Succinct Summary: The US got a new President last week, and the new administration is pledging more stimulus. The economy continues to chug along though and there are signs of tight capacity in some segments, especially transportation networks. Could additional stimulus lead to higher-than-expected inflation?
Succinct Summary: The economy was rebounding in May and June, but the recovery seems to have stalled out as infections have rebounded. CEO commentary was particularly negative last week. Business leaders are rapidly losing confidence and do not see a V-shaped recovery materializing. There’s a sense that government stimulus appears to be the only thing propping up the economy and it’s creating distortions in unemployment and financial markets. Still (perhaps because of this stimulus) the hot housing market suggests that consumers may not actually be in such bad shape after all–just spending on different things.
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Succinct Summary: The decline in economic activity has been huge and the recovery may take longer than expected. However, bulls are betting on massive stimulus in an environment that was already highly liquid prior to the Covid crisis. Consumers are itching to get back to normal and some hard hit industries are seeing stabilizing trends. But the economy is subject to the machinations of non-economic forces: governments and a poorly understood disease.
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Succinct Summary: The consumer is strong but manufacturing is weak. Everyone is tired of Brexit and tech IPOs probably still have a path to market as long as they have a path to profitability.