One of the more amusing things about Q4 2018 was the extent to which market participants fell victim to a series of narratives that, ultimately, were the product of a confused perspective - a kind of fata morgana.
The "imminent US recession" story became the predominant market meme starting in late November. That narrative gained significant traction early in December when the 2s5s and 3s5s inverted. The incoming data, while exhibiting signs of wanting to roll over, wasn't even close to "recessionary". Traders and investors were thus suffering from a kind of parallax effect