Investors struggle with when to dive back into US stock market

THE pause in the stock market’s strong start to 2023 underscores the main question vexing much of Wall Street: When will it be safe to start buying again?

Yes, markets have grown increasingly confident that the slowdown in inflation will allow the Federal Reserve to soon end the cycle of aggressive interest-rate hikes that last year drove the S&P 500 index to the worst drop since 2008. But at the same time, those higher rates could drive the economy into a recession and slam the brakes on any growth.

Positioning for this financial yin-yang is tricky, to say the least.