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

Officer and Chief U.S. Equity Strategies for Morgan Stanley. Along with my

colleagues bringing a variety of perspectives, I'll be talking about the latest trends in the financial

marketplace. It's Monday, June 22nd at 1130 a.m. in New York, so let's get

after it. After publishing our mid-year outlook, it's customary for us to meet with as many clients as possible

to discuss and debate.

And last week, that's exactly what we did.

Unfortunately, during this pandemic, we are no longer traveling to see clients in person.

However, that has allowed us to have more interactions in a given week than normal,

which helps us to gauge reception to our calls.

First, client reaction to our more constructive view in the economy and financial markets has evolved from outright dismissal back in April toward acceptance that the worst is behind us.

However, there's still quite a bit of skepticism about the shape of the recovery and apprehension

to embrace the typical pattern coming out of a recession.

More specifically, the consensus views this recession as being more akin to a natural disaster

than the end of an economic cycle. Part of this stems from the belief

that prior to COVID-19, the economy was in great shape and absent of any major excesses that could

make it vulnerable to shocks.

Some even believe the economy was still mid-cycle and had years to run on the expansion.

Had COVID-19 not appeared, we would still be firmly in the midst of the longest expansion on record.

I disagree with that premise wholeheartedly and believe the U.S. economic cycle was very much

showing its age at the end of last year, making it vulnerable to any shock, much less a global pandemic.

What this means from an investment perspective is that many clients are still embracing a

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