The world has entered a period of geopolitical uncertainty, with the U.S. now at the center of the storm.
Longtime Investor Alert readers have often seen me say that government policy is a precursor to change. What this means is that, when policymakers act—whether through subsidies, sanctions, tariffs or regulations—markets can sometimes respond swiftly and dramatically. We’re seeing that play out right now in real time, especially in the copper market.
We’ve written quite a bit on tariffs already this year, and appropriately so. Developments on this front have been significant and are of global consequence.
VettaFi examines free cash flow yields for midstream MLPs and corporations using 2025 estimates and compares with energy and the S&P 500.
While we sympathize with consumers who have had difficult interactions with the healthcare system, we believe that much of the antipathy toward health insurers is misplaced. Their role as middlemen is a vital and increasingly important one in a U.S. healthcare system that struggles to balance between the incentives of providers and consumers.
The Chicago Fed's National Activity Index is a monthly indicator designed to gauge overall economic activity and related inflationary pressure. It is a composite of 85 monthly indicators across four broad categories. The CFNAI is a forward-looking indicator that suggests how the economy will likely look in the near term and has been called one of the "most important and overlooked economic numbers". The index is constructed so a zero value for the index indicates that the national economy is expanding at its historical trend (average) rate of growth. Negative values indicate below-average growth, and positive values indicate above-average growth.
ETF Prime Host Nate Geraci is joined by Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas, along with VettaFi’s Cinthia Murphy and Todd Rosenbluth, to spotlight the year’s most anticipated ETF event and discuss the industry’s hottest trends.
Emerging markets offer the potential for long-term diversified investment returns but they can endure challenging periods of volatility and uncertainty. Head of Portfolio Strategy David Dali maps out the issues to consider when constructing and managing a portfolio for emerging markets.
Despite NVIDIA’s stock flashing a bearish “death cross”—its 50-day moving average slipped below the 200-day moving average for the first time since January 2023—the energy at the conference was electrifying. Every major industry was represented, from health care to defense, signaling that artificial intelligence (AI) is expanding at a white-knuckle clip.
Citigroup Inc. had what looked like the perfect way to grab a slice of the money flowing from wealthy individuals to private equity firms: playing matchmaker between its rich clients and an up-and-coming firm.
US investment firms are rushing to grab a greater chunk of Europe’s market for active exchange-traded funds, an industry projected to grow to $1 trillion in assets over the coming years.
Disappointing retail sales last month added to concerns of a pullback in consumer spending in the US, while a pair of business surveys suggested growing caution.
The share of US workers represented by a union ended 2024 at 9.9%. Strip out public sector workers and the rate was 5.9%.
Ben Inker and John Pease look at the economics of trade and tariffs at a theoretical level and explain why broadly applied tariffs are a needlessly economically way to achieve U.S. goals.
It was inevitable. Certain pieces of the market roared to insane valuations last year. Investors poured money into the markets and speculated stocks would keep rising forever. But, sentiment has shifted.
While restrictive covenants serve an important role, their enforceability hinges on their scope, the dictates of state law and, ultimately, public policy considerations regarding balancing employer business interests with employee rights to pursue their careers.
Volatility across financial markets has become a persistent theme in 2025. The recent volatility has stemmed from a range of factors, including:
The U.S. has poured more than $120 billion into Ukraine since its war with Russia began three years ago, but with a new administration in Washington, that support is grinding to a halt.
Sanjay Malhotra, the new Reserve Bank of India governor, is right to unwind some of his predecessor’s hawkish controls on a runaway consumer-credit boom. There was a time to throw sand in the wheels of commerce.
The "2025+ Outlook Report" offers an analysis of how robotics, AI, and healthcare technology are converging to reshape industries globally.
Euro-area bond yields inevitably leapt like a salmon as Germany unleashed a fiscal bazooka, but compared to previous fixed-income tantrums, it’s not the stuff of all-night summits.
Though the new US policy focus is on oil and gas, wider opportunities still beckon.
Unlike most of the rest of the world, I will attempt to minimize all there is to say about the beginning of the next 4 years, as the persistent yack and what to make of it reverberates in all corners of the financial globe.
The central question we want to address in this note is how to quantify how “price sensitive” insurance buyers should be, and in the context of insurance, what is the “price” they should be sensitive to?
Today we are going to revisit that matrix updated through 2024. We will see what we got right and wrong, what further inferences we can now make and why I think it confirms my general shift in market strategy over the past few years.
President Xi Jinping heads into China’s biggest political huddle of the year with his economy finally getting back some swagger. Donald Trump’s rising tariffs will test Beijing’s ability to sustain that momentum.
More than a century ago, then-Representative William McKinley pursued an aggressive tariff strategy that sought to protect American industry and reduce reliance on foreign imports. The McKinley Tariff Act of 1890 raised import duties to an average of 50%, one of the highest levels in U.S. history.
Portfolio Manager Andrew Mattock, CFA, explains the importance of assessing U.S. tariffs as a component among external variables that can influence, rather than drive, investment returns.
AI drug developer Recursion Pharmaceuticals Inc. is considering an Amazon Prime-style subscription model for selling its pipeline of medicines.
Looming U.S. and global policy shifts may potentially rattle markets, but a tactical and flexible approach could help investors navigate risks and opportunities regardless of how events play out.
Trade war fears and disappointing data have sparked a flood of defensive buying activity in consumer staples, utilities, and healthcare stocks.
Nvidia, the biggest AI chip firm, reports Wednesday with investors watching sales of Nvidia's newest chips and worried about cheaper competition from systems like DeepSeek.
On this week’s episode of ETF Prime, VettaFi’s Todd Rosenbluth shares advisor polling data on fixed income.
Dean LeBaron’s name may not be familiar to many readers, especially those who only began their careers in the 21st century. But all of us should know who he is. Before there was even a term for it, Dean was the first truly successful quant.
ETF expert Dave Nadig offers hot takes on a range of topics, including private equity in ETFs, Truth.Fi entering the space, memecoins, and increasingly exotic ETF launches. VettaFi’s Todd Rosenbluth discusses an ongoing battle for the ETF throne and presents the latest advisor polling data on fixed income.
None of us outside Trump’s inner circle know what the real goals are. What looks like needless chaos might lead to benefits that outweigh the costs. One potential benefit is revenue. Could the tariffs produce significant tax revenue that would help reduce the federal debt? The president seems to think so.
Apple Inc., as it seeks relief from US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on goods imported from China, said that it will hire 20,000 new workers and produce AI servers in the US.
Attractive yields and a broad opportunity set bolster active bond investments amid today’s uncertain macroeconomic and market outlook.
For a few months now, I’ve been referring to today’s heightened geopolitical climate as the “new red Cold War,” where artificial intelligence (AI)—not necessarily fighter jets and nuclear weapons—serves as the primary battleground between the U.S. and its adversaries, most notably Russia and China.
President Donald Trump ordered his administration to consider imposing reciprocal tariffs on numerous trading partners, raising the prospect of a wider campaign against a global system he complains is tilted against the US.
A closer look at the broader landscape reveals why the United States remains positioned to pursue a strategy of tariffs.
Municipal bonds were a hot topic at last week’s VettaFi Fixed Income Symposium — more than I expected them to be.
Startup investors including Alphabet Inc.’s Google and SoftBank Group Corp. are betting that quantum computing, often thought of as a fantastical science experiment, is getting closer to having sweeping real-world applications.
Bloomberg’s bonus calculator offers a revealing look at the divergent value of Wall Street employee payouts.
In this note, we'd like to share our analysis of one potential solution we've been hearing about a lot lately. It involves leveraged direct index tax-loss harvesting.
Tech results last week were more anticipated than usual due to the emergence of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek in the prior week.
Markets, as many of you are aware, don’t like uncertainty. And right now, there’s a lot of uncertainty surrounding U.S. trade policy.
We hope you enjoy the latest newsletter from Harold Evensky.
Factories across the world are growing increasingly idle. Global industrial capacity utilization (CAPU) has fallen significantly, and a rising unemployment rate has followed suit, signaling that the available factors of production globally are progressively more redundant.
The ETF industry reached a significant milestone on Wednesday, as there are now over 4,000 ETFs trading at the same time.
