Loreen Gilbert, Wealthwise president, talks the state of inflation.

Closing Bell

Loreen Gilbert Talks State of Inflation 

Lauren. Gilbert is joining us now, she's the founder and ceo of wealth wise financial services. So Lauren thanks so much for joining us here on this Friday the Dow had its fourth straight week of percentage decline, which is the longest streak it's had since April May 2022. So what's your take on how the market's wrapped up Now? We've had a rough week in the markets S&P down 3% NASDAQ down almost four this week. And it's uh you know, there's a lot of red on the board. However, it's definitely still a stock pickers market where indices are not going to perform as well as individual uh particular holdings. And so really drilling down to see where those opportunities are. This is all about the Federal Reserve raising rates, It's all about inflation numbers coming out this week. That where they were trending down, word now seem to be trending upward again. So of course that's cause for concern and definitely cause for the Fed to continue to raise rates. And so in the meeting minutes that were disclosed this week, we did hear that they were optimistic about GDP that that was actually more positive than they thought and then unemployment. However, not as good as they would like. So that is kind of where we are right now. And so what I think we're going to see is another rate increase in March and it means that we might extend that where we thought that this might be the last rate increase. It's probably not. And that's where you're having stocks readjust their pricing Now let's talk about that latest reading on inflation is particularly the P. C. A. And this continued upward pressure on prices. So how should investors be reacting to this new information? Well it's definitely been on the services side where we're seeing the increases and we don't want that to become systemic. So definitely I think that that as far as investors are concerned it's looking for the types of equities that are still going to do do well as inflation is hotter and higher and looking at dividend paying stocks is still a very good place. So even though at the beginning of the year here we saw growth doing quite well a big rebound on growth, we have an overweight to value thinking that this story is going to be longer on the inflation front. And therefore those value stocks, dividend paying stocks will be helpful in a portfolio. Now. You have said that between now and the next Fed decision, we expect more volatility both in the bond and the equity market. So what should investors know? Well I think when it comes to new money going in the market it's going in over time. So in the next few months doing the kind of dollar cost averaging as you're entering the markets right now makes sense. And then for people that are fully invested already it's making sure that they have enough of hedged positions in their portfolio to give them some downward uh protection as it were also having alternatives in the portfolio. And we're sticking with high quality fixed income, not going to the high yield story, but keeping that quality high. Now let's talk about some of the geopolitical tensions around the globe. You have said that your company sees increased tail risk. So both Ukraine and Russia have ramped up their rhetoric as Putin's invasion of Ukraine approaches that one year mark which happened today. So how should investors continue to monitor this? Definitely that is a real tail risk. And when you look at the b of a survey of money managers, most people are still focused on the inflation risk which is still there, but we think is waning. So we think that here one of the biggest tail risk is in fact geopolitical tensions that could escalate and that means that demand could slow down, inflation could continue to be higher and therefore for investors looking at international definitely as part of the portfolio. Um, but still being careful as far as some of the emerging markets, specifically looking at china, um, we're still shying away from that area of the globe and focusing on other areas of international investment. Well, thanks so much for joining us today. That's Laureen Gilbert, she's the founder and Ceo of wealth wise for national services