, Columnists
Bond Markets Really Are Signalling a Slowdown
Analysts shouldn’t dismiss the yield curve’s message just because inflation expectations have been declining in recent years.
Exercise caution.
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When it comes to the economic outlook, the bond market is smarter than the stock market. That Wall Street adage appears to be on the money from a cyclical vantage point, with key indicators in the fixed-income markets independently corroborating slowdown signals from the Economic Cycle Research Institute’s leading indexes.
The yield curve is widely considered to be among the most prescient indicators. That’s why its flattening this year has been troublesome for an otherwise optimistic consensus to explain away.