There are 2 conflicting forces that will define how stocks perform the rest of the year

Momo Takahashi/BI

• Investors are facing mixed signals from a cooling economy and expectations for continued corporate earnings growth.
• A surprise surge in unemployment has raised recession fears, but they might be unfounded.
• The overall direction of the stock market hinges on how resilient corporate earnings growth will be.

Markets are digesting mixed signals that will likely be the driving forces of stock performance for the remainder of 2024.

On the one hand...