On September 9, leading up to the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) much-anticipated rate hike, we wrote about how stocks historically performed after the start of rate-hiking cycles. In short, stocks tended to struggle over the first four months following the policy change before recovering and advancing by the time one year had passed (based on the last six hiking cycles dating back to 1994, with the bear market of 2022 a glaring exception). In today’s market article, we take that analysis a level deeper and provide historical perspective on which equity sectors have done well or poorly early in these past cycles to help investors identif

Stocks continue to climb a wall of worry, a wall that has gotten a bit taller as fall begins. The conflict in the Middle East, higher interest rates, and questions surrounding the enormous artificial intelligence (AI) capital spending boom all present legitimate risks for investors. While each of these challenges could generate bouts of volatility, we believe the fundamental backdrop remains supportive enough for stocks to weather them. Here, we assess the market’s growing wall of worry, explain why these worries warrant attention, and justify our continued constructive intermediate-to-long-term stock market outlook.

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The S&P 500 has remained remarkably resilient in the face of mounting macro headwinds. Despite oil prices topping $100 per barrel, 10-year Treasury yields climbing above 5%, and a renewed shift toward tighter monetary policy, the index continues to hover near record levels. Much of that resilience can be attributed to the resurgence of mega-cap stocks. After significant underperformance in the first quarter, the Magnificent Seven Index, comprised of Alphabet (GOOG/L), Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Meta (META), Microsoft (MSFT), NVIDIA (NVDA), and Tesla (TSLA), has staged an impressive comeback, powering the index back to record-high territo

Back in March, we examined how well-anchored portfolio construction, supported by LPL Research’s strategic asset allocation (SAA), could help weather your portfolio for the long-term in “Finding Portfolio Resilience in Uncertain Times.” In that market article, we discussed our SAA and the benefits of playing an active role in long-term portfolio construction. Six months later, in September 2026, we could run that same exercise, only the headlines look a little different this time. Now it reads more like “Fed Hikes Rates for the First Time Since 2023” and “Oil Tops $100 a Barrel as Middle East Tensions Persi