ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The stock markets are reeling after President Donald Trump’s new tariffs on nearly all of the country’s trading partners. The move is spurring threats of a trade war. But New Mexico said it is well prepared. “We are positioned in such a way that we minimize these types of pullbacks to the extent that they can,” said Charles Wollmann, Chief Communications Officer for the New Mexico State Investment Council.
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The NMSIC operates permanent, endowment, and reserve funds for the state. That money helps fund some government services for New Mexicans. Over the last ten years, New Mexico has tripled its investments to nearly $61 billion. But the latest numbers show the market value declines are at least a billion dollars since the end of February. “It’s never a good feeling when the markets are reeling like this, but it is part of the full investment cycle that we experience,” said Wollmann.
He said the council had intentionally built a portfolio that was highly diversified and had a conservative tilt due to long-term concerns over high market valuations. “The headline losses that you see in the stock market are not going to reflect our losses, which will be much lower,” said Wollmann. “If the markets experience a 20% pullback, because of the diversified aspect of our portfolio, we are going to see a much less of an impact, usually 7-9%.”
The $2.5 billion in funds going to services like education and healthcare in Fiscal Year 2026 will not be impacted. Wollmann said those funds for services would only be impacted if the market continues to see negative numbers for multiple years. “We’re obviously watching what the markets are doing and we’ll figure out the bet way to optimize our returns,” said Wollmann. “We have investment professionals who work on this day in, day out, kind of tracking where the markets are, where they’re going, and strategizing ways these funds can really benefit New Mexicans the most.”
The council will review the outlook when it meets later this month and could consider small measures at that time. The NMSIC notds that it is working with mostly permanent funds and is a ‘very long-horizon’ investor, so the last thing it would do is sell into a falling market.