The economy is booming and companies are expecting robust growth in the second half of 2021 and 2022. Travel is starting to rebound and cities are coming back to life. Stimulus has left consumers with a tremendous amount of liquidity and we are spending. Institutional investors are increasingly concerned about inflationary pressures.
Succinct Summary: Capital markets are ending 2020 with a bang thanks in part to last week’s hot IPOs. Business leaders are feeling confident about 2021 and expect next year’s earnings to exceed 2019’s. Consumer spending is similarly strong. Even the housing market is stronger than in ’05. It’s a K shaped recovery for some industries but a vaccine should unleash pent up demand and high unemployment means that interest rates will stay low for longer. Readers should keep an eye on growing supply chain bottlenecks. This could be a source of some inflationary pressure.
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Succinct Summary: The consumer continues to show strength with higher holiday spending. Business spending isn’t quite as strong though but companies, especially small businesses, are optimistic. As such, most CEOs don’t expect a recession in 2020. Historically, presidential election years are usually good for the stock market.