and others are not being mirrored in the rest of the economy. That is a good sign for the broader economy, according to Lori Calvasina, equity analyst at RBC Capital Markets.
"We are optimistic this condition can remain in place given the strong levels of demand and backlogs that we continue to hear about from publicly traded industrial companies," she wrote on Monday. Calvasina said the market's recent performance may reflect expectations for a mild downturn followed by a solid recovery in 2024.
The S&P 500 is up 4.6% in January, the best first month for the index since 2019. U.S. economic growth came in at a better-than-expected 2.9% rate for the fourth quarter. It is early, but the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank's first-quarter GDP estimate is currently 0.7%. The economy's performance may depend on whether price pressures that have afflicted consumer and business spending start to wane. There is some evidence of that, as the core personal consumption expenditures price index rose at a 5% year-over-year rate in December, the lowest since September 2021.
Still, that rate is pressuring margins, numerous executives said on Tuesday. Whirlpool Corp CEO Marc Bitzer said that "inflationary pressures remained stubbornly high" during the fourth quarter, and
🖕🏼Joe Biden 🖕🏼Dems 🖕🏼Republican ❄️ US Execs sound off on fear of inflation while producing record profits. This inflation is due to Corp Profits/price gouging. Not higher wages, rising costs, supply chain, unemployment that they have falsely claimed. ExcessProfitsTaxNow
Despite record profits, we're cutting costs because everyone else is.