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Eelco Ubbels's avatar

The paradox in this week's data is that breadth is improving while the index pulls back, and inflation is accelerating in exactly the category the market is choosing to ignore. The AI premium, 12.7% versus 2.6% for companies mentioning AI on earnings calls, is real and measurable, but it is layered on top of a super core inflation print at 3.7%, the highest annualised reading in over a year, in a category that has nothing to do with the Hormuz energy shock everyone is using to dismiss the headline number.

That distinction matters for the government bonds underweight that half of tactical allocators currently hold. The consensus thesis assumes the current inflation wave is energy-driven and therefore temporary once the Iran deal settles. Super core does not care about oil. If services ex-housing keeps climbing independently of the energy story, the underweight stops being a bet on a temporary shock and becomes a bet against a structural repricing.

Breadth improving is the bullish signal everyone wants to see. Super core inflection is the one nobody wants to discuss.

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