Fed rate hikes: Cause for pause?
Fed watchers see potential for a pause in rate increases, but recent reports show the economy still runs hot.
Capital Market Impact
Get updates on recent capital market data and trends, including possible expectations for future outcomes.
Risks lurk under stocks’ calm performance
Returns for tech stocks have raised market indexes, but something else is happening beneath the surface.
Investors are still pessimistic, but emotions aren’t driving the markets
Bulls and bears have wildly different perspectives in the current environment. Bulls point to the better-than-expected consumer data, settling of the disruption in the banking sector, and the contrarian benefit of near-universal pessimism. Sentiment indicators continue to reflect substantial bearishness among retail and institutional investors, economists, and Wall Street strategists.
Focus on the long term to counter the bull-bear split
Stocks have traded in a narrow range as of late, indicating a split between market bulls and bears and between the market and economy.
Cycle Watch | May 2023 Growth slows but no recession yet
In May, the Federal Reserve announced its tenth consecutive interest rate increase, but with 253,000 new jobs added in April, the Fed may have to act again when it meets in June.
Is this the “calm before the storm” for equities?
Fund managers continue to exhibit extreme caution, with banking sector disruption joining inflation, higher rates, and macro uncertainty on the list of worries, driving equity positioning to the lowest level relative to bonds since 2009.