Equity Indexes: Recession Gauge and Loftiest Levels

equity indexes: First-quarter gross domestic product the official scorecard of the economy's health comes at a sensitive time for Wall Street investors, who have pushed equity values higher, shaking off sluggish domestic growth and the inversion of the yield curve last month a reliable recession gauge, according to Market Watch. Against that backdrop, equity indexes have drifted to their loftiest levels in six months, with bears arguing that it's only a matter of time before an economic slowdown enveloping much of the rest of the world takes hold in the U.S., while bullish investors see few impediments to further gains if the Federal Reserve keeps its interest-rate hike plans on hold for the near term. A first reading of U.S. economic performance in the first three months of 2019 is set to be released next Friday. The soft-landing scenario is playing out for the global economy and it is difficult at this point to see any risks on the horizon that are big enough to drag the U.S. into a recession, wrote Torsten Sl k, chief economist at Deutsche Bank, in a Thursday research note. Nicholas Colas, co-founder of market research firm Data Trek, said sufficient economic momentum to support earnings growth will be the key US equities clearly like this outlook, as long as it comes with enough economic growth to deliver earnings growth in 2H 2019, Colas wrote in a Friday research note, referring to the market's belief that there won't be a rate hike by the Fed over the several months. This backdrop of no recession and stable growth and low inflation and low rates is bullish for risky assets, in particular equities, he said. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.