As 2019 comes to a close, the stock market continues to break records, unemployment remains low and inflation pressures are absent. Will this steady-state growth continue in the new year? The labor market and monetary policy could hold clues for what to expect in 2020.

Last week, the Fed released its quarterly Financial Stability Report, which monitors four financial vulnerabilities that could cause widespread problems in times of stress. Thankfully, the Fed’s assessment is that the financial system remains well-balanced, and inflation is not posing a threat today as it did on the eve of past recessions.  

Business investment trends—the spending that supports business revenues far into the future—get a lot of attention among the economy-watching community. This year’s slowdown is a big story, but there might be more to it than meets the eye.

In a surprising twist, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said he doesn’t expect to raise rates until core inflation moves above 2 percent on a sustained basis. This could represent an important innovation in the Fed’s management of the economy.

The Federal Reserve appears to be taking a timeout after its rate cut last week. With the October jobs report stronger than expected given the GM strike, all signs seem to support the Fed’s decision to sit back and monitor the situation—at least for now.

Ongoing angst in the industrial sector has led analysts to talk recession, but there are several reasons this slump likely isn’t cause for alarm—including that industrial activity only accounts for 10 percent of the total economy and central banks will likely be able to cushion the impact from stalled industrial activity.

Based on trends in jobless claims, the expansion seems to be holding steady. This week: updates on industrial production, the state of the consumer, the Brexit drama and US-China discussions.

LIBOR is an interest rate index that’s been used across financial products for decades, but is now slowly being phased out and will likely cease to exist after 2021. Given that LIBOR is used so widely for everything from loans to derivatives to securitizations, what impact will this move have on businesses across the globe—and what should they be doing now to prepare?

Special guest: David Watson, Managing Director and Head of the Libor Transition program for JPMorgan Chase Commercial Banking.

At just 2 percent below this summer’s record high, the stock market is bullish and appears unfazed by the looming Brexit deadline and other uncertainties, both international and domestic. Also this week: the Fed’s approach to future trouble, the economic impact of the General Motors Co. strike and the latest in US-China trade negotiations.

Last week’s gloomy manufacturing report from the Institute of Supply Management sent ripples of anxiety through the financial markets. But these reactions would feel more appropriate in the old days, when purchasing managers’ reports were seen as important signals of economic health. Today’s stalled industrial sector is most likely the result of weak activity in the energy sector and Boeing’s slowed 737 MAX 8 production. In other words, weak industrial trends are worth keeping an eye on, but they aren’t the whole economy.