The ALPS Clean Energy ETF (ACES) jumped 9.26% in January as investors turned their attention to the massive power requirements of AI data centers and the infrastructure needed to support them, according to recent ALPS Advisors insights.
Markets may appear orderly heading into 2026 — but beneath the surface, risk and opportunity are becoming increasingly uneven.
Just eight years ago we were celebrating 25,000, which means equities have doubled in less than a decade. By the Rule of 72, that’s roughly a 9% annual return including dividends—nominal, yes, but still a powerful reminder that equities continue to reward patience even through extraordinary volatility, policy shocks, and repeated predictions of recession.
Recent tech headlines have stirred up fresh disruption fears, weighing on software stocks and the sector more broadly. Below, we break down key takeaways from 4Q25 earnings and share our latest views on tech:
Equity valuations are top of mind among investors as we move into February, amid stretched sentiment and positioning and challenging corporate earnings expectations.
2025 turned out to be a year for the ages for agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS), as the Bloomberg U.S. MBS Index registered its best calendar year of returns since 2002. The benchmark index’s 8.58% total return outperformed every major fixed income sector other than high yield (+8.62%) in 2025.
The fund’s outperformance comes as investors debate whether market leadership will broaden beyond mega-cap technology names. While passive index funds must hold all constituents regardless of fundamentals, CNEQ’s structure enables its portfolio manager to concentrate capital in companies they believe are showing accelerating growth.
This past week, I had the privilege of attending the 2026 Harvard Presidents’ Seminar alongside some of the nation’s top executives and thought leaders. One of the most compelling speakers was Ambassador Kevin Rudd, former prime minister of Australia.
For high-net-worth individuals, investing success is not singularly defined by returns. Taxes, often the single most considerable drag on long-term wealth, play an equally critical role. As tax policy continues to evolve, the difference between a reactive approach and a coordinated, tax-aware strategy can be substantial.
The AI spending scare that rattled investors during Microsoft’s earnings call nearly two weeks ago intensified last week as Alphabet and Amazon followed suit. On Wednesday, Google’s parent company reported record annual revenues exceeding $400 billion and a 48% surge in Google Cloud growth.
DroneShield’s rising success shouldn’t come as a particular surprise to the investment community. As drones continue to become more of a part of everyday life, both for defense and commercial use, demand will continue to mount for companies and software designed to preserve public safety and mitigate the threat of military drones.
The Federal Reserve System has a critically important role in the economy, but it is designed to act slowly. The modern economy isn’t slow at all. Things change before Fed officials even notice them, much less understand them. That’s why Kevin Warsh’s nomination as Federal Reserve chair is so important.
For nearly two years, markets were driven by the same speculative narrative that “this time is different.” Speculative narratives are not only seductive but also contribute to investment behaviors that obscure reality. Speculation disguised as investing is a losing proposition.
Chuck Carnevale, co-founder of FAST Graphs, aka Mr. Valuation explains what he believes is the single biggest and most avoidable risk investors face: overvaluation.
The U.S. labor market showed further signs of cooling last week as private sector hiring slowed and job openings reached their lowest levels in over five years.
Buildout of blockchain-based infrastructure is entering a new phase. The focus in 2025 was on stablecoins and their emergence as the cross-over use case that captured interest from both crypto-native and traditional financial participants.
Barely a month into 2026, markets have already weathered multiple bouts of rolling, event‑driven volatility. Geopolitical surprises and policy pivots have triggered sharp price moves from the U.S. to Japan to Europe, from sovereign bonds to currencies to mortgages.
The cryptocurrency market has expanded rapidly, with new technologies and networks gaining traction each year. As the broader crypto market continues to evolve, the leaders of today aren't guaranteed to be the leaders of tomorrow.
After more than a decade of U.S. dominance, the tone has shifted, and investors understandably want to know whether this is a brief rebound—or the start of a new leadership cycle. While we do not time markets or make predictions, we believe long-term investors can benefit from maintaining international exposure by understanding the broader structural forces that have historically shaped these cycles.
Corporate pension funding continues to improve. Market moves over the last five years, both in yields and equity returns, have corporate pension plans at funding levels not seen since before the Tech Bubble.
Monetary policy stayed front and center this week as major central banks kept rates unchanged. What stood out was not the decisions themselves, but how economic momentum is diverging across regions.
If you’re still attempting to make investment decisions without fully integrating geopolitics into your analysis, you’re operating at a significant disadvantage in today’s markets.
Another signal of earnings strength is the ISM Index. Historically, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) Manufacturing Index has correlated well with S&P 500 earnings growth because earnings are more manufacturing-driven than the more consumer-oriented economy measured by gross domestic product (GDP).
Vanguard CIO Lauren Wilkinson shares a strategic roadmap for RIAs curious about AI integration for their practice.
Carrie King, Global CIO of BlackRock Fundamental Equities, offers her perspective on these questions and more as viewed through the lens of an active stock picker.
ETF industry and State Street Investment Management leader Matt Bartolini joined VettaFi's Todd Rosenbluth to talk diversification.
2025 brought new tax policy changes. Prepare early to understand deductions, charitable giving and retirement contributions. Our Bill Cass explains how organizing documents and consulting an advisor can optimize your filing, ensuring a smoother process.
When it comes to investing, you don’t have to do it alone. Whether you’re planning for the future with your spouse, growing wealth with a family member, or expanding your goals alongside a business partner, a joint brokerage account allows you to share the opportunities and responsibilities that come with growing your money together.
Kevin Warsh began his April 2025 lecture to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by comparing today’s economic environment in a period of extraordinary consequence, arguing that the greatest risks to prosperity originate not from external forces but from decisions made within leading economic institutions.
Our underlying theme for 2026 is that investors should focus on Process Over Predictions. The instinct of many investors is to chase the "winners" of the previous cycle or expect spectacular growth to continue indefinitely.
The challenge for investors is that the moments when action feels most urgent are often the moments when patience is most valuable. Much of modern investing is built around the illusion that more information always leads to better outcomes.
Investors seeking protection from geopolitical volatility and stubborn inflation in 2026 may find opportunity in short-term bonds, where active management has historically delivered returns 25% higher than passive strategies, according to Vontobel Asset Management.
New research connects intensifying natural perils to their future implications for asset classes.
Tech stocks and the AI trade have powered global markets ever since the bull run began in October 2022.
The term private credit is often reduced to its most literal meaning – lending money privately. While accurate, Chris Getter, managing director and portfolio manager at Simplify Asset Management, believes that definition does a disservice to the asset class.
Throughout most of 2025, silver has recently outperformed gold, proving (ironically) that it is not always second place. Strength in silver built gradually through last year, but the latest pullbacks are a reminder that near-term market reactions can outweigh fundamentals and long-term investor sentiment.
We believe we’re entering a new era of dispersion in the performance of financial assets. Behind buoyant index averages are sharply bifurcated cohorts of winners and losers.
As the ETF universe continues to expand, a fundamental shift is underway with investors moving beyond simple market access toward outcome-driven construction. Dina Ting, Head of Global Index Portfolio Management, discusses how different index-based ETF strategies are being used to design portfolios aligned with specific goals rather than just reacting to market noise.
Earnings results are shaping up to be quite solid this season, albeit a bit weaker relative to prior quarters when it comes to beat rates and price reactions.
It may be fitting that Groundhog Day occured on a Monday this year. Punxsutawney Phil has been officially prognosticating the weather since 1887.
Client demand for tax planning is high, yet many advisors may still fall short of meeting expectations. Direct indexing can offer tax benefits such as the potential for tax-loss harvesting but remains underutilized across the advisor community.
Natural gas prices surged to multi-year highs in January on the back of sharply increased demand resulting from a major late-month storm and persistent cold snap that left much of the United States blanketed in ice and snow.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell stuck to the script by announcing on Wednesday that the Fed would keep interest rates unchanged. Powell has historically telegraphed interest rate moves, and this time was no exception: the financial markets expected the Fed to stand pat.
Despite an aging credit cycle, private credit still plays a starring role.
Morgan agreed that the move looks parabolic on a chart. He also cautioned against assuming the rally is just retail euphoria. He pointed out that many physical silver holders have been net sellers even as prices rise, which implies the strongest buying pressure may be coming from larger, more strategic sources.
Active fixed income ETFs stand out amid the broader transition from mutual funds to ETFs, with DSCO a recent switch.
The start of 2026 has brought no shortage of challenges for advisors, ranging from shifting rate expectations to valuation concerns in a top-heavy market. Nonetheless, ETFs gathered an impressive $165 billion of new money in January, more than the previous three Januaries combined, according to State Street Investment Management.
There’s an ongoing shift in how investors access income through ETFs. No longer is sourcing income a pursuit centered solely on fixed income assets. Today, it increasingly includes the use of derivatives to boost yield and total return, and to capitalize on equity volatility.
Last week began with a quiet Fed meeting, but markets quickly received a new catalyst with Trump announcing Kevin Warsh was Trump’s choice to be the next Federal Reserve chair. Warsh was always my first choice. I expect the Senate to confirm him.
So, President Trump has announced his pick for Federal Reserve Chairman, and the markets are not pleased. Everybody seems convinced that Kevin Warsh is a “hawkish” pick, and markets are throwing a temper tantrum because they think he might take the easy money punch bowl away.
