Market Review from Realm Investment Management – week ending 20th January 2023
US stocks sold-off midweek on increasing recession fears but bounced back strongly on Friday. Comments from US Federal Reserve officials that the central bank has not finished with the tightening campaign worried investors – for instance, Fed Vice Chair Lael Brainard commented “policy will need to be sufficiently restrictive for some time“.
Things change day to day though and on Thursday weak economic data indicated that policy is having the desired impact and helped the view that the Fed can slow the pace of further rate hikes. The rally back on Friday was led by tech and growth stocks. Markets are now pricing in a 0.25% rate increase in February.
On the other side of the coin though, and for the longer term focus, US employment data is still indicating that the labour market remains tight (not what the Fed wants to see) evidenced by last week’s jobs report which showed solid growth and lower-than-expected unemployment claims.
Full report:
https://realmim.com/fed-will-be-watching-jobs-data-like-a-hawk/
Disclaimer: ‘Where the business has expressed opinions, they are based on current market conditions, they may differ from those of other investment professionals and are subject to change without notice. The information contained within this communication is believed to be reliable but Realm Investment Management Limited does not warrant its completeness or accuracy.
This communication is not intended as a recommendation to invest in any particular asset class, security or strategy. Regulatory requirements that require impartiality of investment/investment strategy recommendations are therefore not applicable nor are any prohibitions to trade before publication. The information provided is for illustrative purposes only, it should not be relied upon as recommendations to buy or sell investments.’