Expand your active ETF horizons.: With Fidelity Active ETFs, you can have the flexibility needed to adapt and transform based on market conditions with potential tax efficiencies. Learn more here.
Economists can’t help but jump at their own shadows, and tend to forecast disaster around every corner these days. But it’s a short week, so let’s all take a chill pill and look back at a few of the expected calamities that still haven’t materialized this year.
Remember when US tourism was supposed to evaporate thanks to anti-American sentiment coupled with tariffs eating into travelers’ budgets? Yep, that didn’t happen: High-income jet setters made up for any broader consumer spending shortfalls, while domestic tourism climbed so high that it offset weakness in international travel demand. The travel industry has sighed in relief and enjoyed an unexpected uptick in stock prices through the summer.
Cast your mind back to the Liberation Day downturn, and you may remember whispers of the “Sell America” trade. Well, international investors did in fact abandon US assets—but only in April. As Apollo Chief Economist Torsten Sløk recently pointed out, global demand for US assets and debt immediately rebounded in May and remained strong.
The point here isn’t that you should ignore any and all economic prognostications. The point is that, as we enter a month with historically poor stock market returns (see below for more details), remember that sticking with your investment plan is a lot easier than freaking out every time someone says the sky is falling.—MR