Sensationalism

I love documenting stock market sensationalism (meaning, shocking stories in the news meant to provoke fear), and wanted to share this one with you:

Two months ago today this article was published, and the ‘expert’ said the market would crash within 60 days due to what he felt were likely dismal upcoming earnings announcements and continued interest rate hikes. However, the S&P 500 is up ~3.5% since then; 85% of the 500 companies in the S&P 500 have reported with 80% of those beating expectations; and rate hikes now seem to be slowing dramatically. Note that the banking crisis started AFTER he made this prognostication, which was unrelated and yet still this didn’t come to fruition.

Now, having missed on this fearmongering, the news will inundate you with talks about the ‘looming’ debt default. I will tell you right now: that’s not going to happen. Yes, there will be haranguing on both sides of the aisle, and Congress may even miss the ‘deadline’ (not really such a thing as the Treasury Secretary can prioritize debts or delay other payments, just like we would do if our finances were in a crunch) of June 1st, but in the end something will happen, even if it’s as simple as kicking the can down the road to September, and this ‘crisis’ too will be averted.   

So, just because you see it in the news, and/or someone reputable says it, doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. No one has a crystal ball, and the best course of action still is to think long term, be diversified, invest to your risk tolerance, and rebalance regularly.

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