Commentary: Your stocks are slumping, but you probably can't blame Trump

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Tariff turmoil.Threats against Iran.

An anti-immigration surge that has taken two innocent lives.And there’s a sizable slump hitting the stock, bond, precious metals and cryptocurrency markets.What’s the connection? The answer is: Not much.Markets go up and down; it is easier to ride out a downturn when you realize the giveback is but a small percentage of the recent gains.— Investment Manager Barry RitholtzWhen it comes to Trump policies, investors have come to realize that Trump is often all talk, little action—that’s the underpinning of the “TACO” trade, for “Trump Always Chickens Out,” which I described in May.

As recently as Jan.20, for example, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell by more than 2% in a possible reaction to Trump’s saber-rattling over Greenland and threat to hike tariffs on European countries he felt were thwarting his imperial ambitions.

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The next day, the index began a comeback, rising nearly 1.2%.By three sessions later, it had recovered all that first day’s loss.

The index went on to set an all-time record on Jan.27, one week after the Greenland sell-off.

The latest sell-off in the investment markets doesn’t appear to be connected to Trump’s policymaking.The current narrative blames artificial intelligence.

There’s an inchoate expectation that AI will have a great economic impact, though little of that has emerged thus far, and no one is very clear on what form it will take or even whether it will happen at all.Investors and investment analysts don’t really know what to make of AI.From reading the most recent market commentaries, one might conclude that investors are unnerved by the potential of AI to upend industries across the spectrum.

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