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Bank of America Corp. sees a foreboding parallel in the current direction of markets: 1998, Bloomberg reports.

Emerging markets are crumbling under a strong dollar while tech stocks advance amid optimism over the U.S. growth trajectory -- two ingredients that might be the makings of an annus horribilis like the one seen two decades ago, according to the bank.

“U.S. decoupling, flattening yield curve, collapsing EM -- all echoes of 20 years ago,” strategists led by Michael Hartnett wrote in a recent note.

What was deemed a localized currency crisis with the devaluation of the Thai baht in 1997 soon spread to other emerging markets, culminating in Russia’s 1998 default. That led to the demise of Long-Term Capital Management, a highly leveraged hedge fund in Greenwich, Connecticut run by John Meriwether of Liar’s Poker fame.

Tightening by policy makers in the early 1990s set the stage for the dollar’s ascent of as much as 25 percent in the three years leading to 1998. Meanwhile, the yield curve inverted in June that year, Hartnett and team point out.

At first blush, we’re in a similar tightening cycle today, with the gap between two- and 10-year yields hitting fresh cycle lows, the agency says.