In days of yore, the sight of seagulls wheeling over an inland forest or fields was taken as a sure sign of a storm at sea. In a similar vein, last week, many investors took the sight of an inverted yield curve as a sign of impending recession.

I have always been a middle-distance runner. I think this serves me well today as, while many strategists and financial advisors talk about investing as a marathon, it is essentially a middle-distance discipline.

The economic recovery that began in 2009 has proven its endurance many times and is now the longest expansion in history. Our base case forecast is that it will continue into 2020 and probably beyond.

The week ahead, like last week, will be crammed with important market-moving events and data points. The challenge for investors will not be in predicting instant market reactions to this new information but rather in understanding how it could change the investment landscape going forward.

The formula in Hollywood today lacks imagination. It's all about remakes and sequels. Financial markets, too, are seeing a series of sequels and a few are opening this week.