Navigating space is hard. It’s expensive, complex, time-consuming and dangerous. And yet you have to hand it to Elon Musk: His SpaceX firm makes it look easy.
A 529 college savings plan, also known as a qualified tuition plan (QTP), is a popular choice among parents and families looking to meet their children’s future educational expenses. Two of the 529 plan’s helpful features are tax-deferred growth of your contributions and later, tax-free withdrawals for eligible expenses.
The markets saw a fifth straight week of gains last week. The S&P 500 closed above 5,800 for the first time, the Dow hit a new record high, and the Nasdaq came within 2% of its all-time high.
Fed easing cycles and lowered target interest rates impact various economic sectors, such as mortgages, consumer credit and cash investments.
Markets broadened as anticipated. After the strong rally, our investment models advise a reduction in risk-appetite.
529 plans are one of the most popular ways Americans save for the college expenses of their children. As of June 2024, there were 16.8 million 529 savings accounts holding $508 billion, according to the College Savings Plan Network.
One of most dangerous habits of a speculative crowd is the tendency to use unconditional averages and unconditional probabilities regardless of how extreme market conditions have become. This is like stepping into a house with two rooms, one with the temperature at 0 degrees and one at 140 degrees, and expecting a temperature of 70 either way.
We are excited to release our October 2024 Chart Pack, our visual quarterly designed to walk investors through what’s happening in markets.
The bar is raised for Q3. With a handful of earnings reports delivered from major banks, companies from other sectors begin now to report results to the street.
Turbulent market conditions can make anyone nervous. Here's what investors should know about dealing with them.
New business formations have held up, but closures are also rising.
This unique bull market is still young relative to history and, for now, supported by relatively healthy breadth and broadening participation.
A rally in Bitcoin paused as traders evaluated whether an improving regulatory outlook in the US and rising exchange-traded fund inflows will be sufficient to spur further gains.
There are only a couple of workable options. You can’t tell someone like this she isn’t listening or that you feel shut down when you speak with her. That will only lead to defensiveness.
This past week saw a notable surge in the stock market, pushing it to all-time highs, despite mixed economic data. Inflation figures, jobless claims, and sentiment reports have been uneven, but markets remain resilient, with the VIX hovering around 20—a sign that fear persists among investors.
When we look at the Q3 earnings season, the Magnificent Seven have been driving much of the S&P 500’s growth since 2022. As these companies get larger and more mature, maintaining huge growth rates will become more difficult, especially considering the valuations they’re trading at.
Earnings season is here, and the US stock market’s furious $9 trillion 2024 rally is facing perhaps its biggest test of the year.
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have grown in popularity as one of the most flexible and accessible investment vehicles available today. Offering a blend of stock-like liquidity and mutual fund-like diversification, ETFs can serve as a core component in the portfolios of both novice and experienced investors
It’s almost always bad news when a statement from a prominent company hits late on Friday. For those who missed Boeing Co.’s release at 4:30 p.m. New York Time ahead of a three-day weekend for the bond market, Boeing laid out the ugly truth of blowout operating losses at its commercial aircraft and defense businesses during the third quarter, which combined for about $6.4 billion.
On this episode of the “ETF of the Week” podcast, VettaFi’s Head of Research Todd Rosenbluth discussed the Neuberger Berman Option Strategy ETF (NBOS) with Chuck Jaffe of Money Life. The pair discussed several topics related to the fund to give investors a deeper understanding of the ETF overall.
When most people hear the word “risk,” they think about wild market swings, scary headlines, and losing money overnight, but Howard Marks, Co-Chairman and Co-Founder of Oaktree Capital Management, takes a different approach. In his new video series How to Think About Risk, Marks digs deep into what risk is and how investors should handle it. Spoiler alert: It’s not just about volatility.
Everything I’ve learned and experienced in 50+ years of watching the economy tells me not to expect a soft landing. But maybe that’s because I’ve never actually seen one.
With over 36,000 metric tons in reserves—about one-fifth of all the gold ever mined—central banks know something we should too: Gold is the ultimate safety net.
The latest Employment Situation Report released on October 4, 2024, showed nonfarm payrolls increasing by 254,000 in September, with the unemployment rate holding steady at 4.1%.
The bond market is growing less convinced by the day that the Federal Reserve will embark on two further interest-rate cuts this year.
Our research shows that on average U.S. stocks performed well a year after the start of a Federal Reserve rate cut cycle.
Taxes are top of mind for many. See what the US presidential candidates stand on tax policy as we enter the final weeks before the election. Our Bill Cass compares their plans.
Foreign investors have been buying more US corporate bonds, a trend that will likely continue as Federal Reserve monetary easing lowers the cost of hedging and investors hunt for yield.
Elon Musk unveiled Tesla Inc.’s highly anticipated self-driving taxi at a flashy event that was light on specifics, leaving investors questioning how the carmaker expects to achieve its ambitious goals.
After the Fed's 50-basis-point rate cut, big banks kick off earnings season amid fears that lower rates could hurt the net-interest income that propelled growth the last two years.
We have openly promoted increasing duration over the last several months. An increase may seem like an odd “wish” as it implies taking on greater price risk.
In the wake of pandemic shocks, economies appear more “normal” than at any time since 2019. Yet policy rates remain elevated.
The 2022 broad market downturn across major asset classes came as a nasty surprise to investors. Historically, such an event is very rare, and no one was expecting to see almost all asset classes down for the year. Yet, even though it might seem as if diversification was of no help in 2022, the story changes if we look beyond the major headline asset classes.
Supply chain disruptions related to the port workers’ strike loom, the impacts of which we know can be incredibly destructive.
Should China deliver sufficient stimulus to break the cycle of tightening fiscal policy, we may find China, and emerging markets, investable again.
The puck has certainly moved since our last market commentary. This month, we argue that the needle on portfolio construction should move with it. Equities have been the driver of returns for much of the last few years.
Private capital – encompassing private equity and private credit – is in the midst of a bit of a renaissance at the moment. IPO activity hit a peak in 2021, the year after the pandemic and then promptly plunged to levels not seen in years.
The US Justice Department is considering asking a federal judge to force Google to sell off parts of its business in what would be a historic breakup of one of the world’s biggest tech companies.
Britain’s stock-investing culture has been withering for years, with the only real growth coming from consultants, policymakers and commentators generating ideas on how to revive it. So why is Robinhood Markets Inc. so keen to expand in the UK? The draw may be more the country’s enthusiasm for online betting than allocating savings to equities.
It is more common that teammates really enjoy the people they work with and have one another’s backs, but they don’t particularly want to give up personal time to spend more with workmates.
As the November 2024 election draws near, the election outcome will profoundly affect the financial markets. Whether Donald Trump or Kamala Harris wins the presidency, each administration will bring distinct policies creating investment opportunities and potential risks for investors. With a divisive political landscape, it is crucial to understand how these potential outcomes can shape the stock market and your portfolio strategy.
Earnings season usually lasts around six weeks, so this wave of data will take us almost to Thanksgiving.
Foreign Agents provides a powerful and depressing master class in the famous warning of Hamilton’s Federalist No. 21. To quote another founding father, Benjamin Franklin, “a republic, if you can keep it” indeed.
China’s recent stimulus announcements sparked a massive rally in its stocks, and a growing chorus of analysts see more gains ahead. Is this a reawakening of the country’s long slumbering stock market or just another false start? Bloomberg Opinion’s Nir Kaissar and Shuli Ren, based in the US and Hong Kong respectively, met online to discuss the risks and opportunities.
US investment-grade corporate bond spreads have narrowed to the lowest level in more than three years, a clear sign of just how bullish credit investors are even as macro and geopolitical risks mount.
The federal debt is already $35 trillion and currently rising by roughly $2 trillion every year – with no end in sight. As a result, some investors are worried that the US could become a 21st Century version of Argentina: completely bankrupt and unable to pay the bills.
Just like road trips can bring unexpected detours, the economy and financial markets are at their own crossroads: recession or soft landing?
Global monetary easing and modest growth are creating a fairy tale story for investors. Their very high conviction in the outcome of that story, however, belies a number of serious risks.
Gold and the related exchange traded funds are among this year’s best-performing assets, helped in part by interest rate cuts.
Building a TIPS ladder gives us a license to spend and creates a spending floor. My TIPS ladder combined with Social Security provides a $10,000 monthly inflation-adjusted cash flow, though I’m delaying taking Social Security until age 70, of course.
