The big things you need to know:

• The team tackles some of the top questions in consumer-related conversations today, including what their company and industry level interactions and data have been telling them about the current state of the consumer, whether the consumer has been retreating or simply shifting their spend, what's happening in different consumer cohorts, what they think the biggest challenges are for the consumer at the moment, and how their companies are managing around tariffs.
• Overall, the team comes to the conclusion that while many of the issues impacting the consumer aren't new, in the aggregate the current set of pressures feels different and conditions appear to have taken a turn for the worse. Nik notes that the tone at a recent industry event was the most downbeat of all of the year's he's been attending and highlights what he believes the incremental pressures are this year. Mike highlights how his proprietary pricing data was particularly weak in February and how weakness in housing has broadened regionally. Steve points out that many issues have been used to explain consumer weakness earlier this year (i.e. weather), but that the slowing that's been underway has persisted even with some of those things now in the rearview mirror.
• On policy, all three noted that their companies have provided very little in the way of guidance related to tariffs, which will likely lead to a tricky reporting season. The team explores whether the companies in their industry will be able to pass along tariff costs via pricing, collectively concluding that it may vary by industry and will be very difficult to do in certain verticals.

The big things you need to know:

• First, trends in investor vibes were mixed last week, both in our quant work as well as last week’s investor conversations.
• Second, the median forward P/E for the S&P 500 has fallen sharply but remains well above average. We’ve also not yet seen significant adjustments to consensus EPS forecasts, which seems likely to keep confidence in P/E analysis low for now.
• Third, Small Caps (which have seen a greater degree of valuation correction) have continued to outperform Large Caps.

The big things you need to know:

• We’ve lowered our YE 2025 S&P 500 price target to 6,200 from 6,600,
• We’ve lowered our 2025 S&P 500 EPS forecast to $264 from $271.
• Among other adjustments, our new price target and EPS forecast embed the updated views of RBC’s Economics and Rates strategy team which were released last week.
• We have updated our year-end 2025 bear case for the S&P 500, which we’ve lowered from 5,775 to 5,550.
• Fourth, some of the vibes we've been tracking are starting to look too extreme to us (in terms of their negativity), but others have more room to go lower.

RBC’s Markets in Motion is the weekly podcast from Lori Calvasina, Head of US Equity Strategy at RBC Capital Markets, highlighting her latest views on the US equity market. This week, we bring you a special edition of the podcast, recorded live at the RBC Financial institutions conference on March 5th, 2025. Ben Fisher (US Equity Sales, Midwest & Macro Sales Specialist) moderates a discussion with Lori Calvasina (Head of US Equity Strategy) and Amy Wu Silverman (Derivatives Strategist) on their latest views on the US equity market outlook and what they’ve been hearing from investors.

The big things you need to know: First, we review our basic framework for thinking about drawdowns in US equities, a topic that’s been coming up in client meetings over the past few weeks, as investor uncertainty regarding the economy has increased. Second, we have refreshed the math behind our YE 2025 bear case of 5,775, specifically our valuation/EPS stress test. Third, we run through our latest updates on the vibes breakdown in the US, where investor sentiment has plunged to crisis lows on one key metric. Fourth, some of our work suggests opportunity is opening up in Small Caps, though we think it’s too early to go overweight.

The big things you need to know: First, we found more evidence of weakening investor and consumer vibes in last week’s data updates, while getting a mostly positive data point on corporate vibes, and a flattening in political vibes. Second, the rotation of funds flows from US equities to bonds and European equities strengthened last week.

The big things you need to know: First, there was very little change last week in the stats we monitor to track reporting season, aside from the continued drift lower in the bottom-up consensus 2025 S&P 500 EPS forecast to a little below $271. Second, uncertainty, policy, tariffs, and FX remained in focus in last week’s earnings calls. Third, we continued to find evidence of weakening vibes in the latest updates from the AAII investor survey, the NFIB Small Business sentiment survey update, and EPFR funds flows.

The big things you need to know: The big things you need to know: First, the earnings backdrop has softened a bit on the stats for the broader US equity market, and has also justified the rotation in performance leadership that has been seen. Second, company commentary in last week’s earnings calls highlighted the uncertain optimism that is driving US equity market performance at the moment. Third, weakness in investor sentiment and a miss on consumer sentiment stand out in our high frequency updates last week. We continue to closely monitor the vibes whose anticipated strength has been an important part of the bullish thesis on the US equity market for 2025.

The big things you need to know: The big things you need to know: First, 4Q24 earnings season looks solid on the stats so far. Second, bulls bounced back in the weekly AAII survey last week, as US equity flows stabilized.

The big things you need to know: First, the initial batch of 4Q24 earnings call commentary, which is mostly from Financials, highlights the optimism and uncertainty that are both embedded in the current outlook for stocks. Second, investor sentiment on the AAII survey continued to slip last week despite stabilization in the S&P 500 itself. Third, we continue to see some signs of mild rotation affecting US equity funds flows where we continue to see a loss of momentum. At the same time, we are seeing improvement in flows to bond funds, global equity funds, and several categories of non-US equity funds.