If you were wondering whether markets were still in summertime silly season, allow me to settle the matter for you: they definitely are. August is traditionally a month when markets go bump in the night thanks to slimmed-down trading desks in the northern hemisphere summer, and 2024 is a particularly fine example.
Remember the yen carry trade? No, nor does anyone else, but only around three weeks ago it was one of several factors thrown into the mix to help understand an ugly and swiftly reversed stock market sell-off. Bond and currency markets continue to exaggerate the likely scale of the impending US economic slowdown.
But the real evidence of summertime flights of fancy stems from the scale of focus this week on the earnings of one company, Nvidia.