Fort Washington's Sargen: August looks like an economic inflection point

Nick Sargen, consultant and senior economic advisor at Fort Washington Investment Advisors, says that investors haven't really seen the economic impact of tariffs and other policies that experts were warning the public about, but they are seeing those issues now. "Fasten your seatbelts," Sargen warns, "you're just beginning to see the impacts." While not calling for a recession, Sargen says he sees headwinds for the market because "I don't understand how the market can keep setting record highs every day when now we are confronting major uncertainty." 

Carley Garner, senior commodity strategist at DeCarley Trading, says she sees "a lot more downside risk than upside potential" for the market right now, noting that it will be hard for the Standard & Poor's 500 to top 6,500 in the next few months whereas a decline could drop the index "into the low 5,000s." As a result, DeGarner has made her own portfolio particularly defensive, holding "mostly Treasuries" because there is "more risk than reward to be long stocks" now. Further, Garner says it's a "sell-the-rallies market for gold and silver," largely because she expects the gold rally to end -- and for precious metals to potentially take a big fall -- when the dollar gets a little stronger.

Plus, Rita Choula, senior director of caregiving for the AARP Public Policy Institute, discusses its Caregiving in the U.S. 2025 study, which showed that more than 63 million Americans are providing ongoing complex care for family members, and that they are sacrificing their financial security, health and well-being in many cases in order to do it.