Investor sentiment has waned since the start of the new year with the outbreak of war in Iran and against a backdrop of concerns related to artificial intelligence (AI) disruption and heightened trade-policy uncertainty. The murky macro environment and barrage of geopolitical headlines have stoked financial-market volatility. While there are valid causes for concern in the near term, it is important to remain focused on the powerful multi-decade upward trends in economic and corporate profit growth. These secular trends are unlikely to be meaningfully altered by current events and, in general, equity markets’ long-term return potential is largely influenced by the extent to which valuations have priced in these forces. Looking through a long-term lens, we forecast mid-single digit returns in fixed income, and mid-to-high single digit returns in stocks, with the higher end of that range being in regions where valuations are relatively appealing.