The Compound and Friends Are We in a Bear Market?
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Mar 20, 2026 Jim Labenthal, Chief Market Strategist at Serity Partners with 25+ years managing portfolios and frequent CNBC contributor. He walks through market volatility and why many stocks are down even as indexes hold. They debate AI winners, private credit risks and gating, and point to specific stocks and triggers that could shift sentiment.
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Why This Market Feels Unusually Weird
- 2026 feels volatile because markets are digesting multiple real risks at once, not just a single narrative like tariffs or rate cuts.
- Jim Labenthal lists Strait of Hormuz disruptions, private credit worries, and AI-as-existential-labor risk as concurrent drivers of uncertainty.
Index-Level Calm Hides Deep Stock-Level Pain
- The S&P being only ~5% off highs masks deep internals: many sectors and individual stocks have already experienced meaningful corrections.
- Josh and Jim note sectoral staggers mean the headline index can stay flat while 40% of stocks are in bear markets.
Concentration of Declines Is Driving Sentiment
- Nearly half the S&P's components are down >30%, concentrated in tech and discretionary names, skewing sentiment.
- Jim points out the 52-week low lists are filled with profitless biotechs and software, explaining internals.
