Wall Street’s final act of 2019 will hinge on whether investors should believe the messages being sent by corporate credit, crowd consensus and the calendar characteristics.
The broad market has been a sloppy stalemate between supportive and antagonistic forces for many months: The S&P 500 is hovering around the 3000 level it first reached in July – and is only up 4 percent from its January 2018 peak.
The global economic slowdown and flattening of corporate profits have held equities in check — leading to bouts of intense recession anticipation — while profoundly low global bond yields and a still-sturdy U.S. consumer have bolstered stock valuations.