“Soft” and “hard” data at widest divergence in history … Bearish For Equities

With the stock market selling off near 30 points on the S&P 500 by the close Tuesday – the Russel 2000, a “Trump rally” staple, was down 2 ¾% on the day and now negative on the year – a European Equity Strategy report from Morgan Stanley makes four key weekly observations. Chief among them is a widening gap between hard data and “ soft data ” US economic data, one that points to trouble for the stock market. This comes as corporate stock buyback programs appear to be having more success in the EU than the US and bond flows are outpacing equities as a strong pace of Fed rate hikes lies ahead.