Such a 'flu shot' is now widely expected and would be unlikely to unsettle investors beyond a transitory period.
Equity prices can rise, despite decelerating profit growth and moderately rising interest rates, if investors expect economic expansion to continue. In previous such cases, stocks outperformed bonds, often notably.
We expect profit growth to decelerate in the second half of 2004.
We expect 2001 to be yet another year of profit expansion, albeit at a slower pace.
We expect 1999 and 2000 to be years of ongoing profit expansion, with better aggregate gains than 1998, which was disappointing.