2023 brought about many surprises, with the ‘most anticipated recession’ – at least for the U.S. – not happening. The outcome, at least for last year, was an exceptionally strong economy, and the stock market performance reflected that. Here we uncover the surprises, and what lays ahead in 2024. 2023 It (was) the economy, stupid Economies generally held up better in 2023 than expected, with the U.S. in particular performing much stronger than projected. In Q3 2023, the U.S. economy delivered an annualized 4.9% in GDP growth. This was helped by debt-fuelled government spending, and the still supportive U.S. consumer. Compare this to end 2022, where nearly every economist was touting a recession. Either way, the gloomsters were wrong, on both the economy and the markets. The average 2023 year-end S&P 500 projections by Wall Street made in 2022 was 3,885 points – an 18.5% difference from the actual close of 4,769. Source: Bloomberg Inflation fell It should have been no surprise that inflation dropped, and that it...