It took me quite a while to live what I am trying to demonstrate here. I once held my breath on bad stretches in the stock market. When COVID began and the market absolutely plummeted, it took every ounce of strength I had not to sell everything. Thankfully I held on because a Nasdaq that was down 23 percent in mid-March ended the year up 44 percent. I talk about this in a post about not trying to time the market.
I do want to preface that this lesson is important whether you actually own a brokerage account or not. If you have a 401(k) plan you are in the stock market. In my finance role over the years, employees have always come to my office during bad stretches wanting to know if they should pull their money and/or stop contributing.
Below is just some of the news that impacted the stock market this year.
Eight and a half months
- February 28: The United States struck Iran and the war began. Within days it had spread across the region.
- March: Oil went through the roof and stocks fell.
- April and May: Stocks rebounded hard.
- May: Kevin Warsh took over as chairman of the Federal Reserve.
- June: SpaceX went public in the largest IPO in history.
- Early August: Oil dropped below $80 when planned attacks on Iran were called off.
- Early August: A jobs report showed 23,000 jobs lost and the market hit a record anyway. That number was later revised to 21,000 jobs gained.
- Early September: The U.S. and Iran exchanged fire again. Oil jumped to about $90 and mortgage rates hit their highest level since June 2025.
- September 11: Inflation came in at 3.4 percent. Diesel hit a record $6.05 a gallon and oil neared $100.
- All year in AI: new IPOs, forecasts of huge growth, reports that the growth may not be as strong as expected and a rally that has started running again.
This week alone
- Monday: Anthropic’s CEO called for slowing down AI development and the heads of OpenAI and xAI agreed. AI stocks fell and the Dow lost 152 points.
- Tuesday: The Dow lost another 328 points.
- Wednesday: The Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time since 2023. Stocks rose on the announcement, then fell when Chairman Warsh spoke. The Dow closed down 631 points and the 10-year Treasury yield closed above five percent.
- Thursday: Nvidia said it expects to sell twice as many chips next year. The Dow gained 316 points.
- Friday: Warren Buffett stepped down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. The Dow slipped 95 points.
- For the week: The Dow fell 1.69 percent, the S&P 500 fell 0.08 percent and the Nasdaq rose 0.72 percent.
Where we stand for the year
Through Friday’s close:
- The Dow is up 7.53 percent.
- The S&P 500 is up 11.76 percent.
- The Nasdaq is up 14.11 percent.
That is a lot to absorb and that is not even close to all the news. One day, we are dreaming of all the riches we are going to have and retiring early. Things turn and then we are worrying we are going to be penniless working until we take our last breath. Through it all, over extended periods of time, things stabilize and, historically, go up. You have to build a diversified portfolio to help absorb bad times as best as possible and you have to be patient. This does not mean extended periods of a down market will not come. They have and they will. That does not change that over time, the overall markets trend up. Look at those numbers above for the year. Did you know everything is up?
Warren Buffett stepped down
It is tough to think about the markets and not think of Warren Buffett, so I wanted to give him some respect.
On Friday, Warren Buffett stepped down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. He is 96 years old. He stays on the board as chairman emeritus, his son Howard becomes chairman and Greg Abel remains chief executive, which had already been the plan.
In his letter he wrote that Father Time always wins.
He ran Berkshire Hathaway from 1965 and was chairman from 1970. Over that stretch Berkshire compounded at 19.7 percent a year and the S&P 500 compounded at 10.5 percent. He beat the market by quite a lot!
He is one of the richest men in the world and he still lives in the house he bought in Omaha in 1958 for $31,500. He could have a Ferrari in every city and he did not want one. There is nothing wrong with being flashy. If you earned it and that is what you enjoy, go enjoy it. What gets me is that he looked at more money than almost any human being has ever had and then went and lived the exact life he actually wanted.
That is the whole argument of rich versus wealthy. Rich is what you are able to spend. Wealthy is what you own and what it allows you to choose.
He made a lot of people millionaires along the way and he has given away more than $60 billion.
Good human……from what I know.
Blessings Come From the Worst of Times.
See you next Saturday.
Christopher
Weekly Notes — October 10, 2026