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The first quarter served up a quadruple whammy: Omicron, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, persistently high inflation, and increasing interest rates.

The strong uptick in inflation witnessed during 2021 had been hotly debated as to whether it was transitory, as the Fed claimed, or persistent. As increasingly stronger inflation data surfaced, Chairman Powell and other Federal Open Market...

As the quarter began, the nation was returning to normalcy with the pandemic showing signs of retreat. Within weeks, we saw an upsurge of the Delta variant.

Despite two consecutive monthly inflation numbers, the S&P 500 continued its upward climb this quarter. Some question how long this strength can continue in the face of supply chain bottlenecks, rising costs and higher inflation overall.