You know resistance will come. With the S&P index up 9.1% in July, Federal Reserve officials are pushing back against two key market sentiments: the Fed is “pivot” and “we’re in a recession.” Neil Kashkari, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, suggested on Friday in an interview with the New York Times that the market has gone ahead of itself in predicting that the Fed will end its rate hike program, said that the Fed was “united in our determination to bring inflation back to 2% … and we are far from that.” In two weeks, the bulls have stepped up the narrative. “pivot”: that rate hikes are all that’s needed, that the Fed will start easing increases by year’s end, that the Fed will cut net interest rates in 2023, and that’s the time to go. advance and buy growth stocks. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell tried to push back on this story during his press conference last week, where he noted that the Fed is still expected to raise rates in 2023, not lower them. But the bulls don’t want to listen. There was also a rebuttal to the inflation story Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic told the Wall Street Journal “I don’t think we’re in a recession,” Powell said. Bostic noted strong employment growth, “which shows that the economy has a lot of momentum.” It may not matter. Kashkari made another appearance this weekend, this time Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” where he said, “We’re going to do everything we can to avoid a recession, but we are committed to reducing inflation and we will do what we need to do,” he said. “We’re a long way from getting an economy back to 2% inflation. And that’s where we need to be.” Others simply discourage people from using the “R” word, suggesting that this current economic landscape is, well, just a bit odd. “This is possibly the weirdest economy any of us have ever seen or will see again in our lives,” said Ben Carlson of Ritholtz Wealth Management over the weekend. “Covid crashed the economy, then all that stimulus sent us up sugar and now the hangover. We don’t know if this is the sort of hangover that is simply asking for. some greasy food to pass up or it’s a Las Vegas hangover where you feel like crap for three days afterward.” We’ll see. Chicago Fed President Charles Evans, Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester and St. Louis James Bullard all appeared in public on Tuesday. July has been a positive month for traders Preliminary inflow data for ETFs shows some sizable inflows into bond funds of all types, including government (iShares US Bond Bond ETF (GOVT)), corporate (iShares Investment Grade ETF (LQD)), and even high yield (iShares Broad High Yield Corporate (USHY)). Dividend ETFs remain popular as a defensive way to play the market (Invesco High Dividend Low Volatility (SPHD)). Learn more about July ETF flows on ETF Edge at 1pm this Monday when our guests will be Ben Slavin, global head of ETFs at BNY Mellon, and Andrew McOrmond, managing director. at WallachBeth Capital.