Real average hourly earnings — the eight-month leading edge of NASDAQ-100 returns — has rolled back to the zero line, and the signal it governs just armed. That threshold is a coin flip: 50% probability of negative returns eight months out, with the chart projecting the index roughly -12% by December 2026. Read it as a yellow flag, not a red one. The kill zone sits lower — past -1 (67% odds) and especially below -2, where no reading has ever failed to precede losses. R²=0.265 is loose in aggregate, but the fit tightens precisely where it bites: the downside. Why? Negative real wages erode household demand first; consumer-facing revenue fades next; forward earnings follow them down; and only then does the multiple-rich NASDAQ-100, leaning hardest on those out-year estimates, reprice. Households first, megacaps second. The clock has started; the wallet, not the tape, is keeping time.
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