I've just checked my own savings and pensions, which are in a portfolio of a few different investment funds, primarily in socially responsible areas that I expe

I've just checked my own savings and pensions, which are in a portfolio of a few different investment funds, primarily in socially responsible areas that I expect to hold for the long term and investing in real stocks and not funny money financial instruments. I'm not in the US, and none of the funds I'm invested in has any declared connection to any of the affected stocks as far as I can see. And yet, despite steady, healthy growth in recent months, I appear to be down close to 10% over the past week. Now, that could just be bad luck, with sharp falls striking a variety of different funds at almost exactly the same time. Perhaps there has been some profit-tasking after that period of growth. But there has been generally positive sentiment in other respects this week, from Biden to vaccines, and no obvious cause for sudden alarm or to expect the growth to stop. Alternatively, something else is happening, and there is only one story making the front pages today that could explain it. Now, as I mentioned, I'm generally a buy-and-hold, long term investor. Short term blips don't greatly concern me, and probably won't until I'm getting close to retirement. But if I were about to retire, I'd be concerned about the short term consequences for rationality in the markets.