For at least two weeks now, traders and investors could be forgiven for feeling like they have been trying to drink from a fire hose, and a multiflavour one at that. Virtually every day, they have been confronted by some combination of market-moving corporate earnings and economic news, supplemented by competing policy signals and volatile technical influences. As confusing as this situation may seem, it speaks to a fundamental transition in markets that I have described before. It has two major characteristics: increasing divergence in economic and corporate performance, as well as policy; and increasing dispersion in asset valuations. Both are underpinned by macro themes that are playing out in real time. This is best seen, and best monitored in future, through a grouping of recent developments and market influences. They fit into three broad categories that speak to country and corporate fundamentals, policies and technical influences on markets. Economic and corporate fundamenta...

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