You know the drill: Bad news for the economy turns out to be good for stocks, and good news becomes bad. It’s happening again, and it’s all thanks to inflation—or more to the point, worries about inflation.

The latest example was the surprisingly weak job openings figures on Tuesday, which showed more than half a million fewer vacancies than economists had forecast and the number of job quitters back to pre-Covid levels.

Instead of taking that as a sign that companies see weaker demand and consumers are less confident, both bad for profits, investors welcomed the idea of a slowdown. There will be less pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise rates and keep them high, so bond yields fell and stock prices rose.

Source: WSJ