Welcome to 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, March 8th at 11.30 a.m. in New York, so let's get after it.

It's hard to believe a year has passed since the lockdowns first began.

The good news is there appears to be a light at the end of the tunnel with case counts

and hospitalizations plummeting.

At the current pace of vaccinations and spring weather right around the corner, several

health experts are even talking about herd immunity by April.

Meanwhile, Congress is putting the finishing touches on another fiscal stimulus that's

close to $2 trillion.

When combined with the progress on the virus, it's hard not to imagine an economy that's

booming later this year.

Finally, earnings results for Fort Quarter proved to be spectacular with the median

company in the S&P 500 reporting double-digit year-on-year earnings per share growth.

In short, the recession is effectively over.

With all this good news, why are equity markets struggling the past few weeks?

In my view, it's really not that complicated or surprising.

First, with all the good news noted above, 10-year treasury yields finally caught up to

other asset markets and is putting pressure on valuations, especially the most expensive

...