AFMC - Cruising For A Bruising

2024-02-18 21:32:00 ET

Summary

• It is that after trying to figure out whether the economy and markets would achieve a soft landing in the wake of the post-Covid tightening cycle, no one quite knows what to think now that the soft landing appears to have arrived.
• By and large, leading indicators suggest that global economic activity is firming at the start of the year, which will reduce the risk of a sudden leap in unemployment.
• In markets, investors and strategists remain enthralled by the flight of the magnificent seven.
• January inflation numbers convincingly snuffed out hopes of rate cuts in March, at least in the US and in the Eurozone, and still-low unemployment continues to lurk as upside risks for wage growth.
• We’re back to that idea of an “acceptable” pace of inflation.

Financial market pundits are a bit like dogs chasing cars; they wouldn’t know what to do if they caught one. And so it is that after trying to figure out whether the economy and markets would achieve a soft landing in the wake of the post-Covid tightening cycle, no one quite knows what to think now that the soft landing appears to have arrived....

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