Stocks hit the ground running to start the second half of 2018.

The market remains in a narrow trading range, near the record highs. There have been some relatively minor leadership changes. This reflects not investor complacency, but intense disagreement about how to interpret data and events. Each viewpoint has a history, a philosophy, and problem something to sell!

In recent years, factor-based investments have become increasingly popular for equity investors. Often missing from the discussion, however, is the concept of fixed income factor strategies. At Invesco Fixed Income, our view is that bond investors can potentially benefit from a factor-based approach. We’ve launched a new suite of exchange-traded funds focused on two factors — quality and value — that we believe may help investors reach their objectives.

This report may end up being the first in an ongoing series. I think of it as a “look inside my notebook,” as it literally represents a synopsis of the recent notes I put together for our latest Asset Allocation Working Group meeting. These represent a number of budding risks for the economy with which the markets are grappling. There are offsetting positives of course, but let’s leave this report to a look at some of the possible negatives.

So, as most of you know we were on a road trip last week. We flew into Albany, New York on Sunday only to be greeted with hotter temperatures than what we left in Florida. The mountain drive to Manchester, Vermont was spectacular, but hereto the temperatures were hotter than Florida.

U.S. consumer prices rose more than expected in July, reinforcing our view that the Fed will continue its gradual pace of interest rate hikes, at least for now.

U.S. stock dividends have grown much faster than inflation.

The economic team looks at the possibility of a bad Brexit.

The number of publicly listed companies in the U.S. has fallen steadily since 1997. More companies have delisted, in fact, than gone public in every year of the past 20 years except one, 2013. Put another way, the pool is getting smaller even while the population and economy are expanding.

This year at "Camp Kotok," I quickly sensed a more upbeat mood. Not that many that were wildly bullish, but most were positive or at least neutral. There weren’t nearly as many bears as I expected. “Cautious optimism” seemed to be the theme. That led me to refine my own views with a wide variety of participants. Today, I’ll do the same for you.

To end the week, I have a couple of quick takes on some hot topics from the financial news. Let’s start with inflation.

Value investing is a proven long-term investing strategy that produces above-average results at below-average risk – if engaged in properly. However, there are four primary advantages to investing in undervalued dividend growth stocks that facilitate strong long-term performance while simultaneously lowering risk.

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) indicators are integral to PIMCO’s sovereign credit assessments, which inform our investment decisions. But how exactly do we incorporate ESG considerations into our decisions?

Market risks come in three flavors: recession risk, economic shock risk, and risks within the market itself. So, what do these risks look like for August? Let’s take a closer look at the numbers.

US President Donald Trump’s erratic unilateralism represents nothing less than abdication of global economic and political leadership. Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement, his rejection of the Iran nuclear deal, his tariff war, and his frequent attacks on allies and embrace of adversaries have rapidly turned the United States into an unreliable partner in upholding the international order.

Why does US President Donald Trump keep making empty threats against other countries? While his detractors think he is simply a braggart, a fool, and an ignoramus, there could be a less unflattering, though equally depressing, explanation.

In a new white paper on GMO’s website, Jeremy Grantham updates his discussion of the threats posed by climate change, population growth and increasing environmental toxicity, and his perspective on the role investors can play in combating these threats. In “The Race of Our Lives Revisited” Grantham summarizes the current state of affairs and the likely impact on the future ability to feed the 11 billion people projected to live on Earth by 2100.

As Russ explains, dismal performance of emerging markets this year has make them look like a bargain again.

Owens & Minor Inc. reported earnings yesterday and simultaneously revised their 2018 earnings outlook lower. As fate would have it, I produced an article and a video where I highlighted 12 undervalued dividend growth research candidates which included Owens & Minor.

Portfolio managers Dan Ivascyn and Alfred Murata discuss the impact of higher market volatility and how they are positioning the Income Strategy for change ahead.

The Brexit clock is ticking as the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union (EU) is set to take place in March 2019. But is the UK ready to leave? And is there still a chance it won’t?

Trade war’s becoming a bigger source of concern amongst investors, particularly in emerging markets, because a lot of those economies are very trade dependent. But there’s a difference between the first-order effects, the categories that are actually under trade restriction or trade tariffs now, and what might be happening in future.

Most commodities have suffered lately with the backdrop of tariffs and China’s devaluation. But some have fared worse than others, and there is information content to the relative move in commodities. While copper catches many of the headlines (i.e. Dr. Copper, the metal with a Ph.D in economics) the most significant decline has occurred in lumber.

In this issue, Research Affiliates discusses positioning in emerging markets and why investors should care about the distinction between real and nominal returns.

The U.S. economy is going through a hot summer, but will cool off later this year.

Senior Portfolio Manager David Vickers discusses the difficulties of predicting stock market crashes, while offering up four watchpoints that could help fuel the next one.

Synchronized global growth was one of the main themes coming into 2018. In the second quarter GDP in the U.S. was the strongest since 2014, even as growth around the world downshifted. While global growth will be decent in the second half of this year, growth has already slowed in the U.K, Europe, China, and Japan.

Emerging equities are more volatile than developed market equities. This owes little to the volatility of emerging stock markets in local terms and much more to the strong positive correlation between their local stock markets and movements in their currencies. The spring of 2018 was a classic example of this, with US dollar strength driving significant emerging weakness.

We don’t know how long ago we met Frederick “Shad” Rowe, but we are glad we did, because our conversations with him have been net worth changing.

Even before President Trump’s inauguration, we at PIMCO had identified trade policy as a potential spoiler to the otherwise pro-growth nature of the president’s economic agenda. And the unfolding of this “summer of discontent” has only affirmed our view heading into 2018 that trade policy remains one of the biggest policy risks for markets and the economy this year.