The removal of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro under “Operation Absolute Resolve” has materially improved the country’s outlook by breaking a long-standing political and economic impasse that had prevented reform, external engagement and debt resolution.

Well-known factors such as value and momentum are widely recognized to have predictive power. Advanced systematic approaches, however, seek to identify additional drivers of performance—including proprietary factors—to integrate into their multifactor models.

This week, my friend Lyric Hughes Hale and special guest Eric Huang of Taiwan share with us the details of what could be another massive fallacy of composition. Oddly, this time the risk lies with one of the US’s largest creditors.

With the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) taking place in Las Vegas, investors’ eyes are on Nvidia (NVDA). A predictable response, but one that underscores the importance of the semiconductor behemoth in the artificial intelligence (AI) space.

The ETF ecosystem grew once more in December with more than 100 new launches joining the fray. Three funds invite a closer look.

Global equities closed 2025 with solid gains, supported by strong headline returns from the world’s largest firms, along with a surprising combination of smaller companies, many of which handily outperformed the top ten in the MSCI World Index.

In 2025, the S&P 500 delivered double-digit returns for a third straight year. Heading into the fourth year of the bull market, Raymond James Chief Investment Officer Larry Adam identifies 10 themes to watch in 2026.

In a turbulent 2025 dominated by US trade policy shocks and geopolitical tensions, the global economy proved resilient. Fears of tariff-related slowdown and renewed inflation proved misplaced, as growth surprised to the upside and inflation continued to soften.

In 2026 new tax deductions and inflation adjustments impact tax brackets, rates and contribution limits. Our Bill Cass talks about what is changing in 2026 and shares planning considerations.

2025 capped off another strong year for fixed income ETFs, as ongoing market uncertainty pushed more investors into the safe confines of bonds. When it came to inflows, it was Vanguard that was well-represented with four funds cracking the top 10.

While stablecoins are a form of tokenization, tokenization is a broader concept than stablecoins. Tokenization is the process of creating and recording a digital representation of traditional assets (e.g., securities, deposits, real estate, commodities, etc.) so ownership and transfer can happen in more automated, accessible ways.

2026 promises to be anything but dull. Rapid AI investment and adoption will likely continue to dominate market sentiment, and given the pace of technological advancement, it is hard to imagine this won’t ultimately deliver meaningful productivity gains.

JPAPM forecasts the global fixed income ETF market to grow to $6 trillion by 2030, up from approximately $3.2 trillion today.

After three consecutive years of increasing stock prices, it can feel comfortable and certainly satisfying to ride the trend. Investors may want to capture the boon rather than be complacent with it. Long-term financial health can go hand-in-hand with the opportunities the markets have laid out.

The economy in the 3rd quarter grew by 4.3% adjusted for inflation, the highest growth rate for the year. The inflation rate as measured by the CPI was 2.7% in November (the latest data point), in the middle of the 2.3% - 3.0% range it has been in all year.

The backdrop for Europe’s bonds remains favorable—even as technological change creates new challenges.

The probability of strong earnings and growth-friendly policies should make emerging markets attractive to investors in 2026, in the view of Templeton Global Investments.

Midterm election years have a rhythm that fixed income investors should recognize. While at first glance yields may seem unpredictable, a closer look reveals a pattern in how they behave throughout these periods.

As investors stepped away from the tape to hang their final holiday decorations, pack their bags to visit loved ones, and prepare for the New Year, markets fell quiet over the last two weeks of 2025.

There’s a lot of collective wisdom about the challenge of forecasting markets and the economy. Warren Buffet once famously said: “”Forecasts may tell you a great deal about the forecaster; they tell you nothing about the future.”

Miles Lewis, Chip Skinner, Kavitha Venkatraman, Steven McBoyle and Francis Gannon talk about what they see in store for US small-cap stocks in the coming year.

Three ways financial advisors can be more productive in the new year after starting their own independent practice.

VanEck’s muni bond ETF kept all 49 holdings intact during its fourth quarter rebalance but executed an internal rotation favoring higher-yielding funds over investment-grade names, according to index data from VettaFi.

ETFs have come on in leaps and bounds since the ETF rule arrived in 2019. Exchange-traded funds are taking a bigger and bigger role in the investment landscape, offering a different route into many strategies compared to mutual funds.

For the third year in a row, stock investors had reason for a celebratory year-end toast. The year started strong with the S&P 500 jumping 2.7% in January on strong earnings reports and anticipation of a more business-friendly administration.

For the third consecutive year – and sixth among the past seven – the S&P 500 tallied double-digit gains – a remarkable run. As the index climbed 16.39% for the year, it also recorded 38 new record highs.

The capture of Venezuelan President Maduro has been digested well by global markets, which is in keeping with 2025’s theme of massive volatility and solid index-level returns.

LPL Research reviews 2025 market predictions: key wins, misses, and lessons across equities, fixed income, and the U.S. economy.

Despite recent results, healthcare has been one of the most compelling sectors over the past decade, consistently outpacing earnings growth in both the U.S. and across developed markets.

Here we consider an area that is less explored: the ability to implement systematic strategies like trend following within an overlay program. We see a natural opportunity for integrating overlay and trend strategies, given that both have similar architecture as predominantly rules-based derivatives strategies.

Geopolitical risks remain elevated as the markets continue to digest the impact of trade tariffs. What does this mean for private markets? Franklin Templeton Institute shares its outlook.

Our playbook for 2026 aims to address real risks by expanding allocations in new directions.

Income ETFs can help retirees and their advisors navigate complicated economic times as they strive to meet their goals.

The construction of data centers has come to define the US economic narrative of 2024 and 2025. This unprecedented buildout reflects the urgent need to adapt national infrastructure to the rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI).

Canada’s strong showing was part of a broader global rotation away from U.S. mega-cap technology stocks and into international “value” markets.

As careers advance and income increases, spending often follows suit. This is lifestyle creep: the gradual increase in expenses as your financial life expands.

Silver was the best-performing commodity last year, up an astounding 145%, but precious metals as a whole delivered solid returns. Gold, silver, platinum and palladium all responded positively to a number of factors, from rising geopolitical tensions to changes to global trade to the accelerating energy transition.

This week’s release of the FOMC meeting minutes showed relatively strong diverging views on current monetary policy as well as on the path for policy this year.

For many high-net-worth investors in Pittsburgh, an Opportunity Zone conversation starts the same way: a large capital gain shows up on a return, perhaps from a business sale, a commercial real estate exit, or a concentrated stock position, and the question becomes how to manage the tax hit without making a rushed investment decision.

Last year, we thought economic growth would slow. Verdict: GDP data say we were wrong, employment data say we were right. Last year we thought the stock market would decline. Verdict: it did in March and April, sharply, but the S&P 500 ended the year with an impressive 16.4% gain. Overall, we’d say our negativity was unwarranted.

From an investment perspective, the financial ramifications operate on two levels — direct and indirect effects. The most direct effect is visible in the distressed debt market. Bonds issued by PDVSA, Venezuela’s state-run oil company, remain in technical default but had already begun a sharp rally in mid-December. Investors, anticipating an increased likelihood of regime change, have now seen that thesis validated.

The market enters 2026 on a fundamentally solid footing, even if the year-end trading days were choppier than the traditional year-end rallies we often see. Economic momentum exiting 2025 was strong.

The outlook for Chinese equities in 2026 is bright. Its ability to stand up to US trade demands reflects the narrowing technological gap between the two economies. We anticipate a less confrontational approach towards trade in 2026 as both sides seek to focus on growing their economies.

The defining feature of every bubble is the same: a growing inconsistency between the long-term returns that investors expect in their heads - based on extrapolation of the past, and the long-term returns that properly relate prices to likely future cash flows - based on valuations. Every bubble smuggles the same tragic past into the same tragic future by packaging it with new wrinkles that convince investors that this time is different. Ultimately, they still end the same way.

In 2025, the prices of precious metals rose sharply, with silver prices recently surging past $80 per ounce. Of course, when precious metals rise, there is always the same group of commentators (mostly paid newsletter writers and physical metal dealers) to declare that a financial analysis is underway.

As the private-credit market matures, it’s also becoming more accessible to a wider range of investors. But variation in outcomes has increased. In our view, that’s a byproduct of growing scale and competition.

With 2025 in the books, we take a brief pause to reflect on QuantStreet over the last few years. We started managing our first portfolio in December of 2021. What started out as just an idea has grown into a business serving many clients, both retail and institutional. 2025 was a year of growth for QuantStreet, and we hope to continue to build on this in 2026.

Now, as we turn the page to 2026, new challenges await: geopolitical tensions, lofty valuations, and an evolving macro backdrop. That’s why we’re excited to unveil our Ten Themes for 2026, inspired by Mission: Impossible, celebrating the 30th anniversary of its first movie this year.

Nuclear power tends to be attractive for its reliability, longevity, and emission free-power generation. Despite these benefits, nuclear energy represents a relatively small portion of worldwide power generation. In 2024, nuclear accounted for 9% of the global electricity mix.

Our 2026 outlook shows fixed income continuing to benefit from elevated rates, while equities still face a narrowing edge over risk-free investments.