Morning from Europe!

Stonks suddenly sold off yesterday and it was almost destined to happen given the overbought territory we had reached over the past weeks. The sell-off has spilled-over to Japan this morning, but futures seem to stabilize for the European -and US sessions today.

The trigger, in lack of more apparent drivers, was likely the weak quarterly report from FedEx, which showed weak air freight numbers and generally included very limited guidance for 2024. They say that FedEx is the economy and while that saying is destined to be outdated in coming years/decades, it still holds largely true that FedEx is the “Manufacturing economy”.

The weak guidance and numbers is another reminder that 2024 is not necessarily going to deliver strongly right off of the blocks.

Chart 1: FedEx no longer hinting of a big 2024 comeback for manufacturing