Ross Mayfield, investment strategy analyst at Baird joins Cheddar News. 

Stocks Open Mostly Lower After Two-Day Rally

and bring in ross Mayfield investment strategy analyst at baird ross. We want to talk all about the markets today and how things are looking in the early moments of trading. You know, we did see a two day rally thanks to some upbeat earnings. What do you make of the stock market action so far today? And what's your outlook for the rest of the week? Yeah, I think you said it right. I think its earnings, I think the market was looking for any piece of good news to hang on to. Um certainly sentiment was pretty washed out positioning had gotten pretty negative. We've seen some reporting of elevated cash levels, uh you know, fund managers and folks down on equities. So you had a real setup and then if earnings can hold in, I think it provides a nice, you know, floor under the market in the near term. And so you're getting a little bit of optimism and it's been a while since we've had any of that. So we'll see if it keeps going, we're still early in earning season, but so far pretty, pretty wide array of industries reporting decent results. Yeah, you mentioned optimism there and we have seen some pretty positive earnings from companies which ones have been, you know, surprisingly strong. What stood out to you. Yeah, I think anything consumer facing is gonna be the key here, right? So that can be something discretionary, it can be staples, it can even be, you know, tech, but anything that shows that there's still consumer resilience in the face of this bout of inflation is gonna be taken as a positive sign by the market. I think we're heading into a period of continually higher rates, inflation that's persisted and acting, you know, very sticky and problematic. So we're heading into a difficult macro environment. We know that the consumer has this kind of cash cushion built up over the last few years, but we've also seen signs of belt tightening. We've seen revolving credit, like credit cards take up. So I think at this point, if you can see resilience from the consumer regardless of sector, regardless of company, that's gonna be something that the market takes and says, Alright, maybe this higher rate, higher inflation environment isn't ideal, but it's not something that's going to break the consumer and guarantee a hard landing in 2023 quickly here. Ross Let's talk about mortgages because obviously, with rising interest rates, we did see data suggesting that demand for mortgages and refinancing fell once again with those rising rates. So what do home buyers need to be watching in the months ahead? If you're a prospective homebuyers, it's obviously a very difficult time, you know, prices are remaining elevated because there's so little inventory out there, mortgage rates are rising on the back of what the Fed is doing. So, it's a very difficult time all in for affordability of your new home buyer. Um I do think the housing market is probably the closest of any U. S. Sector to being, you know, in a recession or in the kind of draw down that the Fed would like to see, you know, higher interest rates hey That market so quickly, especially when we're coming off the kind of historic lows that we've been at. So refinance activity plunges, homebuilder sentiment plunges new stars, home sales, pretty much every indicator across the board is negative. Now, on one hand, that's exactly what the Fed wants to see, right. The kind of speculation and froth in the housing market we saw in 2020 and 2021 is exactly the opposite of what they need from inflation data. On the other hand, if you're a prospective buyer, you know, it's really difficult if you are a person who's locked into a low rate, you probably feel kind of trapped at this point. Ross, thank you so much for joining us this morning and for your insight there, that's ross Mayfield investment strategy analyst at baird