It's looking rough out there again

With month-end and quarter-end out of the way, we can finally try to settle back into more familiar trading narratives but the long weekend coming up in US may make for a bit of a tougher time to grasp flows today.

Nonetheless, equities are picking up from where they left off in 1H 2022 as US futures are dragged lower once again so far on the day. S&P 500 futures are down 40 points or 1.1% currently, with Nasdaq futures down 1.2% and Dow futures also down 1.0%.

The half-yearly performance for the cash market has been rather dire with the S&P 500 seeing its worst first six months since 1970 while the Nasdaq experienced its worst first half to the year ever.

And that's not even the worst part. It is that the storm clouds are still hanging over markets and amid the ongoing combination of more persistently high inflation Inflation Inflation is defined as a quantitative measure of the rate in which the average price level of goods and services in an economy or country increases over a period of time. It is the rise in the general level of prices where a given currency effectively buys less than it did in prior periods.In terms of assessing the strength or currencies, and by extension foreign exchange, inflation or measures of it are extremely influential. Inflation stems from the overall creation of money. This money is m Inflation is defined as a quantitative measure of the rate in which the average price level of goods and services in an economy or country increases over a period of time. It is the rise in the general level of prices where a given currency effectively buys less than it did in prior periods.In terms of assessing the strength or currencies, and by extension foreign exchange, inflation or measures of it are extremely influential. Inflation stems from the overall creation of money. This money is m Read this Term and central banks tightening, the economic outlook remains rather dire. It's tough to pick at comforting points for markets at this stage.