D.R. Barton Jr., director of market research for the Foundation for the Study of Cycles, says he expects the market to continue its recovery through one more burst higher that lasts into the summer, but after that he is seeing "a bouncy, sideways market" with heightened volatility, swings reaching 20% up or down in a quarter. He is looking for "inflation-hedging names" for whatever happens coming out of the current cease-fire in the war in Iran, noting that he expects inflation to dampen the economy and the market for the remainder of the year.

Isaac Wakszol, chief executive officer at Activest Wealth Management, says investors need to guard against "this time is different" thinking in wanting to make portfolio changes due to the recent increase in inflation and oil prices, war in Iran and more. He notes that in the market's last 100 years, there have been 17 recessions and 20 wars and that markets have always recovered, "and we're on Day 40-something of this war and the market is higher." In preaching discipline, Wakszol did note that 2026 into 2027 will be "a year of reckoning" for artificial intelligence, to see if it can deliver on its promises, because failing that could dampen market enthusiasm.

In The NAVigator segment, Rob Shaker, portfolio manager at Shaker Financial Services, says that the fear-based selling that gripped the market around the start of war in Iran created a "generic widening" of discounts for closed-end funds. Shaker, a "discount-capture investor," says that widening — and the current recovery — was caused mostly by "the irrational effects of excessive selling pressures overall," which means that the bad news is creating buy-the-dips opportunities rather than fundamental problems for closed-end funds.

Veteran technician sees new highs leading to a range-bound, volatile market