‘Don’t just buy the dip’: How to adjust your portfolio to benefit from the Fed’s rate hikes and rising inflation, according to 3 investing experts

The Federal Reserve hiked rates by another 75 basis points, bringing the fed funds rate above 2.5% on Wednesday. August’s consumer price index came in at 8.3% year-over-year. The best thing to do is look at what you already have in your portfolio and move towards things that have been beaten up most, says John Rekenthaler, vice president of research at Morningstar. The closest time period that parallels this environment is the 1970s, when high inflation was accompanied by rising interest rates, causing stocks and bonds to simultaneously drop, says Christine Benz, the director of personal finance at Morningstar. Benz acknowledged that bonds provided a nice cushion to offset equity losses during previous bear markets but this time around, the fixed income portion of investors’ portfolios is what’s worrying them. . . .