There is anxiety over the direction of the U. economy and how long it can remain as an island, while the rest of the world slows down.  There is serious frustration with persistence and hastening weakness in Europe, which has been blamed on a lot of things, but misses the point that the continent is boxed into a position with few options.  Running big welfare societies with open borders, which were needed to address the depressed birthrates for a couple of decades, has crushed Europe. 

Meanwhile, there are limits to what their central bank can do and limits to what politicians can do without triggering yellow vest like protest.

Inversion

Here in America, three-month treasury bill yields just hit 2.47% taking them above the ten-year note yields of 2.469%.  This inversion is seen as a yellow flag by some and as a red flag by others.  This is because of the track record of inversions as a harbinger for recession. This condition needs to stay in place for at least ten days, and even then, the recession could take up to two years to occur. These lower rates are also hammering shares of financials. 

Fed Stirred the Pot

All of this is happening as many are still wondering why the Fed made such a dramatic path change with respect to rates. Could they have work suggesting a recession?  The other side of that would be the Fed is building tools to fight a recession if they thought it was right around the corner.

An accommodative Fed is still the best friend of investors until there are tough decisions to be made.

Blue Chip Blues

Couple this with more bad news at Boeing, which has the stock back at the post-Lion Air crash low, and Nike, which disappointed the street with its U.S. businesses and pedestrian guidance.

We raised a little money closing a couple of positions, but I'm not panicking.  The market will become tougher (470 or 500 stocks up this year is very unusual), but there are going to be huge winners, and the higher the market goes, the bigger the down sessions (law of large numbers).