Latest Stock Buy or Sell?

Fed rate hike yesterday. We're back in the soft landing narrative again. The path that was narrowing is getting a little wider. J Powell soothed investors and said there's no reason to hike us into a recession just to do it. They'll be data dependent. The 2-year bond was 3.15 yesterday and went down about 20 bps, which suggests the bond market believes the Fed will do 25 in September, another 25 after that, and perhaps talk about pausing early next year. Lots of people were sitting out the market, even shorting. Yesterday you saw a reversal as those shorts came off.

The bond market. It all comes back to inflation. If inflation is going to be runaway and uncontained, then fixed income will go up or down, as it depends on interest rates. If people think inflation is under control, or the Fed is going too hard, then interest rates will come down and so will bond yields. Long way between now and when we declare victory. This could be a bullish head fake. If he had to choose, he'd say we probably saw the bottom on June 16. But there are so many cross-currents going on, it's really hard to tell.

Keep traditional 60/40 portfolio for next 3-5 years? Yes. Even if this is a false dawn for equities. Even if, worst-case, there is a recession, it will be a shallow recession. There's already been enough erosion in equities, bonds, high yield, and preferred shares. These are already true levels to be building portfolios. If you can get 5-6% on high-yield bonds, and we're not going to have a nasty recession, or if you can get 4-5% in investment grade, it's a good time to start dipping your toe in. He'd be more of a seller than a buyer.