The Bank of Japan met last night to cap off a week of central bank activity.

Despite the Fed’s aggressive monetary tightening and the regional banking crisis earlier this year, the U.S. economy has been surprisingly resilient. Bond yields continue to rise, with long-term Treasuries at their highest level since October 2007.

Gilt prices have been struggling this past year due to surging inflation and interest-rate increases. David Zahn, Franklin Templeton Fixed Income’s Head of European Fixed Income, shares his outlook for the UK economy and why he thinks now is a good time to consider investing in gilts.

Intermission is over. Today we resume my series on the global cycle theories that, probably not by coincidence, all point to major change unfolding in the next few years. Finishing it may take some time since I keep finding new material.

Anyone who even casually pays attention to the financial media has likely become familiar with the current state of inflation as well as how high interest rates have risen over the past ~2 years.

Like any recovering reporter, I like to keep tabs on my old beats, and the marijuana ETF space never disappoints. Or, perhaps more accurately, it never stops disappointing.

The Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of underlying inflation rose at the slowest monthly pace since late 2020, helping to lay the groundwork for policymakers to forgo an interest-rate hike at their next meeting.

The JPMorgan Asset Management money manager at the helm of the largest active exchange-traded fund in the $7.2 trillion industry is coming to market with another equity strategy geared toward investors bracing for a period of uncertainty.

Quarterly commentary giving an overview of the markets and the importance of having and implementing a strategy when investing in the markets.

The post-Covid era seems ripe for a Yogi-ism since economists and policymakers have been so wrong about the path of the economy and inflation. Yes, inflation is finally on a downward trend, but it has proven far stickier than the Federal Reserve and most economists predicted and remains above the Fed’s 2% target.

Monetary tightening still continues in the form of quantitative tightening, bringing potential volatility, earnings pressures, and lackluster performance to stock markets.

In our latest Quarterly Letter, Ben Inker and John Pease discuss the new economic regime, how investors can prepare for a recession, and the merits of combining high quality and cheap assets in today’s environment.

We've updated our periodic look at the Philly Fed ADS Index which includes real GDP (Q2 2023 third estimate) and initial jobless claims through 9/23.

The US may be heading back into a “vibecession” — a condition in which consumer confidence and other economic “vibes” decline so much that they threaten to become self-fulfilling prophecies and drag the economy down with them.

Active ETFs have scored more investor interest this year than smart beta ETFs—but does that mean the latter will soon be out of the game completely? David Mann, Head of ETF Product & Capital Markets at Franklin Templeton, opines.

The Census Bureau has posted its advance report on new orders for durable goods for August. This series dates from 1992 and is not adjusted for either population growth or inflation. Let's review durable goods data with those two adjustments.

A key measure of how much bond investors are compensated for holding long-term debt turned positive for the first time since June 2021, reflecting steep increases in longer-maturity Treasury yields.

So, here’s an idea: Dedicate the revenue collected from the estate tax into a trust fund that finances early childhood education, spanning childcare to preschool.

The stock market is buckling under the weight of a simple equation: cash earns more than equities.

The Fed sent a strong signal that interest rates will remain higher for longer, as our Franklin Templeton Fixed Income CIO Sonal Desai has long predicted. The Fed also started to acknowledge that the natural real rate of interest is higher than it thought.

Private infrastructure offers unique investment characteristics and potential diversification benefits for portfolio construction.

The Federal Reserve forecasts only a modest uptick in U.S. unemployment next year as inflation cools, but history and current labor market trends make us less certain.

The aim of this series is to move beyond the simplistic example of goals that exist at a single point in the future to consider retirement, the most common purpose for long-term investing for an individual.

It might be hard to believe after the crypto winter of 2022, but monetary tightening by global central banks could be supportive of Bitcoin upside.

Wednesday’s Federal Reserve (Fed) decision to keep the federal funds rate unchanged wasn’t a surprise at all. Markets, as we argued last week, had predicted that the Fed was going to stay put and that is what it did.

We started RBA in 2009 primarily because we thought the US stock market was entering one of the biggest bull markets of our careers. However, most investors did not agree with our bullishness. Now, risk aversion seems a thing of the past.

The Chicago Fed's National Activity Index is based on 85 economic indicators drawn from four broad categories of data. Two of the four broad categories of indicators used to construct the index decreased from July. All four categories made negative contributions in August.

The hit TV series “That 70s Show” aired from 1998 to 2006 and focused on six teenage friends living in Wisconsin in the late 70s.

Bond investors face the crucial decision of just how much risk to take in Treasuries with 10-year yields at the highest in more than a decade and the Federal Reserve signaling it’s almost done raising rates.

Looking through the lens of ROL – return on life – are you focused on each client's quality of life or just the quantity of assets?

Investment-grade credit is currently offering impressive yields, with relatively less risk than other fixed income sectors, according to Josh Lohmeier of Franklin Templeton Fixed Income. He makes a case for investing in the space today.

Financial advisors often face the challenge of transitioning a new client into their practice in a tax-efficient way.

For many wealth advisors, workplace retirement plans are either a burden or an afterthought, according to John Kutz, National Retirement Plan Strategist at Franklin Templeton. He and his team explore why embracing these plans can benefit their practice, and their clients.

While our Washington Policy analyst believes there is a path to a resolution to avoid a government shutdown ahead of the looming September 30 deadline, the rhetoric out of Washington suggests otherwise.

The Federal Reserve weighs the data while investors wonder: Is the rate-hike cycle over?

While some stocks may seem expensive, there are areas of opportunity that feature attractive valuations and growth catalysts, according to the Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions team.

Treasury 10-year yields rose above 4.5% for the first time since 2007 as a more hawkish Federal Reserve adds to concern the bonds face a toxic mix of large US fiscal deficits and persistent inflation.

Given concentration risk, understanding what a strategy and portfolio owns is more important than ever in current markets.

A bad week on Wall Street turned dismal Thursday after the relentless surge in Treasury yields sapped demand for risk assets. In the end, US stocks suffered the biggest drop in six months as investors recalibrate for a world where rates sit at levels not seen in a generation.

ETF Trends interviewed three sources about active ETFs, why financial advisors are opting for these investment solutions for clients, and how these factors have changed in recent years. Each source responded to the same questions in their respective interviews.

The September Federal Reserve meeting provided few surprises, but ongoing uncertainty about the Fed's next move may mean more volatility ahead.

Broad-based dividend strategies haven’t performed very well in 2023. But panelists at VettaFi’s Equity Symposium argued that there is value in dividend ETFs — investors just need to know where to look.

Bond traders are bracing for Treasury yields to keep pushing higher after the Federal Reserve signaled it’s likely to hold interest rates at lofty levels well into next year.

BlackRock Inc. and other money managers spent years rolling out sustainable funds, seeking to capitalize on surging interest in ESG investing. Now they’re abandoning an increasing number of those products in the US amid political backlash and investor scrutiny.

What’s inside an ETF really matters. This is an argument I’ve been making for more than a decade. However, with the growth of alternatively weighted index ETFs and actively managed products, this has become even more notable.

Inverted curves (when the gold line goes below the red line meaning that short maturity yields are higher compared to longer maturity yields) have preceded recessions.

The Franklin Templeton Fixed Income team believe that issuers that think critically about the environment in which they operate could outperform throughout the full market cycle compared with those who are slower to adapt.

US five- and 10-year yields rose to the highest levels since 2007 after hotter-than-anticipated inflation data in Canada and rising oil prices added to global concerns about resurgent price pressures.

For new investors, the world of finance can appear daunting. But among the sea of investment options, Treasury bonds (often just called “Treasuries”) are a pillar of stability and reliability.

Given the uncertainty over a recession, there are other incremental steps that investors may want to consider instead. These include making adjustments to a portfolio’s market beta and credit exposure.