The era of ‘bad news is good news’ may finally be over for markets

August is typically a volatile month for stocks, and this one certainly fits the bill.

After another rocky session, U.S. stocks on Wednesday finished pretty much where they started. DataTrek Research pointed to a New York Fed research finding that basically all the moves in the S&P 500 going back two decades is tied to the three days around Federal Open Market Committee meetings, and more recently, the Fed’s press conferences and dot plots. Guess who doesn’t meet in August?

Ash Alankar, head of global asset allocation at Janus Henderson...