By Staff Report Friday, February 3rd, 2023

Scott Anderson at Bank of the West is warning about a “residential housing market swoon,” with home prices dropping 0.54% in November, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index. “Home prices have declined for five consecutive months,” he added noting that the biggest decliners included San Francisco, Phoenix and Las Vegas, with declines of more than 1.2% in each location. Home price appreciation is likely to turn negative in 2023, he predicted. Meanwhile, the Fed’s fight against inflation is “gaining some traction” with personal income growth slowing dramatically as rapid wage increases come to an end.

Mitch Zacks at Zacks Investment Management is not panicked about a debt limit fight that would take the economy over what former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke called “the fiscal cliff.” The debt limit has been raised over 100 times since 1917, he said, adding that political standoffs have been a factor in “numerous instances.”  Among other things, a debt default would violate the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution, based on a Supreme Court ruling in 1935.

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon is long on the economy and the stock market. In remarks quoted in a recent note to investors, CEO sentiment at the World Economic Forum in Davos is decidedly more upbeat with a “softer landing” in the consensus view. Meanwhile, the investment appetite for U.S. investments is strong with the competitive advantage of American companies providing a big incentive for investments in the world’s biggest economy.