In the month of January 2023, we had seen the markets reversing itself after the doom and gloom that ended the year of 2022. To start off, for year-to-date (till 3 Feb 2023), the S&P 500 had recovered around 8.2% and the NASDAQ 100 had recovered even more at 15.7%. Our local STI, while being one of the better performers for 2022, had gained 4.3%. To add, our local S-REITs (using the iEdge S-REIT Index) had seen a rise of 8.5%. Just a few days ago, the Federal Reserve had announced an increase of 25 basis points, which was lower than the previous hikes, indicating an assumed (emphasis mine) pivot position by them.
With all these happening, it is easy to have the impression that the good times are rolling in again, and all the talk about doomsday and recession effects would be dampened, if not, very optimistically, non-existent.
Depending on who you had read from or listened to, there is still a range of outlooks with...