiction. Due to current legal and regulatory requirements, United States citizens or residents are currently unable to open a trading office with us. For example, while Apple is the biggest firm in the United States, it does most of its business abroad.

  • For example, Starbucks’ mobile order and pay service, which allows customers to order from their phone, has grown 400% over the last five years.
  • Timely links to external news and articles, usually valuation related, with occasional commentary.
  • The new year has begun on an upbeat note with the benchmark Nifty50 index rising by 3.7% so far, surpassing the 18,000 mark on Monday.
  • Also known as the Buffett indicator, it is a measure of the total value of all publicly traded stocks divided by a country’s gross domestic product .
  • To understand the underlying logic of the Buffett Indicator — the ratio of total market cap to GNP, we must understand the economic cycle.

Junk bond rates are super low, particularly when compared to Treasuries. Narcissistic CEOs of public companies are shown empirically to be more likely to make adjustments to their firm’s GAAP earnings. These adjustments are larger in scale, and lower in quality than adjustments made by non-narcisstic CEOs. After bottoming out from 25,981 on March 23, 2020, BSE Sensex has soared by almost 102% reaching all-time high 52,516 on Feb 16, 2021, but market declined by 6.3% from this on profit booking, rising in US G-Sec yield.

The S&P 500’s performance over the course of 2022 is a great example. See how sectors and key companies have performed from Jan 1 to Sep 30, 2022. And historically, the Buffett Indicator has predicted several of America’s most devastating economic downturns. When you first opened this page , the tool will calculate the United States’ overall stock valuation based on auto-updating data. The Buffett indicator used to be a relatively popular gauge of market sentiment. However, in the past few years, its efficiency has been relatively weak.

The Modified Predicted and the Actual Stock Market Returns

Corporations generate revenue and profits from the consumption and the profitability will ultimately be reflected in the stock market. Thus, GDP, which reflects the total value of production, is an underlying driving force for the corporate profits as well as the total market cap. The “Buffett indicator” takes the combined market capitalization of all publicly traded US stocks, and divides it by the latest quarterly figure for gross domestic product.

S&P 500 vs. GDP

“A premium of around 54.6 per cent from its five-year historical average,” it added. But as with Saudi Aramco, if high-profit sectors or companies have been traditionally underrepresented in the economy and are subsequently listed, comparisons across time periods become meaningless. In India, for example, if the nation’s largest insurer, Life Insurance Corporation, were to go public, with an expected valuation of at least US $130 billion, India’s market cap-to-GDP ratio would rise by 5%. Given these definitions, there are some differences between what the numerator and the denominator are measuring.

Delayed revival in corporate earnings and a potential third wave remain keys risks to the ongoing up move in Indian stocks, analysts said. For comparison purposes the S&P 500 to GDP ratio is shown here as well. It captures approximately 80% of the available total market capitalization.

Here, the world’s most celebrated investor talks about what really makes the market tick–and whether that ticking should make you nervous. Buffett’s original chart used US GNP as the divisor, which captures the domestic and international activity of all US resident entities even if based abroad, however, many modern Buffett metrics use US GDP as the metric. US GDP has historically been within 1 percent of US GNP, and is more readily available . And the final impact of rising interest rates have yet to be fully felt, though indexes generally fare well in the year following.

Due to the significant amount of liquidity enthused by central banks across the world in the post-COVID world, the valuations of some of the “new-age” businesses have pushed the market cap to GDP ratio higher. This argument assumes a near-perfect correlation between economic growth and stock market performance. The rise in market cap is purely due to PE re-rating due to excess liquidity or other reasons and may buffett indicator india today not actually represent an improvement in underlying economic fundamentals. Companies which are getting listed on the stock exchanges are also pushing the market cap higher for Indian markets even though the GDP growth took a breather. However, it is not the ideal ratio to look at while making investment decisions. One main factor is low interest rates, which are expected to stay low for the foreseeable future.

The idea is that if the number is extremely low, it means that companies are undervalued. Similarly, if the number is extremely high, it means that stocks are extremely overvalued. Indian stocks are expensive even when one looks at the valuations taking into account the price-to-earnings ratio. Bloomberg data shows that the MSCI India index is trading at a one-year forward PE of around 20 times, higher than MSCI Asia ex-Japan’s 15 times PE multiple. Even though there has been some moderation in India’s valuations from the recent peaks, it remains an expensive bet compared to most emerging market peers. FPI investments were started reviving after corporate tax rate cut announcements on 20th Sept from earlier 30% to 22%.

To that extent the numerator and the denominator are not entirely comparable. As per Buffett’s comment, the ratio is a simple way of looking at the value of all the listed stocks on an aggregate level, and comparing that value to the country’s total output . “The key metric to watch will be inflation, where any increase beyond the comfort zone of central banks will lead to a reversal of the current easy money policies,” he said. This is the projected return and the modified projected return of the stock market in India relative to other countries.

The Indian economy is likely to grow by 9.2% in FY22, according to the National Statistical Office’s (NSO’s) first estimate of gross domestic product growth for the financial year. This is lower than the Reserve Bank of India’s forecast of 9.5% and points to a slower growth for the country in the second half of FY22. The stock market may be low given strong corporate earnings versus super-low interest rates. In Equity market outlook as on March-2020, India’s Market Cap to GDP ratio had corrected sharply at around 56. It is mainly due to the recent corrections in the stock market amidst Coronavirus outbreak and its impact on economic outlook, both domestic as well as global.

Great article on one of my favorite accounting / financial statement analysis red flags. Valuation models easily support another 30% drop from here, https://1investing.in/ particularly if rates keep increasing. Timely links to external news and articles, usually valuation related, with occasional commentary.

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