Investors seeking clarity on the future path of inflation and interest rates struggled to find it in March as key economic indictors sent mixed signals. The month kicked off with a strong February jobs report, with the Labor Department reporting that nonfarm payrolls increased by 275,000 for the month (against expectations of 198,000). While the February numbers suggested the economy continues to run hot, downward revisions to the December and January reports reduced the initial estimates for those months by 167,000 jobs and the unemployment rate rose from 3.7% to 3.9% in February.
After a challenging July that saw investors sell off high-flying technology stocks, buyers returned to the market in August, bidding up risk assets across the board.
Allocators add new exposures for a variety of reasons; diversification, returns, risk mitigation, etc. Understanding this, what is the most over-owned and expensive sector today?
After a red-hot June built on expectations that the Federal Reserve may succeed at killing inflation without killing the economy, July saw investors begin to question the soft-landing narrative.
It looks like a big margin call started in Japan. The Japanese Yen has become a funding currency in recent years, a source of cheap financing with the proceeds reinvested in better returning assets – such as US$ listed AI stocks.