On Friday, we quantified the biggest losers in the case of a sustained oil price shock, and were not surprised to find that the US leads the way with about a 0.9% hit to GDP for every $10 rise in crude prices (compared to about 0.4% for the entire world). Today, via Goldman we look at the flipside and while acknowledging that in absolute terms the world will suffer should crude prices sustain their move higher, there will be relative winners. From GS' David Kostin: "Our oil convergence monitor tracks the relative performance of the Energy sector vs. S&P 500 against the price of oil (measured by the 2-year oil swap). Currently, Energy equities are about 1.5 standard deviations cheaper then the oil price would suggest (based the relationship over the past three years (see Exhibit 4). The divergence has remained stable during the last two weeks although the Energy sector outpaced the S&P 500 by 160 bp during February (5.9% vs. 4.3%). Outside Energy, the Metals & Mining and Engineering & Construction industries show the highest sensitivity to oil prices." What is strange is that the biggest loser by far to an oil shock is the Consumer Discretionary sector, which continues to plough on, completely oblivious of absolutely everything, even as the Dow Transports have decoupled from the broader market, purely in hope that the iRally will continue and lift all boats with it, when in reality every incremental dollar spent for iTrinkets saps the already tapped out US iConsumer even more, with less marginal purchasing power left for other discretionary purchases. Then again, good luck trying to talk any sense into the central bank playground known as the stock market, which will do whatever it wants for as long as it wants, until it doesn't.
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