It seems increasingly clear that the Federal Reserve’s first rate hike since 2006 is now just months away, and that is making investors nervous. But should it? Stocks retreated Friday after a much stronger-than-expected rise in nonfarm U.S. payrolls in February. It was a case of good news being bad news for stocks. That isn’t an uncommon phenomenon on a day-today basis, but is the prospect of the start of a tightening cycle usually bad news for equities? Not so much, at least according to recent history. “Over the past six tightening periods since 1980, the S&P 500 SPX, -1.40% has returned 23.5% on average in the nine ... (full story)