Waiting to Be Liberated

All eyes on what's to come on "Liberation Day"

Highlights

• All eyes on what's to come on "Liberation Day"

• Atlanta Fed Q1 Nowcast points to an economic contraction

• Consumer spending flips negative in a sign of a poor demand backdrop

• Defensive assets have been the big winners so far this year

Key Takeaways

• “Liberation Day”: Nothing matters more today than the tariff announcement this afternoon (expected at 4:00 p.m. ET), which promises to wreak havoc on this $33 trillion beast called global cross-border trade. While this is now being dubbed as an effort to “Make America Wealthy Again,” the cost for the world at large will be $1.4 trillion of lost GDP. Nobody wins in a trade war — wash, rinse, repeat. The United States wins but in a race to the bottom (European Defense stocks obviously are an exception).