Survival instincts the key to prosperity amid difficult business cycle

The S&P 500 has risen more than 40% since the lows witnessed earlier this year.

However, considering the market halved by the time it bottomed in March, this rebound is welcome but needs to be seen in context – similar to the ‘less bad’ economic data that has been developing recently. While specific areas of the economy, such as housing prices, have shown signs of stabilisation, neither cyclical nor structural headwinds have disappeared. We are in the ‘life must go on’ zone. The easy money has been made with stock prices rebounding from panic levels to a more sensible equilibrium. Part of this was also driven by companies successfully cutting costs and restructuring...