Financial advisors get a bad rap. Some deserve it; most don’t. The problem for the entire investment advisory and portfolio management community stems from the “career risk” they inevitably face.
The presidential debate was the big story of the week and revealed a mild market preference for former President Trump. Notably, during the 90 minutes of the debate when there was no other market news, S&P 500 Futures rose 10 points, due to Trump’s business-friendly policies despite his higher-policy unpredictability.
We review the key themes of the first half of a busy year.
Although this missive is tabbed as a 3rd quarter expository, it strikes home more as a 2025 conundrum because contained in the current data is a cause and effect that we believe is clearly being overlooked. Let’s begin with the fact that the stock market averages are trading at record highs.
Investors have been so preoccupied with Fed policy that they missed the economy sticking the soft landing.
For married couples, typically those who have a high net worth, a Spousal Limited Access Trust (SLAT) could be an efficient wealth-preserving strategy. These irrevocable trusts allow one spouse to transfer assets such as cash, marketable securities, real estate, and life insurance, to a trust that benefits the other spouse.
Cathie Wood, CEO/CIO of Ark Investment Management, (in)famously predicted that her firm’s strategies could see a 40 percent annualized return over the subsequent five years. That prediction rounded the halfway pole and is now headed home, so this seems like a good time to check in on how it is faring
With crypto going mainstream, it’s important that advisors understand the pros and cons of including crypto in a portfolio.
BlackRock Inc. will acquire private capital database provider Preqin for £2.55 billion ($3.2 billion) in cash, as the world’s largest money manager accelerates its push to become a major player in alternative assets.
Tesla Inc. is expected to report another quarter of weaker sales, and it’s running out of alibis.
The growing prospect of a Trump presidential victory is making yield curve steepeners an attractive bet as growth will likely slow and inflation quicken under such a scenario, according to Morgan Stanley.
Jerome Powell is Mr. Yen. He has been for some time, but it has taken a while for the world to catch on.
Goldman Sachs recently upped its price target to S&P 6300 for the end of this year, along with Evercore ISI upping its year-end target to 6000. Such is not surprising given the strong run in the markets this year.
As we approach the halfway point of the year, all eyes remain on Federal Reserve policy and the pace of inflation’s downward trend. Central banks are becoming more dovish, but when will the much-anticipated rate cuts materialize? We’ve identified six key themes we believe will influence the Fed and impact investors in the second half of 2024. Spoiler alert: Periods of volatility are likely and will provide opportunities to episodically add risk.
This week I had the privilege of participating in a YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization) event held in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. One of the main topics of discussion was investment opportunities in neighboring Zambia, a country that, despite its challenges, is a rising star on the African continent, due largely to its copper exports.
Rick Rieder and team argue that the economy is making further progress towards normalization and continues to offer a once-in-a-generation investing opportunity, which isn’t adequately represented by the benchmarks.
Retail trade sales in the U.S. are reported by distribution channel. For example, gasoline sales are reported through the gasoline stations distribution channel, although those gasoline stations’ sales also include everything else sold at gasoline station convenience stores, i.e., hot dogs, tobacco, sodas, gum, chips, coffee, etc.
How to help position your portfolio in anticipation of an economic downturn.
Investors of all stripes are getting increasingly acquainted with the AI megatrend, but some may not realize the depth therein.
Looking to assess your portfolio for the current inflation outlook? Natixis Investment Managers' Cyclicality vs. Inflation outlook can help.
Adapting to the new cycles requires swift operational changes, making the guidance of experienced managers crucial.
U.S. corporate pension plan sponsors are required to measure their plan liabilities for a few important purposes.
Hype over artificial intelligence, the eagerly anticipated launch of Bitcoin funds, and billions of dollars flowing toward the seemingly unstoppable stock-market surge: ETFs have seen it all and been the beneficiary so far this year.
Sour sentiment toward emerging-market stocks is obscuring uncommon opportunities for equity investors.
Bitcoin’s performance is starting to be overshadowed by the Ether and Solana tokens as hype around US cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds shifts to the two smaller digital assets.
The Northern Trust Economics team shares its outlook for major markets, with a spotlight on the eurozone.
CIO Sean Taylor says the second half of the year looks positive for emerging markets but country selection as a risk control will be critical in what is proving to be a politically-charged period for equities.
Schwab Sector Views is our six- to 12-month outlook for stock sectors, which represent broad sectors of the economy. The Schwab Center for Financial Research (SCFR) combines a factor-based approach with a market and economic assessment to determine the ratings.
Tesla Inc. is on the verge of losing a key bragging right it’s held for the past six years: outselling all EV competitors in the US combined.
US Treasuries are headed for their biggest monthly rally of the year after the Federal Reserve’s favored inflation gauge decelerated, bolstering expectations for interest-rate cuts starting this year.
Things just got a little harder for the Securities and Exchange Commission, which henceforth must seek certain civil damages for securities fraud by going to federal court, rather than through its own internal adjudicatory process.
Chief U.S. Economist Ryan Boyle explains why measures of inflation don't match feelings about prices.
As an advisor, you know that no two clients are alike. Each has their own financial goals, risk tolerance and opinion on how they want to invest.
Marc Pinto, Head of Americas Equities, and Chris Benway, Director of Research, consider how the U.S. election may influence markets leading up to November, discuss policies worth monitoring as the election draws near, and remind investors to prioritize quality in times of uncertainty.
Remember when an inverted yield curve used to predict recessions? Here we are about two years removed from the Treasury yield curve moving into negative territory, and the U.S. economy has yet to move into recession territory. The economy’s resilience has certainly been a surprisingly welcome development and has left many a market participant wondering what happened.
Investors need a better grasp of risk-management tools to gauge a portfolio’s strategic resilience in a rapidly changing world.
Much like the universe, which began with a big bang nearly 14 billion years ago, but is expanding so rapidly that scientists predict it will all end in a “big freeze” trillions of years from now, our current monetary system seems to require perpetual expansion to maintain its existence.
As Apple Inc. prepared to introduce its Vision Pro headset a year ago, the worry at Meta Platforms Inc. was that the hardware geniuses in Cupertino were about to unveil a breakthrough in mixed reality, some new take on a computing platform that Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg had been trying to crack for more than a decade.
Big swings in Nvidia Corp. shares have reignited debate about the staying power of the chipmaker’s rally. While the stock’s valuation and threat of competition are major concerns, one variable is key: durability of demand.
FedEx Corp. dropped a bomb on the market Tuesday afternoon with the announcement that it will do an “assessment” of its freight unit. Investors seemed to like the move, pushing up the shares as much as 15%, on the possibility of a windfall and a more pure-play package delivery and logistics company.
Much of the current decrease in the headline retail sales number can be attributed to the decline in gasoline prices at the pump.
U.S. Treasury auctions are of interest lately due to growing U.S. debt and high interest rates. What are Treasury auctions, how do they work, and what should investors know?
In their mid-year outlook for global stocks, Head of Americas Equities Marc Pinto and Head of EMEA and Asia Pacific Equities Lucas Klein argue that while risks of an economic slowdown remain, the potential for unlocking new shareholder value is also strong.
Valued for their reliability across economic regimes, investors don't have to sacrifice growth when blue chip investing with FBCG.
Bond investors have been looking for an approach that delivers attractive, repeatable, uncorrelated active returns. Is their wait over?
Macro worries meet AI wonderwall. Stocks have managed to climb a wall of macro worries, thanks to largely solid earnings that we believe can expand beyond AI beneficiaries and continue to support prices. As Q3 begins, we look for:
Investors often ignore geopolitics, usually to their benefit. Now might be one of those times when we should pay attention. In the past few weeks, hostilities between East and West have accelerated. It’s a worrisome trend.
Many investors see diversification as the starting point for a sound investment strategy. But it could result in potentially diluted returns. Taking advantage of the strengths inherent in high-conviction, quality investing could potentially be more durable over the long term.
Investor behavioral tendencies, however, can complicate the process and create inefficiency. A systematic framework can mitigate that, especially if it focuses on quality first and then growth.
Join the experts at Macquarie Asset Management for a product spotlight on the Macquarie Focused Large Growth ETF (LRGG) and explore a concentrated,1 active approach to quality investing.
The longer I spent working at a big firm, the more I came to understand that the advice I could offer was determined by decisions at the top. My input as an advisor was limited, which didn’t sit well with me, so I looked for a position that would allow me to offer unbiased financial advice.
Traders in the US rates options market are embracing a nascent wager on the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate path: a whopping 3 percentage points worth of cuts in the next nine months.
