We were looking for higher volatility in last week's piece and got it all in one serving. Risk/reward is tricky across asset classes now. This week we have a look at what might be next.
BY ERIC FILL
After the bull market in everything we have had the plunge. Now what?
Ahead of March quarter earnings, S&P 500 price target cuts are starting...
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Thoughts From The Divide: Definitions and Animal Spirits
BY JON WEBB
We would be the first to admit a tendency towards pedantry: that we enjoy a little definitional punctiliousness. Surely, we are not alone in being amused by then-President Clinton asking, “what the meaning of ’is’ is”. But rather than being a mark of a scholar, this kind of diving into minutiae is often as much a sign of sophistry as it is of sophistication. Case in point was the debate around the definition of “transitory”. It might seem intuitive that trees don’t grow to the sky, but Yellen and crew somehow wanted to argue that that was why they had in fact been right all along in their argument that Covid era inflation was “transitory”. Yes, Janet, you were right that, like all things, this too did pass.
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MI2 Partners Thoughts From The Divide: Warm and Fuzzy
BY JON WEBB
Given that it’s Valentine’s Day, some of you may be feeling warm and fuzzy courtesy of a significant other. Of course, others might be married. But for those of you who are following the latest economic data, the warm fuzzy feeling may apply doubly. Consumer spending data could definitely give the impression all is right with the world if BofA’s Moynihan’s data applies across the board, “The bank’s retail customers are spending about 6% more money in the first 40 days of this year compared with the same period in 2024”. (Let’s go ahead and blame the weather/fires for the latest retail sales reading.)
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