The metals and mining industry could be undergoing some dramatic changes in the near future, and it’s important for investors to get in on the ground floor. I’m proud of our track record of getting in early with a number of successful companies.
I would prefer that the market set rates at the lower end as opposed to the Federal Reserve, again, except in times of crisis. I don’t believe 12 people sitting around a desk, no matter how brilliant and educated they are, can arrive at a proper market-clearing rate better than the market itself. Seriously, LIBOR was set for decades without government intervention.
The sharp rebound in equities seems to be in contrast to the deterioration in data, which could lead to near-term volatility.
This isn't the time in the cycle to take excessive risk. The easy money has already been made. Astoria's 2019 playbook is as follows: late cycle economic forces + desynchronized global growth + a deteriorating earnings cycle = the need for more defensive posturing across stocks and bonds.
It’s the beginning of the year and markets have been volatile. You’re thinking about client reviews and outlooks, and the fee discussions that may come along with those meetings. As you prepare to step into that conversation, remember one thing: Your job is to help your clients stay focused on the outcome.
What investors should expect from upcoming elections in Thailand, Indonesia, India and the Philippines.
Over the years, I have always thought that the left’s obsession with global warming was really just an excuse to push through a fully socialist economic agenda. After all, the radical changes that would be required for businesses and consumers to rapidly reduce our carbon footprint could only come about through government mandates and force.
Tax Cuts a Year Later - Did They Deliver as Promised? A look back at what we stated about #tax cuts prior to their enactment and where we are today. Did they lift up the average American? #GDP
I was traveling last week seeing portfolio managers and doing gigs for our financial advisors and their clients. I have been doing such events for much of the past six months. The recurring question from clients is, “What about the national debt?”
As we head deeper into the year, the U.S. economy continues to grind slowly forward despite trade concerns and Brexit worries. Markets have rebounded from their Christmas Eve lows, and the Fed has signaled that rate hikes are on hold for several months. Does this mean the all-clear has been sounded?
The clock is winding down, and the United Kingdom has some major decisions to make. Should it stay in the European Union or should it go? If it goes, under what terms? Some analysts and investors are concerned about a "Hard Brexit,"...
The euro area faces another challenging year, but we see a continuation of recent soft growth as much more likely than recession. The European Central Bank (ECB) is, nonetheless, now likely to delay its first rate hike to 2020, and could also implement fresh credit-easing measures.
Hungary has a problem. Like many Eastern European and former Soviet countries, its population is shrinking thanks to a plunging birthrate and outmigration as young workers seek better opportunities and fatter salaries elsewhere in the European Union (EU).
Corporate results in the fourth quarter of 2018 were good, but not great: sales grew 6% and earnings rose 32%, but profit margins fell hard. Expectations for 10% earnings growth in 2019 have already been revised down to 5%. This still looks too optimistic...
As I stated in previous articles in this series, my primary objective is to provide the reader with a clear perspective of just how different individual stocks are and how different companies operating in different sectors are.
If you've been in the industry long enough, you may have been able to look a client in the eyes and tell them the 3 greatest words an advisor can tell a client. “We did it.”
We have a light economic calendar and a short week. We’ll get earnings reports from another 10% of S&P 500 companies. With plenty of time and little fresh information, I expect plenty of pure speculation about the state of the market.
Vanessa Oligino is director of business performance solutions at TD Ameritrade. In this interview, she discusses what her research shows are the key traits among advisors who make successful transitions to CEOs of an RIA.
This week Morgan Stanley projected a 14 percent upside for copper in 2019, based on a widening supply deficit and the surge in global demand for renewable energy and electric vehicles, both of which require tons of the red metal.
Emerging market equities were off to a strong start overall in 2019, rebounding from a 2018 downturn.
A review of last month’s market-moving events across countries and asset classes.
Consumers are set to spend more than $20 billion on Valentine’s gifts for the first time ever, thanks in part to a surge in gold jewelry demand—specifically, yellow gold.
The market environment for value investors over the past few years has been less than ideal, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t opportunities to be had.
For over 20 years, Russell Investments has partnered with thousands of financial advisors to help them evolve and deepen client relationships. I’ve found that when advisors hear about our data-driven business solutions capabilities, advisors are generally most curious about two things…
Our millennial advisors push us (the three partners) on our “value to the community.”
Although 4Q18 earnings season is capping a very strong calendar year for earnings; the outlook for 2019 is decidedly murkier, with 1Q19 already in negative territory.
Offering account aggregation is an effective way to add value to your client relationships, provide better service and set your firm apart from the competition.
I use Gilligan’s Island as a means of illustrating productivity and its importance for the health of an economy and the prosperity of its people.
While some observers might worry that the current global economic cycle is ending, Templeton Global Macro CIO Michael Hasenstab characterizes the slowing growth we are experiencing as a cyclical slowdown, not the end of the cycle. He is more concerned with the political vulnerabilities he's seeing in the global economy today, and says the world's increasing fragmentation due to populist policies is a major concern.
“Some people call it ‘peak gold,’ but I tend to think of it more as ‘peak discovery.’” Meet the brains behind Goldspot Discoveries, a first-of-its-kind quant shop that aims to use AI to revolutionize the mineral exploration business.
Today’s capitalism has a contradiction that is increasingly hard to ignore: lack of competition in key markets. That’s a problem because competition incentivizes producers to get more efficient and reduce prices for consumers. Without competition, you end up with bloated monopolies that may be highly profitable for the owners, but don’t serve the greater cause of economic growth.
Robert Nelson, a portfolio manager with Franklin Templeton Fixed Income Group, believes emerging market corporate debt presents a compelling but under-appreciated investment story. Here he sets out three reasons why investors might consider an allocation to the asset class.
With no-deal Brexit risks increasing and sterling having already experienced a strong year-to-date rally, we are now expecting to see sterling fall against the dollar and euro.
Early on in my career, I learned there are four psychological reasons investors buy (listed from strongest to weakest).
Countries and companies have been on a borrowing binge even as the growth of the working-age population in many parts of the world slows. Is a prolonged period of low growth and low inflation in our future?
British Prime Minister Theresa May’s strategy of threatening a no-deal Brexit requires a hard deadline that forces her opponents to capitulate. Without that, “running down the clock” becomes “kicking the can down the road,” which more accurately reflects May’s paradoxical combination of robotic inflexibility and exasperating indecisiveness.
We go through life being taught far more certainty than is actually present. Life isn’t black and white, but instead various shadings of grey that end in black or white, only after the fact.
We've written about it over and over, and while many advisors seem to understand, the media, politicians, and many analysts don't...or won't. So, we thought we'd try again to explain why so many people don't understand the nearly ten-year long bull market in U.S. equity values.
Last week, the Federal Reserve issued policy statements intended to telegraph a shift toward easier, or at least more patient monetary policy. Though Wall Street interpreted this shift as a major about-face in the Fed’s policy stance, the most significant shift in Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s statements actually occurred on November 28.
The government shutdown and temporary displacement of some workers didn’t cause the strong US labor market to miss a beat. Today’s jobs report reinforces that gains have been accelerating. That’s good news for the economy and markets.
In Keeping At It: The Quest for Sound Money and Good Government, a beautifully crafted autobiography, Pau Volcker recounts the many struggles involved in achieving his aims.
Today we’ll look at what we should expect from our investing. In case you haven’t noticed, financial markets are really a giant expectations game. A company can report great quarterly results and still get crushed if earnings are less than analysts expected.
Last year was a watershed in the size of official gold purchases, as central banks added 651.5 tonnes to their holdings. Not only is this a remarkable 74 percent change from 2017, but it’s also the most on record going back to 1971.
What will central banks do with all the bonds they have acquired through QE? Could it ultimately lead to (much) higher inflation? These and other questions to do with QE will be addressed in this month’s letter.
Matthews Asia Portfolio Strategist David Dali discusses the new drivers of growth in emerging markets.
The purpose of this memo is to describe what happens when political behavior collides with economic reality, as illustrated in one area where the government is taking steps – tariffs – and another in which debate among politicians is heating up – restrictions on the capitalist system.
We’ve collected the following tributes to Jack Bogle from among the authors who contribute to Advisor Perspectives and other prominent individuals in the investment industry.
A 1997 dark comedy starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert DeNiro, “Wag the Dog” was a film in which a Hollywood director and a spin-doctor collude to fabricate a war in order to distract voters from a presidential sex-scandal. Hilarity ensues. Of course, the irony was that the movie was released just two months before an actual sex-scandal erupted.
So let’s summarize how we see the world in terms of noise – those things that may introduce short-term volatility and anxiety, but which are unlikely to dramatically affect longer-term performance – and signals – those things that may actually affect longer-term market performance.
Domestic airlines weren’t exempt from the rout that hit stocks in December, the market’s worst month since the Great Recession. Shares of all four major U.S. carriers—American, Delta, United Continental and Southwest—saw double-digit losses. Delta ended December down 17.8 percent, its worst month since October 2009, when it gave back 20.3 percent.
