A quick look at the week ahead

This week is scheduled to be a quiet one on the PSE, with only the event of note being the Cebu Landmasters [CLI 2.83, down 0.7%] FOO offer kickoff on Tuesday. We’ll get more earnings reports (Q4 and FY23) though, and things happen when boards meet, so we could get some juicy bits of news flowing out of those merienda meetings. Internationally, our rates daddy the US Federal Reserve will meet to decide on what it will do with the US interest rate on Wednesday, and we’ll learn about the outcome of that meeting on Thursday morning just before the PSE opens. 

MB bottom-line: In a past life I was a marathon runner, and while a full marathon is 42 kilometers, I used to say that 50% of the race is the first 35 km, and the other 50% is the remaining 7 km. That’s what this fight against inflation feels like to me. Anyone who has ever done the Run Rio marathon series or the Manila Marathon will know the pain that comes from making that last turn onto Buendia Avenue. You’ve been running for three hours or so already. The heat of the day is starting to build and the traffic is making it harder to concentrate. All you have is just to run from like Makati Med to the finish line near Vikings at Mall of Asia. On paper, this is a tiny part of the race. But in reality, it’s easily half (if not more) of the mental and physical work needed to complete the full 42. We’re on Buendia. Each step is pain. Our brain is playing tricks on us; how long has it been since our music was last interrupted by a kilometer completion notification? Has our pace fallen off that badly? Is Strava still working? We can see the bay but the water is not getting closer. We’re out of gels to eat. We don't hear our music. Can’t even see a water station. The race feels like it’s never going to end. 

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