The recent stock market declines have been hard to stomach.
The economy so far has remained strong with corporate earnings in general at record levels. But the potential that the long economic expansion is about to turn down into a recession and a whole host of risks mostly related to President Trump could mean that stocks keep going down even if they look cheap and are likely to be good long-term investments.
Quality companies with good earnings and strong balance sheets will mostly weather any storm and ultimately recover in price and remain good investments over the long term. When the market price of shares is down it is a good time to look deeper at the quality of and strength of companies.
As of early Sunday evening stock market futures predict a modest decline tomorrow. The market has been volatile in response to various risks and at the moment it is hard to see stock buyers becoming enthusiastic enough to push the markets up until and unless there is good news on various risk fronts including trade and even the stability of the White House. Analysts continue to predict robust earnings growth for the S&P 500 and so perhaps when the Q4 numbers begin to come in in late January that could fuel some optimism.