Fixed Income

Emergency pandemic fiscal and monetary policy measures buffered households and nonfinancial corporate businesses in ways that have acted to lengthen the lags between monetary policy changes and their effect on the economy. We believe, however, the extended lags are merely delaying the recession, not cancelling it. We expect to downgrade equities on a tactical basis from equal weight to underweight soon.

The global downturn will be shallower than it was in 2008 and in 2020 but will last for longer. The primary reason for a more prolonged downturn is that policymakers in the US, Europe, and China will be reluctant to proactively and aggressively stimulate. The combination of rising oil prices, an appreciating US dollar, and mounting US bond yields constitutes a triple whammy for US share prices.

A discussion of today’s FOMC meeting and its investment implications.

The biggest misunderstanding in the markets right now is that to keep expected inflation well-anchored at 2 percent, inflation must <i>undershoot</i> 2 percent for some time. This implies that interest rate futures curves are mispriced, and that the probability of a ‘soft landing’ is lower than assumed. Plus: we show that the rally in oil has become fractally fragile, and recommend a tactical underweight.