As summer winds down, investors are still climbing the stock market's wall of worry. On the one hand, solid reports from companies like Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), and NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) show the artificial intelligence trade has room to run.
But there's more than enough evidence to cause investors to rethink their portfolios. Consumer confidence remains at recession-like levels. Some of that is due to the continued creep of higher prices and an interest rate policy that isn't stimulative.
