Climb That Wall

Markets are known to climb a “wall of worry” or go higher even though headlines and investor sentiment are logically negative.  The current bull market that we have been enjoying has been exceptional at climbing that wall.  From divisive political turmoil, including two impeachments, to a world-wide pandemic, the bull continued to scale the wall.  Now sadly comes Ukraine, and while stocks are lower for the year, and there is plenty of trepidation out there, the market continues to hang in there.  There is a man whose name begins with a P, who has put fear into stocks, and that is Fed Chairman Powell.  Higher interest rates could ultimately be worse for equites than other world events, at least we can hope for that in a way.  As for Russia, it is important to remember that they have fallen to become the 11th largest world economy and Russian stock exposure is very limited in most investments, excluding commodities like oil.  We profoundly hope that cooler heads prevail and that our main concern is designing portfolios to withstand and benefit from higher rates and/or higher inflation.