Displaying items by tag: inflation

(New York)

On the surface, the last few weeks could not have gone better. Vaccinations are up, inflation worries are down, economic indicators are surging, and earnings are great. This has led to a nice relief rally after a rough later winter/early spring. However, the reality is that the summer may again be a tough time for markets. The reason why—a lot of good news is fully priced in, but bad news no longer is. Think about it: if an incredible piece of news came out today, do you think the market would react as strongly as if a very bad piece of news came out? Your gut is probably telling you the latter would have a much stronger response.

FINSUM: We have to agree that the market has gotten a lot of relief from recent news. But really, it would only take one really bad inflation report to send volatility spiking.

(New York)

Yields did something very alarming today: they shot up to their highest level in two weeks as a kick-off to summer trading. Yield rises were the epicenter of all the volatility a couple of months ago, and have been the key driver of stock returns as they are the primary asset for pricing inflation risk. So the big question is where will they go from here?

FINSUM: Inflation fears have calmed, but commodities prices are still keeping those worries alive. The Fed seems to hold the key to the whole issue. As long as it walks the line that inflation is transitory, and data at least marginally backs that up, the market will be fine. But if we get a couple suspect reports, and a bad headline or two, all exacerbated by an off-the-cuff Fed remark, we could easily stumble into a correction.

Tech has been hit hard the past few weeks over rising inflation concerns and what that means for companies with ether cash flows…see the full story on our partner Magnifi’s site

(New York)

Inflation worries may have surged this Spring, but that has not helped real yields. When you compare the yields of stocks and bonds versus inflation, the truth is that real yields have turned negative. It is unusual for the S&P 500 to have a negative yield, which is currently at -0.81%. That is slightly better than 10-year Treasuries’ real yield of -0.87%. This has usually spelled trouble historically. Going back to 1970, there has only been one instance when the market did not decline at least 32% in the two years following the point at which yields went negative.

FINSUM: This is a pretty scary statistic, but then again, most historical contexts don’t involve a pandemic-induced country-wide shutdown and unprecedented government stimulus.

(New York)

Gold has been a strong but steady incline for most of 2021, but…see the full story on our partner Magnifi’s site