so much for the safety of the tech behemoths those supposedly friendly giants who may be relatively richly valued but you could still count on to buttress your portfolio poorly received results from the likes of meta meta  alphabet goog  microsoft msft and amazon amzn et al saw nearly 1 trillion at one point chopped of the big tech valuations this week according to the ft forlorn equity investors have seen tina turn to tin from there is no alternative to stocks we now seemingly have there is nobody you can rely on but at least with the us midterm elections fast approaching on nov 8 surely we have the politicians to help us well not this time says the team of analysts at blackrock led by wei li global chief investment strategist stocks tend to do well after the us midterms they note because gridlock is a common result and this prevents policy changes that could rattle the market however “we see a bigger problem for stocks than any potential positives from the midterm election outcome a looming recession we have argued how central banks rushing to hike policy rates to get inflation back to target would need to crush interest ratesensitive parts of the economy first” says blackrock’s team they point to clear signs of damage already inflicted on housing for example “as mortgage rates soar along with the fed’s aggressive rate hikes the number of new housing starts is falling quickly the slide in housing starts this year see orange line in the chart below is already steeper than past mega fed ratehike cycles such as in the 1970s and early 1980s – as well as the unwind of the mid2000s us housing boom other colored lines” they write in a note published this week any fiscal stimulus that may follow the midterms could be counterproductive for markets blackrock reckons because it would operate at cross purposes to the federal reserve’s battle against inflation it would come as debt levels are high and interest rates are rising a combination that may revive the bond market vigilantes just like it did recently in the uk blackrock says that following the midterms the political focus will shift to the economy and in particular lawmakers will start to express that they see greater danger in the fed’s tightening than they do in the impact of inflation “we see the politics of rates creeping into the politicization of everything with more voices beginning to decry the aggressive rise in interest rates that is causing recession we see the fed stopping its hikes amid the economic damage and pressure to ease up on tightening but price pressures will persist that’s why we think it will eventually have to live with some inflation” says blackrock still the fed will only pause “only after the economic damage of rate rises is clear all this outweighs any expected boost for stocks after the midterms in our view…we’re underweight developed market equities” blackrock concludes sp 500 futures es00 were down 07 to 3792 and nasdaq 100 futures nq00 fell 12 to 11098 as disappointing corporate earnings weighed on sentiment the 10year treasury yield tmubmusd10y rose 8 basis points to 4004 concerns about more covid19 shutdowns in china pushed us crude oil futures cl1 down 13 to 8790 a barrel amazon stock amzn is down about 14 in premarket action and in line to trade at its lowest level since april 2020 after the company forecast weak holiday sales following thursday’s closing bell apple shares aapl are inching up 1 or so after its postclose results contained no shockers though it did warn it was facing headwinds from a strong us dollar dxy  big oil dominates the earnings calendar on friday with chevron cvx and exxon mobil xom presenting their figures chevron topped earnings estimates elon musk has finalized his 44 billion purchase of twitter according to reports he has swiftly fired ceo parag agrawal and will take over the role on an interim basis tesla shares tsla are down 1 before the opening bell the euro eurusd traded back below parity with the dollar after the european central bank on thursday suggested the pace of future rate rises would likely slow the buck also gained against the pound gbpusd as traders waited for next wednesday’s federal reserve decision on interest rates with that in mind there’s a big batch of data coming on friday which may color the fed’s thinking arguably the most important is the bunch of personal consumption expenditure or pce figures for september due at 830 am eastern at the same time the employment cost index for the third quarter will be published and the september real disposable income and real consumer spending reports then at 10 am traders get the university of michigan consumer sentiment index and inflation expectations for october alongside pending home sales for september best of the web inside the secret prisoner swap that splintered the us and china the cloud boom has hit a plateau and it’s costing investors billions wall street analysts and investors may not be overtly declaring stagflation probably because the condition – high inflation during a recession – is stock market kryptonite but as the two charts below from bank of america show consumers certainly seem to be of a stagflationary mindset fortyfive percent of respondents reckon a recession has already begun while 75 thought that inflation would be elevated over the next 12 months “over the last month the bofa us consumer confidence indicator retreated from a fivemonth high of 337 to a twomonth low of 313 as of october 23 consumers are concerned about the economy as inflation is yet to be tamed and recession fears grow” wrote the data analytics team at bofa here were the most active stockmarket tickers on marketwatch as of 6 am eastern the real benefit of twitter – how bird song improves your mental health on the other hand…there is derek the menace the dive bombing jackdaw need to know starts early and is updated until the opening bell but sign up here to get it delivered once to your email box the 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