A significant portion of the markets the past two years have been fueled by global central banks that opened money spigots to cushion from the blow of shutdowns and border closures along with very low interest rates for years. And of course, there is, some truth there. “I told you so” becomes a common refrain, a tsk-tsk that any sane person should have known that this was coming, that the writing was on the wall, that what goes up must come down. In many ways, there is a predictable cadence to how people react when stocks sell-off just as there is when they soar. When markets crashed in March of 2020 or in the fall of 2008, there were legitimate reasons to ask if something fundamental had shifted and if we might be on the brink of the type of a major collapse-last seen on the Nasdaq in March of 2000 and with the Dow in October 1929. That is a signal of underlying stability. The rotation out of high-flying tech and pandemic-themed stocks has been unusually brutal, but from a technical perspective, it has happened in a rather orderly fashion. Yes, that torrid pace is now slowing, but even with inflation running hot at 7% year-over-year at least read, wages are rising, unemployment is astonishingly low, and there is no sign of the market breaking down, as it did when trading had to be halted multiple times in March of 2020 because the sheer volume of selling triggered circuit-breakers.

GDP for the United States grew 6.9% in the most recent report. But there are a few things we do know: there is no sign of an overall economic collapse or even sharp contraction. Is this just another volatile period or the start of a more ominous breakdown? The answer is always the same: no one knows.

What everyone wants to know in these moments is simple: is a further market collapse ahead or are we done? Markets then rebounded sharply in the past days, but wild swings are often a sign of more wild swings to come.

Next stock to blow up