This Bank-Lending Metric Is Sounding a Warning -- but Is Wall Street Listening?

Over long periods, the stock market sits on a mountain top overlooking all other asset classes. On an annualized return basis, stocks have delivered the superior return compared to gold, oil, housing, certificates of deposit (CD), and Treasury bonds.

But things can get dicey when you narrow the lens and look at the performance of equities over the short term. For instance, last year saw the iconic Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI), broad-based S 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC), and innovation-driven Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) fall into a bear market and deliver their worst single-year returns since the financial crisis in 2008.

Although investors have to be encouraged by the bounce the Dow Jones, S 500, and Nasdaq Composite have had, thus far, in 2023, certain indicators would suggest this bounce may be short-lived. One of those metrics comes from the banking industry and is sourced from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

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Source Fool.com