Pundits Weigh In: Is Equity Market Growth in Slowdown Mode?

Many economists and market watchers point to both national and global indicators that seem to suggest the heady days of continued market growth may be behind us. The stock market is in its 3rd-longest stretch without a new high since 2013, according to Bespoke Investment Group, which had a market commentary recently featured on MarketWatch.com.

“The Dow is around 9.2% lower from its late-January peak, while the S&P 500 is more than 8% short of its peak. By comparison, the S&P 500 achieved a max drawdown of more than 14% during a commodity and emerging-market selloff fueled by worries over China, according to Bespoke,” MarketWatch reported.

Bespoke says the current slump hasn’t been unusually dramatic or long, but it has “kept equities in check after a very big run up in late 2017.”

Several economic barometers have recently fallen short of expected growth projections. U.S. retail sales fell unexpectedly in January and then failed to meet expectations the following month. The U.S. added 103,000 jobs in March, well below expectations of 178,000, according to The Wall Street Journal, which noted that hiring remained strong.

Goldman Sachs’s global “current activity indicator” weakened notably in March. A record 74% of fund managers polled by Bank of America then said that the global economy was now in its “late cycle,” according to a recent article in the Financial Times.

“Given that investors are already growing increasingly nervous about escalating trade tension — global equities have tumbled by more than 8 percent from their late-January peak — the bout of disappointing economic data could not have come at a worse time,” the Times reported.