Sameer Samana, Investment Strategy Analyst for Wells Fargo Investment Institute:

We think the latest economic numbers show an economy that’s improving, a labor market that’s recovering, and consumption that continues to run at levels well ahead of where economists expected it to be at this point in the year. That’s more than enough to support strong equity markets and higher interest rates.

You know, it’s not so much the inflation as opposed to what's causing inflation, which is really shortages in key goods. And we believe that’s actually holding the recovery back at this point.

The recent jobs numbers show that the labor market is improving. However, the extended benefits that were put into place last year are possibly leading some folks to stay out of the labor market. As those benefits start to roll off, the hope is that those folks will rejoin the labor market. That being said, if the handoff is clumsy — as in the benefits roll off prior to those folks finding jobs, there could be a slight dip in consumption.

We would agree with Treasury Secretary Yellen in that higher rates, as long as they’re happening for the right reasons — which in our opinion would be higher growth, not higher inflation — would be good for certain sectors of the economy, like financials, which benefit from a steeper yield curve, and the economy really as a whole.

We would encourage investors to keep in mind that the prospect of a global tax, especially a global minimum tax, like the one that’s currently being discussed, will take years to implement. And at the end of the day, what corporations will do is they’ll manage their businesses and the tax rates will be a secondary consideration.