The rule that all investing carries risk applies even to bonds. The negative price impact of rising rates over the past few months proves that case well. Even so, bonds in our view remain a fine compliment to equity exposures for those wishing to dampen overall portfolio volatility. To this day bond price swings remain narrower than those we tend to experience for stocks. As that tendency is unlikely to change, we believe bonds will continue to play the role of shock absorber during times of equity market duress.

Listen to CIO Mark Mowrey introduce this month's commentary:

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