The Fed Cut and Trump Tariff are fueling the "asset light" trade

It seems these days the markets are a broken record. The latest, confusing Fed cut (was it dovish? hawkish? we think somewhere in between), coupled with Trump's latest tariff announcement and a 2.4% drop in the S&P 500 over two days is a scenario that should no longer surprise markets. But yet again we have seen a resulting surge in bearish sentiment and confidence levels appropriate for an economy in late-cycle (which it's not).

There are three macro factors that belie this reborn market bearishness and support further upside for equities.

i. Falling 10-year yield

ii. Weakening USD

iii. Odds of a rate cut in September have risen to 100%

Remember folks, since 2009, with rare exceptions, pullbacks NEED TO BE BOUGHT. What to buy? Here are the four trades that this Fed cut supports: i) Overweight US vs. rest of world; ii) asset-light stocks over asset-heavy stocks; iii) large caps; iv) cyclicals over defensives.

The Fed cut is especially adding gasoline to asset-light stocks because it is further cementing the market belief that interest rates can only fall lower, which makes asset heavy businesses less attractive to investors. And by the way, we define asset-light stocks as those with low assets to EBIT (earnings before interest and tax expenses).

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