Now That the Debt Ceiling is Over, What's Next?

Now that the debt ceiling negotiations are behind us and President Biden has signed the measure, what will Wall Street's wandering eye focus on next?

Inflation? Interest rates? Recession? Artificial intelligence?

More than likely, headlines will quickly turn to the Federal Reserve's next meeting, which ends on June 14.

As you can see from the accompanying chart, there are conflicting opinions about what's next for short-term rates this summer. Some see rates ticking higher, while others believe the Fed will pause rate hikes. The Fed's current target for short-term rates is 5% to 5.25%. Two-thirds of speculators expect the Fed to hold steady in June.

It's also possible that the conversation will shift to artificial intelligence and how companies use this new technology frontier. The chart below shows that 110 of the S&P 500 companies mentioned AI in Q1 quarterly reports, a 40% increase from Q4 2022. This trend is expected to continue to trend higher in the coming quarters.

While Wall Street's attention will shift from topic to topic, expect our conversations to stay pretty much the same. We will continue to focus on your goals based on your time horizon and risk tolerance. We'll let Wall Street figure out the other stuff.