Payment Networks: Sticking the (Soft or Hard) Landing

After a rip-roaring start to 2023, durability of earnings could be needed for gains to stick. Markets rarely accommodate consensus views. While the jury remains out on if the rally to kick off 2023 is warranted, when assessing our payments coverage, we think a case can be made that an overriding culprit of recent price action is attributed to stocks discounting a more dire setup (i.e., hard landing) in the year prior.