A Shepherd for the Market's Lost Bulls

An article in Bloomberg offers a variety of market insights, starting with those of JPMorgan Chase analyst Marko Kolanovic, nicknamed “Gandalf,” “whose timely calls have allowed him to dominate Institutional Investor’s annual rankings of top strategists for a decade or so.”

Kolanovic has cited the possibility of a year-end “rolling squeeze” due in large part to a surge in corporate stock buybacks after earnings season. The sentiment has been echoed by others, including UBS Group strategists who argue that buybacks have been “the main driver of the equity rally in this cycle.”

Here are some other highlights:

“The yield curve doesn’t (usually) lie: The continued shrinking of the margin between short- and long-term Treasury yields, the article says, is a “signal that the bond market believes that the turmoil in stocks and signs of tamer inflation might be signaling deeper problems in the broader economy that further Fed rate hikes might expose.”

Trade tensions: The market seems optimistic that a trade deal with China will be reached.

S&P fires “warning shot” at the pound: “The risk of a so-called Brexit that doesn’t include a trade deal has sufficiently increased to the point where the country’s AA credit rating is in jeopardy of being cut,” the article says.

Dips in the commodities market: “It’s almost impossible to attribute the move to a single reason, but it would be hard not to think that at least the diminished outlook for inflation has something to do with it.”