Bond Narratives and Corporate Earnings

Oct 23, 2023 | Market Commentary

Friends

 

The bond vigilantes took shot at 5% on the 10-year Treasury Note again this morning, but like Friday morning resistance held and yields moved lower in the aftermath. The narrative developing today (encouraged by a big-name Hedge Fund manager who closed out his short on bonds) is that the economy is slowing faster than the economic data is showing. That means rates could move back down from here which would have fueled a stock market rally in the past but might not now because rates would be falling for the wrong reason – a slowing economy. You got all that?

 

As mentioned, Friday, we have a big week for earnings including big tech/growth names like Amazon, Meta, Alphabet and Microsoft, and the bulls are hoping that these behemoths carve a path for higher stock prices this week. As for today, it was a bit of a mixed bag. By the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 190 points to finish the day at 32,936. The S&P 500 was down 7 points to close at 4,217. The Nasdaq was up 34 points to close at 13,018. Gold was down $11 to trade at $1,983 per ounce, while oil was down $2.19 to trade at $85.89 per barrel WTI.

 

So this week is all about interest rates and earnings. Let’s see how it all plays out. We’ll let you know.

 

Have a nice evening everyone. Go Astros!

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