While 'good is good, and bad is better'-market continues to price a higher and higher strike price for Ben, Mario, and Xiaouchuan, the twin (d)evils of energy and food price inflation could be tamping their enthusiasm for their new-found experiment. Critically, for all those 'hoping' for the pump to be primed and a self-sustaining recovery to take hold, we present three charts to rain on that parade. Whether the world's central bankers come back to the table is unclear, given their clear concerns at what they have done recently, but we suspect this is much more a 'when' than 'if' question and given the performance of asset and volatility markets, it seems this is more than priced in.
1. Global Developed Market (and Emerging for that matter) Economic Surprise Indices are all rolling over - Reality is not meeting Analyst/Market Expectations...
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2. Energy Demand is dropping rapidly - suggesting that 1) global economic recovery is stalling (or magically growth has become energy independent), and 2) central bank intervention (and geopolitical tensions in their somewhat circular fashion) has led to demand destruction quicker than many would have hoped.
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and 3. World Trade Volume growth continues to slide...
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Charts: Morgan Stanley