Every year as the summer months draw near their end, LPL Financial hosts its annual conference for financial advisors. While the conference is an excellent opportunity for advisors to expand upon professional interests, discover ways to enhance their impact on clients, and connect with industry experts — learning is a two-way street. At this year’s big event with nearly 9,000 attendees in sunny San Diego, the LPL Research team had the unique opportunity to connect with many of these advisors in person to get their perspectives on the capital markets. Below are some of the frequently asked questions from the road.

Equi

What Happened?

In short, the recent sell-off was underpinned by three primary factors, including: 1) overbought conditions coming into August — especially in big tech; 2) waning confidence for a soft landing due to last week’s weak Institute of Supply Management (ISM) manufacturing and employment data; and 3) the rapid unwinding of the crowded yen carry trade.   

What Should Investors Do?

To boil down the conclusion of our research into one simple message, don’t panic. Pullbacks and corrections are quite common, even during a strong bull market. Over the last 70+ years, the S&P 500 has experienc

This latest bout of market volatility has been unsettling, especially after such a calm 2023 and 2024 for stocks. However, with the benefit of some historical perspective, volatility of this magnitude is quite common.  

That said, Monday morning's brief spike in the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) to over 60, which we wrote about in "Navigating the Storm: Insights on Current Market Volatility", was certainly not normal. Now that this measure of implied volatility based on S&P 500 option prices is back to more normal levels in the low 20s after closing at 38.6 on Monday, it’s fair to say this pullback has been

While there has been some rebound today, the sell-off in stock markets from Thursday to Monday’s trading sessions was sharp and accompanied by a significant increase in volatility. We discuss how this current pullback and market volatility compares historically, and what this may infer for forward stock market returns.

After an extended period of a “bad news is good news” market, with participants believing data on a slowing economy would give the Federal Reserve (Fed) clearance to cut interest rates, we appear to have abruptly moved to a “bad news is bad news” environment. Market concerns have coincided in th