Economic cracks are getting exposed in the 2024 market bounty
BNN Bloomberg
Fresh meme-stock mania took center stage on Wall Street this week just as the world’s biggest equity market closed out another blistering quarter.
Yet behind the scenes, softening economic growth is testing bullish investor convictions, while fueling big divides between the strong and the weak across Corporate America.
Dispiriting trends that have been visible for months now — alongside the frenzy for megacap tech stocks and private credit – are on display yet again. Companies with dicey balance sheets have underperformed anew in June. Equal-weighted stock benchmarks — where disruptive AI market leaders have the same weighting as industrial bellwethers — have lagged yet again.
A dose of good news on consumer prices initially boosted sentiment in early Friday trading, with the S&P 500 closing the week little changed. Along the way, warnings have grown that the Federal Reserve is waiting too long to release the economy from its anti-inflationary grip.
