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Katie Brockman, The Motley Fool
Sun, Apr 6, 2025, 12:00 PM 5 min read
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Major banal indexes person taken a nasty tumble this week aft President Donald Trump announced his latest tariff plans. Many countries are issuing retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. arsenic well. The Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) swiftly fell into a bear market, arsenic of this writing, portion the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) inches person by the hour.
Jerome Powell, seat of the Federal Reserve, warned successful a code connected Friday that "tariffs are highly apt to make astatine slightest a impermanent emergence successful inflation." He besides noted that economical maturation could slow, perchance starring to "elevated" levels of unemployment.
Economic experts are besides sounding recession alarms. Analysts astatine J.P. Morgan revealed this week that they foretell a 60% accidental of a recession by the extremity of 2025, up importantly from the 40% prediction anterior to Trump's tariff announcement.
None of this is bully quality for Americans, but there's inactive crushed to beryllium hopeful close now. If I could archer each investors 1 happening astir the banal market, it's this: Time is your champion friend.
Despite experiencing stomach-churning volatility successful the past, the banal marketplace has survived each azygous recession, crash, and carnivore marketplace truthful far. Many of those downturns person happened successful the comparatively caller past, and investors who stayed successful the marketplace reaped the rewards.
In the aboriginal 2000s, for example, we saw the dot-com bubble burst and the resulting carnivore marketplace (which would spell connected to go 1 of the longest carnivore markets successful the S&P 500's history). Just arsenic stocks recovered, the marketplace was deed by the Great Recession -- the worst fiscal situation since the Great Depression.
After respective years of growth, we past faced the COVID-19 clang successful 2020. The S&P 500 mislaid astir one-third of its worth successful 3 weeks, becoming 1 of the fastest marketplace crashes successful history. However, since January 2000, the S&P 500 has inactive soared by 245%.
Time is your astir invaluable plus erstwhile it comes to surviving volatility. The mean S&P 500 carnivore marketplace lasts astir 9.5 months, with extra-long carnivore markets (like the 1 pursuing the dot-com bubble burst) lasting astir 2 years.
While that tin look similar an eternity successful the moment, bully economical times thin to acold outlast the bad. The mean S&P 500 bull marketplace has lasted astir 3 years, with the play of prosperity pursuing the Great Recession lasting a staggering 11 years.
With banal prices plunging further by the day, it tin beryllium tempting to propulsion your wealth retired of the marketplace oregon halt investing altogether. While that strategy makes consciousness connected the surface, the market's unpredictable quality could origin it to backfire.