Welcome to Thoughts in the Market.

I'm Andrew Sheetz, chief cross-asset strategist for Morgan Stanley.

Along with my colleagues bringing you a variety of perspectives, I'll be talking about trends

across the global investment landscape and how we put those ideas together.

It's Friday, May 14 at 2pm in London.

The debate over inflation has roared back to center stage this week.

After a lower than expected reading for new jobs in April, US consumer price inflation

saw an increase of 4.2% versus a year ago.

That was the largest year on year rise in prices since 2008 and even led to some suggestions

of so-called stagflation, a scenario of weak growth but rising prices.

As is often the case, big changes in data are a good opportunity to step back and take

a breath.

Just as the surprising job number likely overstated the problems in the economy while

hinting at some very real underlying challenges, the same is true for prices.

This is not the 1970s or 1980s.

The prices are rising and that could create complications for both companies and central

banks.

When we think about these high readings of year over year inflation, the first thing

to keep in mind is what was happening a year ago.

The global economy was in shambles and the prices of many goods plunged as there was simply

little demand for airline tickets, hotels and many other items at any price.

Comparisons against those unusual circumstances are obviously going to create some distortions.

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