The Art of Weathering Market Turbulence. By Damon O’Brien.

As seasoned investors know, share prices can move up and down a lot. It’s what investment professionals refer to as ‘volatility’. Sometimes price volatility may be relatively low, but over the last 3-4 weeks volatility has spiked and global shares, especially those in the US, have fallen rather sharply.

When share markets experience sizable price falls, there is often a combination of different reasons. Some of the main ones currently include -

• Concerns about further tariffs being imposed by the Trump Administration, leading to potential retaliation from nations being targeted by the new tariffs, and an escalating trade war.

• The release of DeepSeek’s AI reasoning model in January, casting some doubt on the leadership position (and valuation) of large US technology firms.

• Unease about the public breakdown in the relationship between US and Ukraine, sparking fears that the conflict in Ukraine might worsen.

For many, these events are highly unsettling. The tariff issue on its own has raised fears that many companies might soon face unexpected cost pressures which would erode revenues from sales, resulting in reduced profits and weaker economic growth.