(Washington)

The moment many investors have been waiting for (or not, depending on how you look at it) has arrived. Rate hikes finally have a chance to slow after their steady rise over the last couple of years. New inflation data has come in showing weakness. Inflation has now fallen below the Fed’s 2% rate, which means the central bank has cause to pause its rate hikes as the economy looks to be on more fragile footing.

FINSUM: There are two ways to look at this. The first is that it takes some momentum away from the current yield inversion. But on the other hand, it could be an indicator that the economy is headed towards recession.

(Washington)

Just a handful of days ago, the US-China trade situation looked to be improving. Trump and Xi reportedly had a breakthrough meeting and China even went as far as to deliberately make a positive public statement in an effort to prop up US markets. However, things have worsened rapidly. First, the US arrested the CFO of Chinese giant Huawei, which angered Beijing, and now the US is close to issuing a travel warning after China detained a Canadian diplomat. The detention is part of an effort to compel Canada not to extradite the Huawei CFO to the US.

FINSUM: We went from public display of détente to a very tense diplomatic situation. The outlook for the trade war, which will be a reflection of all the other issues, looks bleak at the moment.

(New York)

If financial shares are any indicator of the coming stock market environment, asset prices look set for a long rough patch. According to Morgan Stanley, financial shares are suffering as “The carefree days of rising rates and pristine credit quality could be coming to an end”. The bank’s research team continued, “We cannot ignore the growing risk of a bear credit market next year preceding a recession as well as the negative impact of weaker economic growth”.

FINSUM: Banks stocks are trading like the economy is headed towards a bear market, and we can’t help but think it may not be a bad call.

(New York)

The market has been very bearish lately, with last week seeing the worst declines for the S&P 500 since march. The market fell 4.6% last week. This may seem like just another bout of volatility, one in a series we have had this Fall. However, the market’s fear gauge, the VIX, suggests that this selloff is different. The VIX just recently hit levels close to during October’s rout, but what is different this time is that it has sustained its momentum in a way that hasn’t happened since 2016. “This shows that unlike October, investors no longer see the market correction as a temporary dislocation, but rather driven by more persistent macro risks”, says Credit Suisse.

FINSUM: The market is continuing to reflect a comment we made yesterday—that the problems plaguing stocks are not simple to resolve, so is easy to see how prices could continue to fall for some time.

(San Francisco)

There has been a lot of momentum flowing against tech stocks right now, and especially the FAANGs. Facebook has taken a great deal of the pain, with numerous headwinds facing shares. However, the reality is that the company has a very solid underlying business, and the recent volatility means it also has an attractive valuation. According to Deutsche Bank, “We continue to view Facebook as the best risk/reward in large cap internet given the potential for core Facebook engagement to stabilize … and given the extremely attractive current valuation”.

FINSUM: Facebook has been going through a very rough period over the last year, but the negative news cycle is going to abate, and when it does, the stock seems likely to gain.