Flows over Fundamentals

This week, we examine rising strains in subprime credit, an end of quarter market rally that may say more about flows than fundamentals, and a deteriorating situation in the Middle East, along with our normal overview of macroeconomic releases. Delinquencies in subprime debt have climbed to their highest level in over a decade. Yet the system is not as exposed as it once was. Subprime balances now account for roughly half the share of total debt seen before the Global Financial Crisis, suggesting a more contained, though still notable, pocket of stress. Equity markets, meanwhile, finished the quarter with surprising strength on March 31. The move looked less like a reassessment of economic prospects and more like the mechanical force of pension rebalancing at quarter end. In other words, flows rather than fundamentals. Geopolitics adds another layer of uncertainty. Tensions in the Middle East continue to escalate, with the potential to reverberate through energy markets and inflation expectations at an already fragile moment for the global economy. As a note, this episode was recorded on April 1 and does not include the employment report released on April 3. We will return to that data, and its implications, in our next discussion.