4/9/26: You And Your Money -- The Iran war's effect on the markets

April 9, 2026·17 min·1 clip

Liza Langevin explains how the Iran conflict and sharp market swings actually fit into a normal pattern of volatility.

Host Wayne Norman opens by framing the Iran conflict as the dominant headline driver of current market volatility, recalling that last year's equivalent disruptor was Liberation Day tariffs. Liza Langevin, Managing Partner Advisory at WHZ Strategic Wealth Advisors, provides a first-quarter market update: the S&P 500 is down roughly 1% year-to-date, the NASDAQ is down about 2.5%, bonds are roughly flat, and international equities are up 1–3%. She highlights a historical statistic that about 80% of years over the past 25 years have featured sharp intra-year declines, positioning current volatility as normal rather than exceptional. WHZ is monitoring three factors: AI capital expenditure trends, the Middle East conflict, and domestic economic fundamentals including employment and inflation. On a one-year basis, the S&P is up approximately 25% and the NASDAQ roughly 30%, which Langevin contrasts with the fearful tone of daily headlines. She argues that headlines are engineered for attention and that individual financial plans should be built to absorb periodic uncertainty rather than react to it. Oil prices are the most direct channel from the Iran conflict to consumer wallets: higher pump prices divert spending from other categories, potentially pushing broader inflation above its current 2.5% food-and-energy level and pressuring the Fed to raise interest rates. Langevin notes that the U.S. economy is less oil-intensive than in prior decades — with hybrid and electric vehicles reducing demand sensitivity — but that consumers, who represent two-thirds of GDP, still feel the squeeze in leisure and discretionary spending. Turning to equity markets, she identifies elevated valuations — particularly in tech — as a source of fragility during uncertainty, with investors more likely to trim expensive positions when sentiment shifts. She explains that a handful of Magnificent Seven companies (Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft) are driving most S&P 500 returns, meaning the index is more concentrated than its broad name implies. True diversification, she argues, requires exposure to international equities, mid- and small-cap stocks, and bonds alongside U.S. large caps. A recent strong jobs report with unemployment ticking down into the 4% range reinforces that economic fundamentals remain resilient. For listeners feeling uneasy, Langevin's guidance is to pause and ask whether anything in their actual financial situation has changed. She emphasizes that even retirees entering their 60s still face a roughly 20-year investment time horizon, meaning short-term volatility is manageable within a long-duration plan. The biggest risk she identifies is selling during a downturn and being unable to judge the right moment to re-enter the market. She recommends making small, calibrated portfolio shifts rather than drastic moves into cash or a single asset class. The episode closes with contact information for WHZ Strategic Wealth Advisors and a brief personal exchange about Langevin's new black Labrador puppy.

As heard by us

A practical market check-in that treats the Iran conflict as an investor question.

The episode treats the Iran conflict less like a headline and more like a market problem. Wayne Norman keeps the focus on what it could mean for investors and the financial outlook, while Liza Langevin stays with the practical effects: volatility, oil, inflation, and the way…

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Why you'd press play

A plainspoken market sanity check after the Iran headlines.

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