As the (stock market) world churns

Hello everyone, and welcome to the March 2022 edition of the boodle blog. We appreciate you as a client, and if you are still a prospect, we hope that you contact us and become a boodle member.
There is a lot going on that affects everyone on the planet, so we will proceed directly to what has been happening and how best to steer through the carnage in the markets.

In February’s blog we said that our outlook was cautious, and it remains so in March. For the foreseeable future, gains like we saw in 2020, and as recently as 2021 will be very difficult to replicate. As of March 3, the S&P 500 is down nearly 9 percent.
We have had some incredible years of investing, but for the first 6 to 8 months, you should expect choppy markets and little to no growth within your portfolio.
Boodle will be watching the markets for a buying opportunity, and we expect to see this opportunity materialize in the late summer or early fall.
We expect the Federal Reserve to start raising interest rates, starting with the March 16 FOMC meeting, and we concur with banks like Goldman Sachs, that several rate hikes will occur throughout 2022. These interest rate hikes in addition to the Fed tightening money will have a negative effect on our portfolios. Boodle sees this as a necessary step to assure future stock market gains.
In addition, we watch the yield curve on bonds, and we look to see if the yield curve is “inverted”. There is a technical definition for this, but suffice it to say, that an inverted yield curve would signal a recession, which would be very bad for stocks, and we are confident that a recession will not occur in 2022.
The Russian invasion of its neighbor, Ukraine is a hostile act of war, and we are watching events closely. Russia is being the aggressor, and we are hoping for the best, but Ukraine may not survive this catastrophe as a nation when all is said and done.
The Coronavirus seems to be dissipating and we view this development as a positive one. Masks are being removed from the faces of citizens, and businesses are (hopefully) starting to rebound.
Boodle believes that inflation will remain stubbornly high, but the Fed will do what needs to be done to bring it (inflation) down to around two percent. As of this moment, inflation sits at 7.5%. We can all feel the impact of inflation when we purchase groceries & gasoline, both of which are up significantly. A barrel of oil sits currently at $109.00.
The opinion of boodle to our members is to maintain your current holdings within your portfolios. Any money that you had dedicated to go into the stock market is to be directed to a money market account within your portfolios until we identify a low risk buying opportunity, and at such time you will add the money you want to place into the stock market, out of your money market funds, and into your equity mutual funds. Things will get better, but it will take time for that to happen. In the meantime, stay with boodle, keep up to date on this blog and we will do our best to make your financial journey, a rewarding one. We will see you again in April.