“The stock market has predicted nine out of the last five recessions!” & Paul A. Samuelson, 1915 – 2009, first American to win the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences
Fed’s Policy Pivot Triggers a Global Snap-back Rally
Originally written in response to the popular desire for ghost stories around Christmastime, Scottish author R. L. Stevenson’s popular novella “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” was an immediate success in both England and the United States, and went on to inspire countless stage productions and motion pictures.
Released in January 1886, the complex story centers around Dr. Henry Jekyll who has two distinctly opposite personalities: one good, the other evil. In modern times, the names of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the alter egos of the main character, have become synonymous with the exhibition of wildly contradictory behavior.
According to Investopedia, the term “is sometimes used to describe a stock market with a split personality, where Jekyll represents the ‘good’ in a market – benign, predictable – while Hyde is the ‘bad’ character who is volatile, unstable and unpredictable.”
That Jekyll and Hyde mentality was clearly on display not only in the 4th quarter last year as fears of a slowing global economy, escalating trade tensions, and tightening central banks sent markets sharply lower, but also in last quarter’s epic rebound that pushed the S&P 500 to its best start to a year since 1991.
