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Inflation continues soaring with no end in sight and seems to shatter 40-year highs every month. 

The Fed just hiked interest rates 25 basis points for the first time in almost four years and anticipates up to seven more hikes through 2023. Interest rates could potentially hit 2.75% after two years of 0% rates, effectively ending the era of free money and cheap borrowing.

Unfortunately, 0.25% rate hikes may not be enough to douse the flames, and Fed Chair Jay Powell knows it. On March 21, he showed striking transparency in saying that the inflation outlook has deteriorated. Even if the Fed funds rate rises to 2% by the end of the year, core inflation (excluding food and energy) could still hover around 4.1%. With the central bank’s back against the wall, he may have no choice but to bump rates by 50 basis points.

“If we determine that we need to tighten beyond common measures of neutral and into a more restrictive stance, we will do that as well,” he said.

Powell’s not bluffing either. In January, activist investor Bill Ackman said hiking rates 50 basis points was the only way for the central bank to regain credibility. Goldman Sachs recently echoed this and now expects the Fed to hike rates 50 basis points in May and June.

Owning physical assets in such times, such as real estate, have proven to provide a powerful portfolio hedge. To quote Russell Sage, the famous financier, “real estate is an imperishable asset, whose value keeps increasing. It is the strongest security that human ingenuity has devised. It is the basis of all security and the only indestructible security”.

Investing wisely can make all the difference. The strategies that were effective ten years ago, when inflation and interest rates were very low, may not work today.

Here are several tactics you can use to hedge against the current environment and benefit:

Why Real Estate is an Ideal Hedge Against Inflation

As mentioned above real estate is frequently regarded as one of the finest inflation hedges. This asset type has inherent value and pays out dividends on a regular basis. Regardless of the economy, there will always be a demand for homes, and as inflation rises, so will property values and rents.

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Source: NMHC & The World Bank

Industrial real estate could especially be a strong bet in this environment. With the rise of e-commerce alongside supply chain issues, industrial real estate, namely warehouses and storage, should continue to rise in price and demand. Even with higher inflation, industrial real estate assets could continue providing consistent income. Moreover, industrial real estate requires less overhead and maintenance than other sectors, potentially keeping margins relatively strong even as prices and interest rates soar.

The illiquidity of real estate assets is frequently seen as their most serious flaw. This is why many investors are interested in REITs, which provide excellent real estate exposure while being significantly more liquid.

REITs

Think of a REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) as a mutual fund or ETF for a basket of real estate properties. These companies, which commonly trade on public exchanges like a stock, own, operate, or finance income-producing real estate assets and pool together various investors’ capital. Because they trade like stocks, they are also highly liquid.

REITs are perfect for investors that don’t necessarily have Elon Musk’s capital. They mirror the consistent income streams a real estate property offers while offering convenience without requiring the immense amount of time or money you would otherwise need. Instead of paying corporate taxes, REITs pay roughly 90% of their taxable income to shareholders- which often translates into substantial monthly dividends for your portfolio.

Leveraged Loans: A High-Return Option in Rising Rate Environments

Leveraged loans can also be an efficient inflation hedge. Their properties, such as floating rates, make them effective tools for protecting against rising interest rates. Mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations are two other viable options, since investors don’t own the debt, but rather invest in securities with loans as underlying assets.

These instruments are more complex, riskier, and frequently demand hefty initial investments. The most convenient option for most individual investors to obtain exposure to these products is to buy a mutual fund or an exchange-traded fund (ETF).

Investing in Stocks During Inflation: What to Look For

Not all stocks can keep up with inflation at the same rate. Consumer staples and energy stocks, for example, typically outperform, whereas airlines and clothes do not.

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Source: Schroders

Costco Wholesale Corp (COST)

Costco is an excellent illustration of this. Since the beginning of 2022, the consumer staples retailer has had a very great performance, despite the rising inflation environment.

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From an investor’s point of view, it is imperative to understand a company’s pricing power. For example – Inflation increases the price of Costco’s products; Now because people have no choice but to continue buying those products, the company continues to thrive despite inflation.

Precious Metals: A Traditional Safe Haven for Inflation

Typically, precious metals like gold and silver are where investors run to when the economic climate is uncertain or when there are wars.

Gold protects investors from inflation because it is a store of value. Perhaps that’s why Russia’s central bank resumed gold purchases massively amid the suspension of its stock market and currency collapse amid western sanctions over its Ukraine invasion.

Silver may be a cheaper alternative than gold with similar benefits and more industrial uses. According to Morgan Stanley, “Given greater industrial demand, silver tends to rise more than gold with rising inflation and a falling dollar.”

Inflation’s effect on your wallet is almost like a constant tax hike. When inflation occurs, your purchasing power declines. The dollars you earn today will not have the same value tomorrow. Rising interest rates will not help and increase the cost of borrowing.
Precious metals do not have this same problem, and we’ve seen it throughout history.

In August 2020, five months after the COVID crash, gold hit a record high of $2,067 per ounce. During the “Great Inflation” of the 70s and early 80s, when inflation hit double digits, and the Fed hiked rates to 20%, the price of gold nearly tripled in one day in 1971, surging from $42 to $120 an ounce.

On the day Russia invaded Ukraine (February 24), the price of gold soared almost as much as $100 an ounce. Weekly gold inflows for the week of March 11 were also at their highest levels since July 2020.

Over the next few years, with the economic climate murky at best, gold and silver could continue rising. You can add exposure by buying and holding the physical metal or by finding easier exposure through ETFs. Mining stocks may benefit from this environment as well.

TIPS: Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities

Treasury inflation-protected securities, or TIPS, are Federally backed bonds tailor-made for inflationary times.

Unlike the structure of traditional bonds that decrease in value when yields rise, TIPS rise with inflation and decrease with deflation. TIPS bonds pay interest twice a year, at a fixed rate, and the principal and interest payments rise along with inflation.

In a nutshell, these are fixed-income instruments that protect your depleting purchasing power and correlate with inflation.

Buying physical bonds is quite pricey, and typically, those are limited to high net-worth investors. However, several TIPS mutual funds and ETFs are available that you can affordably invest in for TIPS exposure.

Final Thoughts: Balancing Defensive and Offensive Strategies

Everybody dislikes inflation. Nobody enjoys seeing their pricing power falter due to no fault of their own. With no end in sight and the Fed’s back against the wall, other opportunities are rising and remain plentiful. Many also remain bullish on the overall stock market and are buying in.

The above tactics might be your best bets in anticipation of persistent inflation and rising rates.
in times like this, it’s crucial to play both defense and offense, protect yourself from adverse scenarios, and hedge your bets. If you stick to your principles and remain levelheaded, you will do just fine.

A week ago, the world stood shocked and appalled. Despite weeks of intel warnings, the world greatly underestimated Vladimir Putin. He didn’t only invade an already separatist-backed segment of Ukraine. He launched a full air, sea, and land campaign in the worst incursion of a sovereign European state since WWII.

Things have only gone from bad to worse this week. It began with crippling sanctions amounting to economic warfare on Russia. It ended with Russia’s shelling and subsequent capture of Europe’s largest nuclear plant.

Unfortunately, French President Emanuel Macron concluded that “the worst is yet to come” after speaking to Putin on March 3.

What is Putin’s endgame? Does he even care about his country’s economic consequences?
What will the ripple effects be in America, notably with the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy?

The Economic Consequences in Russia are Obvious

Essentially the economic sanctions levied on Russia can be equated to cancel culture on steroids. According to Ukraine Now, these multinational companies have ceased operations entirely or severely limited them in Russia.

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Source: Ukraine Now

The world has sanctioned Russia’s political and business elite, frozen over $600 billion in Central Bank assets, banned many Russian banks from the global SWIFT payment system, restricted its tech industry, and more.

Russia has not seen a financial crisis like this since its economy collapsed in 1998, according to JPMorgan.

Yet until the world comes after Russia’s enormous oil and natural gas supply, Putin will remain Putin, and Russia will remain Russia.

Should Powell Reevaluate Monetary Policy?

Already inflation was out of control and at a 40-year-high. The problem is many projected this would be the peak.

March 10’s inflation reading will come a few days before the Fed’s March meeting. Many predict February inflation data to show a 7.9% year-over-year increase, an even greater acceleration than January’s 7.5%.

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Russia’s stranglehold on global oil and gas supply, importance to the worldwide food supply, and $75 trillion war chest of natural resources may only add pricing pressures to worsening inflation.

Commodities saw their largest weekly surge in 50 years, while crude oil broke past $111 a barrel.

Gasoline prices have already spearheaded inflation. Now, they could hit $5 in many cities within “weeks.” The International Energy Agency had no choice but to strategically release 60 million barrels from emergency oil stockpiles to rein in prices.

Despite “highly uncertain” economic effects from the crisis in Ukraine, an already increasingly hawkish Federal Reserve is prepared to hike rates by 0.25% at the next policy meeting on March 15 and 16. Could this 0.25% hike be tamer than what’s needed, though?

If inflation doesn’t ease soon, Jay Powell may have no choice but to do something more drastic. While the Fed Chair attempted to ease fears of a 0.50% rate hike for now (which hasn’t happened since 2000), nothing is off the table. Inflation is running far above its 2% target, and the crisis in Ukraine is pushing prices even higher.

Today, it’s energy inflation. Tomorrow it could be our entire food supply.

Perhaps it’s not a great sign when Powell says, “we should have moved earlier.”

The Key Takeaway: Breathe

Things look bleaker by the day, but the economic backdrop in the U.S. remains strong and is exceeding expectations. February’s jobs report, which came out March 4, saw non-farm payrolls surge 678,000 vs. the expected 423,000.

The unemployment rate also fell to 3.8% vs. the expected 3.9%, and 0.2% less than January’s. It has not been this low since 3.5% right before the pandemic.

Additionally, geopolitical shocks to the market are never as long-lasting or severe as you think.

There is all of this WWIII talk, and we probably haven’t been this close to nuclear warfare since the Cuban Missile Crisis. But, do you know what happened after Pearl Harbor? The S&P plunged as much as 19.8% and took a mere 307 days to recover fully. The war lasted another four years.

The Ukraine conflict may only be in its beginning and could very well spiral into something worse. According to iCapital’s chief investment strategist, Anastasia Amoroso, only a double whammy of Fed policy and Ukraine de-escalation will dictate whether markets bottom out or not.

The world could undoubtedly see economic consequences. The last time we saw oil weaponized to this degree was during the Gulf War, and it caused a recession. Economic war can also sometimes lead to actual war. Russian government official Dmitry Medvedev seemed to indicate this himself.

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Source: Dmitry Medvedev Twitte

Attempting to cut the world’s 11th largest economy out of the global financial system will undoubtedly have consequences.

Many analysts, though, remain bullish, most notably JP Morgan. In a note from February 28, JPMorgan analysts recommended holding onto shares despite the tensions to avoid missing out on a potential rebound.

Although the fallout on the world economy could be enormous, it seems that, for now, there is more confusion than panic and investors are slowly navigating through these uncertain times with great caution.