2026 began similarly to how 2025 ended, with euphoria around stocks and the prospect of continued economic growth driven by the AI boom leading to a fourth consecutive year of double-digit gains. As of late January, as the S&P 500 hit an all-time high, it looked like that story was playing out.

However, as Kurt Vonnegut wrote in his prescient 1950s novel Player Piano, “Those who live by electronics, die by electronics.” From a market perspective, as we will see shortly, that has proven to be the case.

As a child, I remember reading comics in the newspaper. My favorite was Calvin and Hobbes, which told the story of an imaginative six-year-old boy, the former, and his stuffed tiger/best friend, the latter. Having just celebrated 30 years since its last publication, we will look to it as inspiration for our 2025 recap and 2026 outlook. Out of respect for the Watterson estate and copyright laws—there are no actual comics in this post. We strongly recommend you taking few minutes to check them out online if you never have before…

Though technically not the actual title (Oedipus was a tyrant (tyrannus), not a king (rex)), we can never pass over a good pun. Accordingly, we comically (or, maybe satirically) use a play on words here as our theme.

For those who need a nostalgic reminder, conjunctions are used for hooking up words and phrases and clauses. Several authors and filmmakers have used or to provide context or nuance to what in many cases are legendary works of film or literature. We will look at several of these as we discuss whether this epic stock market recovery is likely to persist or fade.

A few years ago, I chaperoned our daughter on a trip to the National Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico (I guess America, now…) One of the exhibits simulated steering a barge into the port of Mobile, which is quite difficult, especially when surrounded by screaming children.

One thing I learned was this; if you make a really sharp turn while steering, there is literally no way you can fix it. No course correction, no reverse, nothing; you just have to wait a while before the inevitable crash into the shore.

Markets have been beaten up to start 2025, especially as it relates to tariffs and government spending cuts, pronouncements from both the president himself as well as his various cabinet members are moving markets. What we have experienced has been unpredictable and violent, like the financial version of a bar-room brawl.

*By the time you read this, markets may have changed yet again as headlines are driving stocks right now. The following is provided for informational purposes in as politically neutral context as possible.

We are just here to provide perspective on the initial effects of the Administration’s tariff policies on stocks and evaluate where we may go from here.

In a case of almost perfect irony, I have waited a long time to use this theme. However, with Google’s AI Overview informing me ”the play’s tone is absurdist and nihilistic,” it seemed appropriate at this point in the market and election cycle.

In a case of almost perfect irony, I have waited a long time to use this theme. However, with Google’s AI Overview informing me ”the play’s tone is absurdist and nihilistic,” it seemed appropriate at this point in the market and election cycle.

As we reach the midpoint of summer, the only thing rising faster than the thermometer has been the VIX, a widely followed measure of market volatility.