After much speculation and wild swings in market expectations, President Trump has nominated Kevin Warsh as his Fed chairman. If confirmed, he is expected to replace current Chair Jerome Powell in May at the end of his term.
With rising geopolitical tensions, sharp market swings and Congress at odds over Department of Homeland Security funding – likely to cause a brief government shutdown – there’s no shortage of factors influencing sentiment. Here, we address some of the most prominent headlines shaping sentiment and offer our perspective.
Market cycles are once again at the center of the investment narrative as we head into 2026. The optimism is familiar as earnings held up in 2025, the economy avoided recession, and big tech lifted the indexes. However, those victories are already reflected in the price.
Get ready each week with high-conviction insights that go beyond media headlines.
Affordability and the cost of living have become frequent topics of conversation. Costs rose, but incomes did not immediately keep pace. The rate of inflation has moderated, but consumers remain sensitive to high prices, worried they are falling behind.
President Trump has announced his intention to nominate Kevin Warsh to become the next chair of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. We believe Warsh will be confirmed by the Senate and serve as an effective, thoughtful Fed chair. He brings intriguing ideas on ways to change and ideally improve how the Fed operates.
LPL Research examines how the Fed is entering 2026 amid constrained conditions and as growth and inflation meet an unsustainable fiscal trajectory.
Since ChatGPT burst onto the scene in 2022, artificial intelligence (AI) has moved from science-fiction to reality. For many, AI has become a necessity. The transformation has been swift. Nearly every company now wants to integrate generative AI into their business model, while governments are scrambling to develop sovereign AI infrastructure.
January reinforced our key theme for 2026 – returns must be earned. Markets moved beyond the mag 7 as solid economic growth, a more patient Federal Reserve, and widening market leadership rewarded disciplined diversification. Gold’s parabolic rally and violent reversal showed what happens when discipline breaks down.
Climatically, Europe has been fortunate: its winter has been moderate so far. But Europe’s need for fuel remains substantial, and the cooling of relations between the U.S. and the European Union (EU) may make it more difficult to keep EU homes and the EU economy warm.
February arrives quickly, and for many high-net-worth individuals and families, tax preparation may still be sitting on the to-do list. If your financial life includes multiple income streams, investment accounts, business interests, trusts, or philanthropic strategies, tax season is not something to rush.
The dollar finished the month down 1.3% for a litany of reasons, including our progressively nastier spat with Canada and the Trump administration's insistence on liberating Greenland.
This week’s press conference by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell was one of the most consequential of his tenure at the helm of the Federal Reserve (Fed).
President Trump finally made his pick for Fed Chair and it is Kevin Warsh. A Wall Street Journal editorial said Warsh has been “the leading voice in public life for reforming the Fed.”
Headline whiplash returned to US equity markets last week, but this time the drama wasn't geopolitical. On Thursday, the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 1.3% as the market digested mixed results from some Magnificent Seven earnings reports.
The ETF industry has carried its record-breaking momentum from 2025, surpassing $100 billion in flows before the end of January.
Momentum investing often looks Wile E. Coyote chasing the Road Runner off a cliff. Investors rush into hot trades, and instead of stopping at the cliff's edge, enthusiasm and a disregard for fundamentals expose their portfolios to unexpected risk.
Mainstream expectations, those from Wall Street, economists, and corporate strategists, have congealed around a bullish economic outlook for 2026. Most forecasts project stronger economic growth, with contained inflation, and continued investment in technology and capital expenditure.
In a move that underscores the relentless downward pressure on investment costs, Vanguard announced that it has slashed fees for 84 mutual fund and exchange-traded share classes. These reductions, spanning 53 different funds, represent nearly $250 million in estimated savings for investors in 2026 alone.
Today we’re going to explore this “affordability” issue, looking at economic facts, survey data and simple intuition. As you’ll see, it’s not as simple as some people think. I also make a quick comment about the appointment of Kevin Warsh as Fed chair at the end.
Even though it’s still early days in the age of artificial intelligence (AI), it sometimes feels like this innovation has been around forever. In that short time, the pace of change has been staggering.
At its January meeting, the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) voted to pause its rate-cutting cycle, a move that aligns with recent signs of stabilizing labor markets and easing inflation pressures.
Advisors who understand the latest industry trends can better position their practices for sustainable growth and long-term success. Let’s explore the top trends driving RIA growth in 2026, from consolidation and digital client acquisition to expanded services and the rising influence of private capital.
Investing in common stocks is rarely a smooth experience. Stock prices fluctuate daily, sometimes dramatically, driven by market sentiment, economic data, and short-term news. Even company earnings, while more stable than prices, can experience cycles and periods of volatility.
Municipal credit remains strong in 2026 with high reserves and sector resilience. Still, policy changes and economic pressures ahead warrant attention.
The final week of January saw a stark divergence between official policy and the American consumer's outlook. While the Federal Reserve maintained a "solid" view of economic growth, the public’s mood plummeted to a decade-low as sticky amid sticky wholesale inflation.
Top strategists joined VettaFi on January 29 to provide data-backed forecasts on the trajectory of global interest rates, persistent inflationary pressures, and the resilience of corporate earnings. Advisors came away from the event with the tools needed to mitigate risks stemming from sudden regime shifts while capturing alpha in a fragmented market.
A sharp productivity jump shows firms doing more with fewer workers. But the upside surprise also highlights growing risks about how these gains affect the workforce.
In our view, 2025 reinforced a familiar conclusion that tax management remains as relevant as ever, even though tax policy may no longer be a moving target.
For years now, advisors and investors alike have been pouring significant attention — and inflows — into the broad spectrum of fixed income ETFs.
VettaFi recently sat down with Morten Paulsen, head of research for robotics & machinery at CLSA, to discuss the transition of physical AI into a tech-driven industrial up-cycle. Paulsen projects that persistent U.S. labor shortages will drive domestic robot shipments toward a historical high of 40,000 units in 2026.
As political pressure on the Federal Reserve intensifies and markets ponder the nomination of a new Chair, understanding this chain of risk is increasingly important for investors. Equity valuations are heavily affected by expectations for long-term cash flows, along with the interest rates and risk-premiums that drive how much investors are willing to pay for those future dollars.
At GMO, we have always defined a bubble as a two-standard deviation divergence of the price of any asset class above its long-term real price trend. The U.S. stock market has now been in bubble territory for a prolonged period. Sooner or later, the bubble will burst and the price will return to its historic level.
U.S. stocks finished a volatile week with mixed performance, extending a second consecutive week of modest declines for major indices. Despite the pullback, markets remain close to record levels.
Private credit has grown from a small niche market to a major slice of the financial asset pie. Not many people outside of institutional finance talked about it twenty years ago.
Estate planning often sounds like something only wealthy families need to worry about. The federal estate tax exemption increased in 2026 under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA)—now shielding estates under $15 million for individuals and $30 million for married couples.
As was widely expected, the Federal Open Market Committee decided to pause their rate cuts at the January meeting, keeping the fed funds trading range at 3.50%–3.75%. For those keeping track, the Fed had lowered ‘the funds rate’ by 75 basis points (bps) during the final three FOMC meetings of 2025.
Passive, active, Treasuries, corporates, munis, international, and more — the whole spectrum of fixed income ETFs seemed to come off a strong year in 2025. The year was also marked by a bevy of launches.
New 25% tariffs will be placed on a small set of advanced semiconductors. The list of exemptions was long, allowing free imports of chips bound for data centers, research, startups and the public sector. The new tariff does not apply to finished products that use these chips, like laptops and smartphones.
Doug Drabik discusses fixed income market conditions and offers insight for bond investors.
As many of you know, my passion has always been helping investors understand company fundamentals so they can make sound, data-driven decisions.Today, I want to cover an essential accounting technique I frequently use with my Fundamentals Analyzer software: horizontal analysis.
Stock market volatility has a way of triggering powerful emotions. Rising prices foster confidence. But when markets fall, fear can take over, leading investors to make decisions that may undermine long-term returns.
The Federal Reserve held rates unchanged at the first meeting of 2026, while it waits to see what direction inflation, employment, and other policies take in the months ahead.
Private markets were historically for institutional and ultra-high-net-worth investors. Today, that exclusivity is breaking down, as many retail investors realize the value behind private markets and advisors look for additional diversification tools.
2025 capped off a record year for orbital launches, confirming that the space industry is more than alive and well. This creates a growth opportunity set for the Procure Space ETF (UFO), which can capture ongoing developments in the industry in 2026.
In this article, we look both back and forward, first at the 2025 capital markets to analyze not just what happened but also how it fits in the historical context and what we believe it means for 2026 and beyond. We then pivot to our return expectations for major asset classes in the next decade.
Local currency rates and FX screen very cheap, while hard currency credit is rich.
The federal funds rate will remain 3.5% to 3.75%. While the market still expects two rate cuts late this year, the Fed is likely to tread cautiously given the economic backdrop.
Amid a rush of domestic and foreign policy developments that have rattled markets – including the potential for another U.S. government shutdown – the Federal Reserve held steady on U.S. monetary policy.
