Originally published March 20, 2019
Coming into 2019, investors faced two important questions: What are central banks doing, and what is happening with Chinese and global growth?
At the beginning of December, we were worried about the impact the European Central Bank's (ECB's) and the U.S. Federal Reserve's (Fed's) continued tightening would have on the financial markets. Typically, central bank tightening is unfavorable for financial assets, and markets decelerated going into December.
Then, suddenly the Fed signaled it would stop raising rates and reverse on quantitative tightening. This led to a rally in U.S. equities