Charles Schwab CEO says inflation is the ‘No.1 concern’ among investors

In a Thursday interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer, Charles Schwab CEO Walt Bettinger said inflation is the most pressing concern among the brokerage firm’s 35 million clients.

“We just put out today one of our regular studies on client sentiment, and what’s happened is, inflation has now become the No. 1 concern among investors,” Bettinger said. “When they think about inflation, it has moved their position from the first quarter of being a little bit on the bullish side to where now they’re a little bit on the bearish side.”

Continually stubborn inflation has been top of mind for Wall Street, with investors craving a reprieve in rising prices and economy-boosting interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. The major stock indexes declined on Wednesday upon the release of the minutes from the Fed’s latest meeting, which indicated that members were concerned about inflation and hesitant to reduce rates.

Bettinger stressed that it’s important for Schwab clients to have diverse portfolios that include fixed-income assets so they can deal with an inflated economic environment. He added that Schwab recommends most investors build up their portfolios with low-cost index funds or low-cost actively managed funds.

“When it comes to investing, time is your friend,” Bettinger said. “And being in the market is often a lot better strategy than trying to time the market.”