The S&P 500 Index is on track to close at its first record since January, as traders bid up stocks amid optimism over the ceasefire between the US and Iran and robust corporate fundamentals.
Wall Street has gotten repeatedly burned calling a bottom in software stocks, which have been hit hard by fears that artificial intelligence will make the companies obsolete. But this week’s bounce is bringing some bottom-fishing investors back to the group on hopes that the worst may finally be over.
Morgan Stanley’s traders got a boost from President Donald Trump’s deregulation agenda. In the first three months of the year, Morgan Stanley plowed capital that was freed up after US regulators relaxed a key rule into its prime brokerage division and its macro trading desks, according to Chief Financial Officer Sharon Yeshaya.
Outside of energy commodities, capital markets posted a downbeat March as cross-asset volatility spiked in response to the outbreak of hostilities in the Mideast, and kicked off April in similar, choppy fashion before posting a swift bounce following last Wednesday’s two-week ceasefire agreement.
While infrastructure companies are not immune to a potential economic slowdown, they may provide a longer-term investment opportunity amid an uncertain macroeconomic backdrop.
Diversification is finally paying off. After more than a decade of U.S. dominance, international equity ETFs are enjoying monster inflows, outpacing their domestic counterparts for the first time since early 2023.
Rapid technological shifts and shifting interest rate expectations continue to define the current market environment. Amid the uncertainty, investors are looking for a reliable North Star to guide their growth allocations. They can start with the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth ETF (FBCG).
Join ProShares Global Investment Strategist Simeon Hyman for a timely discussion on why many covered call ETFs lag in rebounds—and how newer approaches aim to better balance income generation with long-term equity participation.
BlackRock Inc. Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink sees increased demand for private credit from big institutional investors like insurers, even as retail clients grow skittish over the asset class and seek to redeem more of their shares.
Economic conditions are set to be even rockier in 2026, as the US-Israel war with Iran has set inflation on a continued upward trajectory and further rankled markets. Even if there were a de-escalation in the conflict, a domino effect has begun.
The question that is increasingly on everyone’s mind is simple: Is this time different? The answer will hinge squarely on what happens to core inflation, specifically the core Consumer Price Index and the core PCE price index.
The first quarter of 2026 ended with a downpour of volatility as the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) rose 69%. Nonetheless, Goldman Sachs (GS) reported first-quarter 2026 earnings that outpaced Wall Street expectations though a thick fog of uncertainty still lingers in Q2.
In a rapidly shifting geopolitical environment, gold continues to demonstrate both its resilience and its complexity as a financial asset.
For financial advisors, tax season should not be the only time to talk to clients about municipal bonds. However, with April 15 arriving this week, the timing is ideal to examine how muni bond ETFs are rapidly becoming a cornerstone of fixed-income allocations in 2026.
Over the last few weeks, we have published real-time market commentary as the correction proceeded. The goal was to help investors navigate the more dire outcomes promoted on social media. A largely unexpected outcome was that the S&P 500 outlook changed dramatically in a matter of days.
New ETF launches address concentration and liquidity risks exposed by volatile markets through active and passive strategies.
In this episode of ETF of the Week, Todd Rosenbluth, and Chuck Jaffe discuss why the Goldman Sachs Municipal Income ETF (GMUB) is a timely addition to portfolios. With tax season in full swing, Rosenbluth explains the unique appeal of municipal bonds, highlighting the historical tendency for these assets to perform well following the April 15th deadline
Inflation fears are not new, but the current path is beyond alarming. The U.S. is spending its way into a rampant inflation catastrophe. That is why gold and commodities are being bid up in price and will likely continue to be bid up.
It goes without explaining at this point, that advisors and investors are keeping an extremely close eye on the trajectory of the Federal Reserve’s ongoing fight against inflation. As of now, the battle certainly seems far from over. Fortunately, tools such as bond ladder ETFs can help portfolios maintain their course and mitigate the brunt of inflation.
Sportsbooks profit from customer losses, making them structurally predatory. Kalshi, by contrast, operates as a peer-to-peer exchange: customers bet against each other, Kalshi takes fees from both sides, and the house has no stake in the outcome. It's a financial market, not a casino.
That article digs into the plumbing behind oil shocks and recession, and exposes why, over the years, I’ve learned to distrust the loudest voices in the room.
Accelerating earnings are protecting the S&P 500 from deeper losses and masking a broader pullback in US equities, according to strategists at Morgan Stanley.
Over the past year, markets have been shaped by rapid advances in AI, elevated geopolitical tensions – especially involving Iran – and persistent uncertainty around global trade. In environments like this, successful investing rarely comes from chasing headlines or reacting emotionally. It’s about discipline, staying anchored to fundamentals and executing a clear long‑term game plan.
During Exchange 2026, experts and thought leaders from firms across the country gathered. They shared different approaches and ideas for tackling the market’s biggest challenges.
A ceasefire in the Middle East is the latest twist for investors who have grown increasingly reactive to each new headline. Volatility has surged: prior to the ceasefire, the VIX had roughly doubled this year and averaged 25 in March—about 67% above year-end levels—underscoring just how uncertain the path forward has been.
While recent market performance reflects optimism over potential geopolitical de-escalation, underlying economic data reveals a complex landscape of intensifying price pressures and cooling growth.
Franklin Templeton Institute examines the evolution of private credit, its risk/return characteristics, and why commercial real estate debt represents a viable alternative to traditional fixed income options.
The traditional 60/40 portfolio is undergoing a structural renovation, but the fixed income sleeve is proving difficult to stabilize.
Bond traders held onto wagers that the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates once this year after data confirmed that US inflation quickened in March as the Iran war led to higher gasoline prices.
US equity futures stalled after a seven-day rally as investors weighed whether a fragile truce between Washington and Tehran can hold, and oil headed for its biggest weekly loss in nine months.
By at least one metric in the $9.5 trillion foreign-exchange markets, demand for the dollar is ebbing amid the tenuous ceasefire between the US and Iran.
Private markets benefited enormously from the post-Great Financial Crisis era of ultralow interest rates that stretched through much of the 2010s and into the early 2020s. Amid regulatory change and muted returns in traditional fixed income during this time, investors were increasingly pushed into alternative areas of capital markets in search of yield.
While Wall Street obsesses over the Magnificent Seven, a handful of under-the-radar forces may shape the next leg of this market, for better and for worse.
The idea that this would be enough for “new UMG” to almost double the current one’s valuation doesn’t add up at a time when artificial intelligence is creating doubts about the industry’s future. And it’s unlikely on its own to tempt dominant shareholders such as French tycoon Vincent Bollore. The proverbial fat lady has yet to sing.
VettaFi sat down with Innovator ETFs CIO Graham Day to discuss the move as well as the future of those defined outcome ETFs. Day, who joined the firm in 2017, has been part of many of the shop’s launches in the defined outcome space, one of the more popular options ETF segments.
While every market downturn is unique, history offers a crucial lens for understanding recovery. This chart series provides a comprehensive overlay of the Four Bad Bears in U.S. history since the 1929 peak, comparing their recovery paths through the S&P 500's close on March 31, 2026.
Discover how abrdn’s K-1 free ETF outpaced gold and the S&P 500 in March 2026 by providing broad, tax-efficient commodities exposure.
Global equities declined during a volatile first quarter as the war in Iran roiled energy markets and fueled inflation fears that destabilized the economic growth outlook. Mounting geopolitical hazards add to existing worries around concentrated equity markets and the potential for AI to disrupt businesses.
After months of sluggish returns, Nvidia Corp.’s stock is rallying again and close to breaking out of its narrow trading range, which market technicians see as a bullish signal.
Every twist in the Iran conflict — every ceasefire bet, every missile strike, every shift in tanker traffic — shows up almost instantly in a $65 million exchange-traded fund that most investors have never heard of.
The debate over whether artificial intelligence has entered bubble territory has reached a fever pitch. For this edition of Bull vs Bear, writers Nicholas Peters-Golden and DJ Shaw discuss the disconnect between infrastructure spending and software revenue.
In essence, the IPO is an acknowledgement that the ChatGPT-maker, which just raised $122 billion from investors at a valuation of $852 billion, needs what seems to be an endless amount of money to fund its race for artificial general intelligence.
Given the combined weight of these markets within EM portfolios, Templeton Global Investments believe incremental improvements in capital discipline could have a meaningful impact on aggregate index-level earnings quality.
On Wednesday, April 8, 2026, Morgan Stanley announced the launch of the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust ETP (MSBT). As Morgan Stanley notes, the launch of MSBT marks the first time a U.S. bank-affiliated asset manager is offering a crypto ETP.
Tesla Inc. and its Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk are a font of big numbers, real or imagined: A million robotaxis deployed, 20 million electric vehicles sold per year, “tens of billions” of Optimus robots stalking the Earth.
Investors are starting to understand that robotics and AI each represent an industry of industries. Not a sector. Not a theme. The foundational technology stack that every other industry increasingly depends on. In Q1, the market decided to stress-test that thesis, and the results tell a more nuanced story than the headline numbers suggest.
Cinthia Murphy, investment strategist at VettaFi, joined Nate Geraci on this week’s ETF Prime to discuss record ETF flows in the first quarter despite challenging market conditions. The industry exceeded $460 billion in total flows, a 50% year-over-year increase from Q1 2025, according to Murphy.
For centuries the so-called cannon shot rule determined who controlled the seas. The legal concept, codified by Dutch jurist Cornelius van Bynkershoek in 1702, was simple: The distance a cannonball reached from shore set the maritime boundary of a coastal state.
US stocks rallied after President Donald Trump’s announcement of a two-week ceasefire in the Iran war spurred relief across markets.
European stocks soared the most in a year as investors rushed to buy stocks in the wake of the US and Iran agreeing to a two-week ceasefire in exchange for Tehran reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
