Over the past several years we’ve watched the S&P 500’s performance become increasingly tethered to a handful of Mega-cap technology companies.
The U.S. economy has thus far avoided recession, yet growth has decelerated and economic risks persist.
Our biggest concern today is that if the labor market is as weak today as the numbers are showing, what will happen when all the federal government workers start dropping out of the employment numbers at the end of the fiscal year and during the next several quarters.
The U.S. market has outperformed the rest of the world over the past decade but may fade, making international equities—a timely and overlooked opportunity.
On this week’s edition of Market Week in Review, Global Chief Investment Strategist Paul Eitelman discussed new records for the U.S. stock market as well as the resilience of the American economy. He also covered bond-market volatility in Japan, France and the UK.
The market got exactly what it needed last week: confirmation that the economy is slowing—not collapsing—and that the Federal Reserve has the green light to start cutting rates. Payroll gains softened, manufacturing remains weak, and broader job slack is showing up with U-6 underemployment rising to 8.1%.
Looking back over the past 20 years, airline equities have tended to outperform in the final three months of the year, with the NYSE Arca Global Airlines Index gaining over 3% on average in October; this is followed by an even stronger showing in November and a 3% increase in December on average.
Over the past twenty years, in spite of incredible new technologies, US real GDP growth has averaged just 2.0% at an annual rate. By contrast, in the twenty years prior to the most recent twenty – from the mid-1980s thru the mid-2000s – real GDP grew at a 3.2% annual rate.
Bond investors may need to look elsewhere to supplant income lost from falling yields — they may want to try heading overseas. It's not just a weaker dollar that's been diverting attention to international bonds, but U.S. debt itself.
A market-wide boom of private equity investment is turning small, local residential service providers into big business. From the outside, it's been easy to miss.
The Federal Reserve may cut rates a couple of times by year-end, but the pace and magnitude of easing in 2026 is unclear. There are still some roadblocks to lower bond yields.
The failures aren’t isolated miscalculations but the predictable result of a flawed framework that policymakers have clung to for decades. Keynesian economics didn’t just “get it wrong” in 2025, but has repeatedly failed to deliver on its promises for over forty years. And the consequences are becoming impossible to ignore.
The U.S. labor market continued to show signs of cooling, with all major labor indicators pointing to a softening trend and a weak hiring environment.
The average household feels inflation as rising living costs, of which shelter is usually the largest. This will be today’s primary topic. What is going on with housing costs, and is there any hope for relief?
Discover how the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) may impact the municipal bond market, and find out which institutions are better positioned to overcome the sweeping policy reforms.
Higher gold prices have put a damper on central bank gold buying, but the World Gold Council still categorized August purchases as “firm.”
Franklin Templeton Emerging Markets Equity discusses recent developments in emerging markets, specifically examining the impact of tariffs on Indian exports, the resurgence of Chinese equities and potential US Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts that could benefit emerging markets.
Advisors and investors find themselves inundated with decisions and choices when investing in the crypto economy. Between deciding what cryptocurrency to invest in (bitcoin, ether, tether, solana, etc.) and how to gain exposure (direct exposure, indirect exposure, via an ETF), fitting crypto into a portfolio can be a complicated affair.
August brought with it a slowing in ETF launches from the summer spree, while inflows continued as investors increasingly bought into bonds.
With an interest rate cut looming this month, investors may be looking at their available options. For many, their passive bond funds have done well, but may not be well-positioned for one or potentially multiple cuts.
Packing for a child heading off to college? Don’t forget the legal documents.
Independent central banks are a relatively recent concept.
Much of the data we see today indicates the economy is fine. Stocks continue making new highs. Consumer spending is shattering records. Unemployment rates remain low. Yet a single anecdote can dispel the illusion that everything is truly fine for the average American.
Count stocks from China among this year’s international standouts. Widely observed gauges of equities in the world’s second-largest economy are outpacing both the S&P 500 and the MSCI Emerging Markets Index by comfortable margins since the start of this year.
To paraphrase Churchill, financial markets are a “long, dismal catalogue of the fruitlessness of experience and the confirmed unteachability of mankind.” But we hope you had a wonderful summer.
Advisors have looked to international markets for much of this year for a crucial source of diversification amid U.S. uncertainty.
The AI adoption case is gaining momentum across an array of industries. A trend that largely started in the financial services and healthcare sectors is spreading rapidly to other realms.
From a revenue perspective, we were also encouraged by sales coming in +2.1% higher than analysts expected, with all 11 sectors showing positive revenue surprises. This also allays our fears that tariff impact might be worse than the analyst community feared.
In this video, Chuck Carnevale, co-founder of FAST Graphs (“Mr. Valuation”), examines five managed healthcare stocks (companies) to assess whether they have recovered from recent industry challenges or remain “sick.” The companies analyzed are UnitedHealth Group (UNH), Elevance Health (ELV), Humana (HUM), Centene (CNC), and Molina Healthcare (MOH).
As emerging markets navigate deglobalization, tariffs and regional conflicts, they are pivoting toward domestic drivers of growth and intra-regional trade
Whether you’re building your portfolio, trying to diversify or considering new investments, understanding the difference between active and passive funds is extremely helpful. Both mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) can be either active or passive.
When equity markets rise to record highs, it’s natural for investors to feel a twinge of anxiety about putting more money into stocks. The fear of an impending correction often looms large.
The house of pain continues with small caps, at least on a relative basis. Year-to-date, the S&P 600 index has posted a 3.0% gain, so it's not like money is being burned. But still, even the Bloomberg Aggregate Bond index is up 4.9% YTD and the S&P 500 is up 10.9%.
Late last Friday, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) largely affirmed the Court of International Trade’s (CIT) May ruling blocking President Trump’s tariffs imposed under the International Economic Emergency Powers Act (IEEPA).
This past week, we saw a sweeping change in U.S. trade policy come into effect with the termination of the long-standing “de minimis” exemption on small, imported parcels.
The U.S. stock market continues to trade near all-time highs, with performance again concentrated in a handful of the largest, predominantly tech-oriented companies in the S&P 500 Index. Meanwhile, active managers are continuing to underperform.
401(k) Day, celebrated annually on the Friday after Labor Day, is more than just a reminder to check your retirement account.
After a volatile first four months of 2025, it was a good summer for investors to go on vacation, as markets, for the most part, went up weekly.
In this article, Russ Koesterich discusses the merits of increasing one’s allocation to gold ahead of the potential for some seasonal volatility in the fall.
As demand for personalized investing strategies has increased, direct indexing has become one of the fastest-growing types of separately managed accounts (SMAs).
Doug Drabik discusses fixed income market conditions and offers insight for bond investors.
Markets rallied in August as hopes for a September Fed rate cut boosted equities, small caps, and income-oriented fixed income sectors, though risks of inflation and valuation excess remain.
Relations across the English Channel have stabilized.
Nvidia made a splash last week, or maybe an anti-splash, when it reported earnings and stated an intention to buy back $60 billion in stock.
Equities thrive when discount rates are low. Cheap capital inflates the present value of future cash flows, giving companies more leeway to finance growth and investors more willingness to pay higher multiples.
With an eye on mitigating rate risk, short-term bond funds have been the apple of fixed income investors’ eyes the past few years.
Emerging market investing has long been dominated by China’s outsized role. The country once accounted for roughly 30%-40% of many EM indexes.
Here is the hard truth you must learn. Your real edge comes from limiting damage when you’re wrong and maximizing gains when you’re right, which is the very foundation of any risk plan. You will lose. You must build your system around that fact.
Investing in cryptocurrencies began as a grassroots movement of investors who believed in the importance of decentralization.
The Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) is higher by 87.4% for the three years ending August 28. And the Magnificent Seven stocks are taking on larger percentages of other widely observed benchmarks.
