Welcome to the thoughts on the market. I'm Mike Wilson, Chief Investment Officer and Chief

U.S. Equity Strategist for Morgan Stanley. Along with my colleagues bringing you a variety

of perspectives, I'll be talking about the latest trends in the financial

marketplace it's Monday October 21st at 9 a.m. Eastern so let's get after it.

Over the past few months there's been a lot of good news for equity investors at

the end of July the Fed cut interest rates

the first time in a decade. In early September, the ECB announced that they would restart its

quantitative easing program by adding 20 billion euros per month for as long as it deems necessary or in other words indefinitely

at least 20 other central banks have also eased policy since July while several countries

have announced major fiscal stimulus packages,

including India's surprising corporate tax cut.

Two weeks ago, we had significant progress made between the US and China on trade,

with phase one of a much larger trade deal according to White House officials.

If that wasn't enough, the Fed decided to deal with front-end funding market distress by announcing a $60 billion per month balance sheet expansion,

which many are suggesting is a new quantitative

easing program while Brexit seems to finally be coming to a conclusion.

With all that good news why haven't U.S. equity markets been able to break out above July's

highs? We think it's pretty simple. U.S. equity markets been able to break out above July's highs.

We think it's pretty simple.

Growth continues to slow and all the leading indicators suggest that growth is going to continue

to slow.

In fact, that is exactly why Central Banks are making so many announcements to ease policy and why there

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