Inverted Curve, Deep Dive Into P/Es vs. Rates & Inflation, The Next Big Test

RBC's Markets in Motion

This week in the podcast, we reflect on some of the most interesting questions we got and things that we saw last week. Three big things you need to know: First, positioning trades within US equities tend to be fairly mixed during yield curve inversions (a topic of focus in our investor meetings even before the FOMC) but have a classic defensive bias. Second, an S&P 500 P/E of ~16x seems reasonable based on post-FOMC interest rate and inflation views and our analysis of the relationship between rates, inflation, and P/Es dating back to the 1970s. Third, the 3,500 level on the S&P 500 will be key to watch as it represents the point at which a median recession would be priced in and the S&P 500 P/E based on 2023E EPS would fall below average again, using our below-consensus EPS forecast of $212.