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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

From an AI-fueled stock rally to China shaking off US tariff threats and earning a record trade surplus, 2025 was full of economic marvels. Don’t expect debates over innovation and economic disruptions to disappear in 2026.

As we step into 2026, the financial landscape is shifting rapidly—new legislation, evolving markets, changing interest rates, and changing family needs may all shape the choices you make today.

Silver surged above $80 an ounce on Friday, capping a meteoric rally that drove the metal’s price up 176 percent over the year. What is driving silver higher at such an unprecedented rate?

The “active” in active ETFs simply means there is not an underlying index. This somewhat obvious statement, made last February in my predictions column, was intended to dispel the misconception that active somehow means more risk or more tracking error, which certainly is not the case.

AI remains the economy’s most powerful growth engine, but our Small Cap Growth team believes several other areas are also likely to deliver significant upside in the near-to-medium term.

In a recent episode of the Money Metals podcast, host Mike Maharrey sits down with Peter C. Earle, PhD, of the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) to unpack what the gold standard actually is—and why it still matters in a world of fiat money.

It’s that time of year when Wall Street polishes up its crystal balls and begins predicting returns for 2026. Since Wall Street never predicts a down year, which would be unwise for fee-based product revenues, these forecasts are often inaccurate and sometimes significantly wrong. Let’s review some previous years.

After three strong years in a row, major indexes ended the year seeking direction. While optimism abounds, here are some potential issues that could trip up U.S. stocks.

The dollar is heading for its weakest annual performance in eight years, and the options market is signaling that traders are preparing for more downside in the final sessions of 2025.

As your balance sheet grows, the questions you ask about money tend to change. You move from wondering how to build assets to asking how long they will last, who will manage them after you, and how to keep family relationships steady along the way.

In this year-end reflection, we eschew the typical theater of market predictions to instead examine the "knew-it-all-along" effect and the cognitive illusions that make past volatility seem orderly.

Over the last couple of years, inflation alarmists such as Paul Tudor Jones, James Grant, and Jeff Gundlach have all said that inflation is returning with force. In different ways, they each stated that they would not own Treasury bonds due to the expectation that inflation would rise as the dollar declined due to the ongoing deficits.

This article explores the tension between individual economic outlooks and the institutional desire for collective stability in a highly scrutinized environment.

Shifting geopolitics are causing policymakers in Europe and Japan to step up fiscal spending to gain self-sufficiency and generate growth.

The global race to build AI infrastructure has accelerated sharply. Estimated capital expenditures now total more than $5 trillion, equivalent to the annual GDP of Germany.

Understand how a recession is defined and how to avoid common investment mistakes during recession-driven stock market downturns.

The Federal Reserve wrapped up its final meeting of 2025, delivering – as expected – its third consecutive rate cut. Policymakers lowered the fed funds rate to a target range of 3.5% to 3.75%, signaling continued support for the economy.

During extended upward-trending markets that reward risk-takers and punish caution, everyone is a “bull market genius.” That dynamic flips investor psychology and, over time, creates a false sense of control.

The goal with perpetual, unsolvable problems is to move from gridlock to dialogue. You don’t have to agree. You do have to understand.

Last Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) delivered a widely anticipated 25-basis-point rate cut at its final meeting of the year. In the press conference that followed, Chair Jerome Powell emphasized that monetary policy is now much closer to neutral and that the central bank is likely nearing the end of its rate-cutting cycle.

ClearBridge Investments expects a broadening of market participation that should benefit more diversified portfolios in 2026.

A generation ago, a single income could support a family, buy a house and pay for a vehicle or two in the driveway. Today, even two high earners are struggling to purchase a new home.

Despite rapid growth, including significant trading volume increases, the company faces major challenges from competitors like Robinhood and Interactive Brokers, an ongoing association with gambling, and regulatory pushback regarding its classification as a financial-derivatives exchange.

Emerging market carry trades, a popular strategy that returned about 17% in 2025, are widely expected to continue yielding gains in 2026 due to persistent interest rate gaps and a weakening US dollar.

We expect the US economy to remain resilient in 2026, providing a constructive backdrop for risk assets, as well as corporate and municipal credit. But the mix of macro uncertainty, policy division and elevated deficits could widen the range of potential outcomes and increase rate volatility—especially as the Federal Reserve approaches the neutral rate.

This year has witnessed some of the most significant policy shifts in recent memory. Economic, strategic and fiscal norms have all been challenged, creating a level of uncertainty that has been hard keep up with.

The Federal Reserve announced a new round of quantitative easing (QE) on Wednesday. It also cut the federal fund rate by another 25 basis points.

International stocks could be poised for another strong year in 2026 due to accelerating global growth, attractive valuations and the potential for dollar weakness.

Many U.S. companies now find their defined benefit (DB) plan in surplus and are exploring practical ways to use that excess funding. While emerging legislation may one day allow transfer from DB to defined contribution (DC) plans, some sponsors are already taking creative action.

The dot-com bubble burst in 2000. Now, 25 years later, anxiety abounds about the potential for a similar AI bubble burst and resultant crash.

JPMorgan Asset Management is seeking to convert two municipal-bond mutual funds with over $840 million of assets into ETFs in 2026, underscoring the growing popularity of the products.

Gen Z and younger millennials are the high-asset clients of the future, and advisors need to work on connecting with them now. From my perspective, there’s one clear success strategy for advisors: expanding your financial planning services.

As 2025 comes to a close, I am using this column to offer high-impact strategies for you and your team to implement before the year ends. While you are likely focused on tax planning, Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs), and the other client necessities, it is equally important to address the operational and strategic health of your practice.

Rising margin debt levels signal increasing speculation and leverage in the market, with the cost of carrying this debt nearing historical peaks that have typically preceded significant stock market corrections.

I’ve lived through several bubbles and read about others, and they’ve all hewed to this description. One might think the losses experienced when past bubbles popped would discourage the next one from forming. But that hasn’t happened yet, and I’m sure it never will.

Starting in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, a profound change to the Fed’s liquidity-providing role in the capital markets was underway.

For affluent families in Pittsburgh and around the US, wealth rarely grows in a straight line. Businesses evolve, real estate accumulates, trusts are created, and investment portfolios expand across public and private markets.

A conventional data center uses between 5,000 and 15,000 tons of copper. A hyperscale data center, on the other hand—the kind being built to run artificial intelligence (AI)—can require up to 50,000 tons of copper per facility, according to the Copper Development Association.

Private credit is expanding beyond its traditional niche to finance major infrastructure projects for investment-grade corporate borrowers, a trend particularly notable among hyperscalers building AI infrastructure.

Due to the federal government shutdown, official jobs data remains incomplete, forcing the Federal Reserve to rely on alternative private-sector reports to gauge the labor market. These alternative data sources, such as the ADP report and Revelio Labs estimates, indicate a widespread and concerning slowdown in employment, with job creation stalling, openings shrinking, and layoffs rising across many sectors.

I suspect almost 100% of my readers live well above the “poverty line.” I also suspect that probably 99% of you don’t know exactly where that line is. I didn’t really know the number either until I read the article we’ll discuss today.

While AI adoption is becoming ubiquitous across all segments of society, a significant bottleneck is emerging that could slow its expansion: a critical power problem. AI data centers consume massive amounts of electricity—up to the equivalent of 100,000 households—with projections showing they will account for nearly half of US electricity demand growth through 2030.