This year, the stock market has experienced wild swings amid ongoing macroeconomic and geopolitical issues. Inflation is at its multi-decade high, and the Fed is aggressively hiking interest rates to bring it under control. This has raged a fear of recession among investors, and around 90% of the 400 CEOs surveyed by KPMG last month believe that a downturn is coming.
On the other hand, the latest job data revealed that the unemployment rate moved higher to 3.7% in October. Employers added 261,000 new jobs, the lowest since December 2020, thus showing signs of a cooling labor market, raising hopes that the Fed might slow the pace of rate hikes. In addition, the Fed had hinted at smaller increases ahead in the last week.
