Yields for preferred securities have generally risen more than corporate bond and long-term Treasury yields over the past few months, making them more attractive to investors.
Stock markets have been hitting all-time highs and credit spreads remain low, yet higher interest rates and mounting floating-rate debt are straining lower-rated borrowers. This tension is surfacing first in leveraged loans as “quiet defaults” become more common — opening up a dynamic set of opportunities for investors specialized in stressed and distressed assets.
The most attractive conversion opportunities appear when income temporarily drops. Early retirement before Social Security and RMDs begin is the classic window. Sabbaticals, business transition years, the gap after a company sale, years with unusually low K-1 or bonus income. These are all potential openings.
Today, 529 plans offer flexible, tax-advantaged savings beyond traditional college. Recent updates expand their use to K-12 tuition, vocational training and the option to transfer unused funds to a Roth IRA. Our Bill Cass explains the ways to optimize the benefits of 529 savings plans.
Semiconductors and software have largely overshadowed the electrification ETF trade. Paul Baiocchi, head of fund sales and strategy at SS&C ALPS Advisors, says most investors are missing the sectors that actually power the AI buildout.
It’s likely not a bubble. Earnings are high. Prices are high because they anticipate future high earnings growth. The historical record shows that growth rate is achievable.
Investors and advisors often seek private equity, but they are frequently thwarted by liquidity and other issues.
Top RIA executives said Tuesday the industry's growth is still early, with breakaway clients and a talent shortage as key forces.
Addressing common 529 Savings Plan concerns and how recent legislative updates have broadened the 529 scope.
April delivered a constructive backdrop for preferred securities, with the ICE BofA Fixed-Rate Preferred Securities Index rebounding 2.23% and bringing YTD returns back into positive territory at 0.8%.
Artificial intelligence (AI) leadership is no longer a developed-market monopoly. Emerging markets (EM) now have their own AI champions, and productivity gains may follow. For bond investors, we expect the implications to differ by country—driven by industry composition, capital intensity, digital infrastructure and speed to adoption.
Many have drawn the comparison between the current AI buildout with the dotcom period in the late 1990s, when the infrastructure for the internet was built. It’s a sensible comparison to make because of the massive amount of capital deployed to commercialize the buildout of revolutionary and life-changing technology.
Royce Investment Partners: Co-CIO Francis Gannon looks at how recent performance may be subtly announcing a turning point in market leadership.
Typically, an investor’s traditional bond portfolio begins with a cornerstone, or core holding of some sort. From either a strategic or tactical perspective, a core fixed income position provides the investor with some ballast to help anchor any other strategies that may be included.
The logic of balanced investing is straightforward: equities drive long-term growth, bonds provide income and ballast when stocks fall, and the combination delivers a smoother ride than either asset alone. For decades, the 60/40 portfolio has been the default framework for good reason – it has worked, often brilliantly, across multiple market cycles.
Our reading is that this is a meaningful positive at the surface — a real-time confirmation that the most pessimistic recession scripts written in March can be set aside — but it is also a print that fails to alter the structural calculus we have been describing all year. The labor market is steady. The trajectory of fiscal policy, monetary credibility, and dollar reserve status is not.
Kevin Warsh set to be confirmed as the next Fed chair, Senate committee meets to consider the CLARITY Act, President Trump heads to China, and the gerrymandering wars heat up.
With inflation persistent and rising due to soaring energy prices, it’s not surprising that advisors and fixed income investors are revisiting Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS). In fact, data indicate that inflation-linked bonds have been among the most popular fixed income destinations, dating back to 2022.
The ETF landscape is ever changing, and has grown massively since the ETF rule arrived in 2019. It was the game-changer that streamlined the launch process for new funds, thus allowing asset managers to offer new and innovative strategies in the wrapper.
Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS) executives detailed their artificial intelligence strategy for operational efficiency as new data showed the top 100 registered investment advisor firms now manage more than $1.6 trillion in client assets, double what they controlled just two years ago, according to Padi Raphael, global co-head of third party wealth at the firm.
Fears of hotter-than-expected inflation were realized today. Consumer Price Index (CPI) data revealed that headline CPI rose 0.6% month-over-month in April. This pushed the year-over-year figure to 3.8%, which constitutes the highest reading since May 2023. To beat the CPI heat, three distinct natural resource ETFs offer varying ways to hedge against higher inflation.
A real fundamental story doesn’t require a parabolic chart to validate it. In fact, fundamentals tend to drag prices up the trend line, not push them through the ceiling. When a “shortage” narrative arrives at the same moment that the worst-quality names in the sector are leading the index higher, that’s not fundamentals at work.
Within private credit, attempts to increase liquidity – the ability to buy or sell an asset quickly, in size, and at prices reflecting fundamental values – are welcome developments, in our view. Yet until these efforts address the market’s inherent structural constraints, including a lack of true price discovery, they will only increase the perception of liquidity without truly improving liquidity.
A tariff is a tax on the value of an imported good, paid by the importer at the time the good is taken from an entry port. The tariff is absorbed in some combination of price concessions by the exporter, lower margins for the importer or higher final prices.
Access to private equity, private credit, private infrastructure, and private real estate assets can potentially improve long-term investment outcomes for participants.
Psychology plays a larger role in our investing lives than many of us care to admit. Often, when investing, we would be better off being a bit more robotic and a bit less human. The reason behind this is often our feelings influence our decisions in ways that are not always to our advantage.
Get ready each week with high-conviction insights that go beyond media headlines.
The inflation dragon is alive and well. Last November, Donald Trump called himself “the affordability president.” However, it appears that the message is falling flat with your average American.
Beneath the surface, however, the story is more complicated. The economy is still advancing, yet it is doing so with a growing bifurcation between households and sectors, while inflation pressures continue to simmer in the background.
Emerging market stocks have rebounded to new highs following their correction at the onset of the Iran war. The recent rally has been concentrated around AI. Can this continue?
In the current market, broad healthcare exposure means navigating relentless regulatory pressure and drug-pricing reform, a combination that can erode returns quickly. To find true value in this challenging macro environment, investors are increasingly turning to cash as the ultimate truth-teller, specifically, free cash flow (FCF).
Firms pulled back sharply on hiring last year as policy uncertainty and higher input costs – driven largely by tariffs – forced a reassessment of risk. Nonfarm payroll growth averaged just 9,700 per month in 2025, down dramatically from 121,600 in 2024. That slowdown reflected a familiar corporate response: When uncertainty rises, labor – the largest and most flexible cost – becomes the primary adjustment mechanism. Rather than expand headcount, firms chose to wait.
After going negative in March after the outbreak of hostilities between the U.S. and Iran, flows of gold into ETFs flipped positive again in April, with all regions reporting inflows of metal.
The stock market is on an absolute tear, with the Nasdaq up 5% last week and nearly 13% year-to-date. The proximate causes include a cease-fire somewhat holding with Iran, a 28% surge in S&P 500 corporate profits in the first quarter, and some consensus-beating economic reports, like Friday’s payroll numbers.
Wendy Li spent 20 years working with large endowments and foundations before founding Ivy Invest. In the latest Alternative Allocations, she discusses how institutions approach illiquid investments, the importance of manager selection, and where she sees opportunities in today's private markets.
With those simple words, Jerome Powell departed his final press conference as Federal Reserve Chair. Powell’s eight years at the helm have been anything but simple, however. A review of his tenure includes some hits, some misses, and some important lessons in leadership.
Innovation drives portfolio growth, but how can investors access it while limiting concentration risk – or paying for red-hot valuations? Most investors are already significantly exposed to megacap tech names, but there are plenty more tech players out there that can deliver for investors.
Early detection, I believe, is one of the smartest investments you can make, whether we’re talking about your portfolio or your health.
LPL Research explores how a potential Warsh-led Fed could reshape policy, Treasury markets, and volatility amid rising deficits and shifting demand.
Last week was very strong for the market narrative because the economic data continued to show resilience where it matters most: jobs, earnings, and investor confidence. The latest payroll report was not just stronger than expected; it showed broad private-sector strength, with government jobs actually declining and the prior month revised higher. That is an important distinction.
Munis may have struggled a bit in March, but the long-term environment for these bonds remains full of potential.
Explore the new 529 rules, including Roth IRA rollovers, the grandparent loophole, and higher K-12 limits.
For business owners, your company is more than an asset; it’s your livelihood, your legacy, and often your largest source of wealth. Yet too many owners delay succession planning until it’s urgent, limiting options and potentially eroding value. A well-structured exit isn’t a last-minute decision; it’s a multi-year strategy.
The nuclear industry has seen a recent flurry of announcements, headlined by two major industry partnerships to rapidly deploy new reactors. These exciting developments come against the backdrop of a new national poll showing increased positive sentiment towards nuclear energy. This all adds to the positive tailwinds for nuclear development in the U.S.
In my former life as a mutual fund analyst, T. Rowe Price was always a staple of my research. Back then, the focus was on their fundamentally focused active mutual fund lineup. However, in the last 15 years, the investment world — and my own research focus — has moved toward ETFs. I watched with strong interest as this Baltimore-based firm brought its active management expertise into the ETF world in 2020.
The travel and leisure space remains a bright spot, with Marriott posting a robust earnings beat driven by a 12% increase in gross revenue and strong global booking trends. Airbnb also had a strong showing, topping revenue forecasts and raising its full-year outlook as global travel momentum drove a 19% increase in gross booking value.
That skepticism isn’t contrarianism for its own sake, but rather the recognition that when a thesis achieves consensus, the crowd has usually already priced the easy part of the move, and the hard part is what comes next.
With 82% of market cap having reported, the S&P 500 is on track for 27% year-over-year earnings per share (EPS) growth, the strongest since 4Q21. More than 84% have beaten earnings estimates − the most since 1Q21 − while earnings revisions are up 12%, the fastest pace in four years.
Gold demand was up 2 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, setting a record in value terms. Including over-the-counter (OTC) selling, gold demand came in at 1,231 tonnes.
Ironically, the story I want to discuss today involves two companies we do not own and never have owned. Though they are household names, and this transaction is one of the most significant acquisitions in business history.
