While Stocks Soar, Economy Tumbles

While stock markets built in a perfect outcome for a trade solution, the economic deterioration continued as retail trade and industrial production releases on Friday pointed to a significant reduction in Q4 U.S. GDP:

That would put annualized U.S. GDP for 2019 below 2%:

Meanwhile Earnings for Q4 and Q1, 2020 are being revised down further:

Which, if you pay attention to the fundamentals (which apparently are currently out of fashion?), makes stocks look even more expensive:

When this happens, when the world just does not make much sense, cautious folks, like us at High Rock, tend to be thinking more of capital preservation and risk mitigation.

Opportunity always comes to those who are patient.