While we are currently in a particularly grueling climb (including the war in Iran – a situation in which we will provide an update at the end of this piece), we cannot lose our long-term perspective. We want to take this piece as a summit in the middle of our hike; one where we can see a path through the trees and hills and clearly see four potential paths from here.
Vanguard is boosting its holdings of Treasuries, taking advantage of higher yields following the Middle East conflict to lock in rates and hedge against the risks of a potential growth slowdown.
Stocks are trading near a record high, signaling Wall Street is learning to cope with lingering geopolitical risks. Main Street is struggling to catch up.
Every prospect is different. They have different interests, different decision timelines, and different levels of engagement. Treating them all the same because your CRM can't segment effectively is leaving money on the table.
LPL Research examines the fixed income space as global bonds broaden yields and reduce U.S. concentration, offering diversified income and resilience via non‑U.S. developed and emerging markets.
As always, I hope you’re having a good 2026 and that all is well with you, my readers, and your family and friends. Here’s my latest.
While Russ acknowledges that the ongoing conflict in the Middle East has contributed near-term volatility, he also notes that these rising tensions are occurring against the backdrop of a solid U.S. economy.
The long-term care confidence gap is the difference between understanding the importance of a risk and consistently addressing it with clients. Advisors know, but they do not always say. The gap isn’t about intelligence or professionalism; it’s about the difference between technical knowledge and conversational leadership.
Early in my financial planning career, if a client told me they had a terminal diagnosis, every alarm in my head would go off. Before the meeting was over, I would have a to-do list that was three pages long.
Yes, much of the blame lies with energy prices, which surged due to the war in Iran. Still, the March reading of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) serves as a reminder of the work to be done to damp inflation.
Billionaire money manager Bill Ackman is giving away a stake in his firm to investors who support his latest hedge-fund launch. This looks like a good deal. And so it should: If you’re selling a fund in the form of an initial public offering, you have to dangle the prospect of a quick buck.
The history of the U.S. airline industry is really a history of consolidation driven by crisis. The pattern has been remarkably consistent. Historically, when an external shock has hit—a recession, a war, an energy spike—the weakest carriers have folded or been acquired, while the strongest have emerged leaner and more profitable.
Over the past few weeks, a rising tide of optimism has been gathering in the equity markets. This positive momentum reached a crescendo last week when Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced that, in line with the ceasefire in Lebanon, the Strait of Hormuz would reopen for commercial vessels after being closed for approximately seven weeks beginning in late February.
Clearly the path to peace is not as easy as it looked last Friday when the easing in Middle East tensions, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to commodity flows, and the sharp retreat in oil prices calmed fears on the most immediate macro threat to equities.
The Q1 2026 earnings season has officially started, and the early results suggest a market that is largely defying the geopolitical fog we’ve discussed.
Get ready each week with high-conviction insights that go beyond media headlines.
Oil shocks hitting economies with weak demand and strained balance sheets are especially damaging. Firms cannot fully pass on rising costs, so margins shrink, layoffs increase, and investment falls. Tightening monetary and credit conditions would cause inflation to fade faster but job losses, failures, and fragile household finances to be much worse.
Active ETFs are no longer a niche satellite play; they are becoming central pillars of modern portfolio construction.
Military households often possess uncommon balance-sheet advantages; however, those advantages do not create wealth on their own. They matter only when a family uses them deliberately, in the right order, and with a clear understanding of the trade-offs.
Given the misunderstanding linking subprime mortgages and private credit, I discuss how leverage and derivatives, layered atop subprime mortgages, were at the heart of the GFC. A better understanding of that event will help advisors and investors better assess whether recent woes in private credit are an omen of another crisis or an overstated concern.
Developers including D.R. Horton Inc., Lennar Corp. and KB Home all missed expectations last quarter and estimates suggest both sales and earnings have fallen further as conflict in the Middle East unsettled buyers and raised costs.
Investors are set to pour more money into defense, energy and technology stocks as the Middle East war forces governments to prioritize security and become more self reliant.
Amplify’s path is unique in the ETF space and has carved out a small but powerful stronghold for itself. Its focus on thematic and income strategies lends Amplify resilience across different market types, and its commitment to innovation means it doesn’t tend to issue many “me too” products.
The S&P 500 reached another all-time high this week, supported by easing concerns around geopolitical risk.
The S&P 500 closed Wednesday at a fresh all-time high of 7,022.95, surpassing the late-January peak and capping a remarkable round trip from the spring selloff.
Iran war-related headlines continue to cause volatility in the markets and oil prices to rise, but our experts remind readers that uncertain times might also present opportunities.
The most exciting innovations aren't always the ones that break new ground—sometimes they're the ones that finally make breakthrough ideas work. This quarter’s spotlight reveals how researchers are removing practical barriers to turn promising laboratory technologies into deployable solutions, from agricultural robotics to dissolving medical devices, transforming theoretical possibilities into tools that can reshape industries today.
As transition activity increases, what was once seen as a step between portfolios is becoming part of the outcome itself. Execution is now more closely tied to how portfolios are reshaped, particularly as restructures grow larger, more frequent, and more complex.
Headline economic indicators remain resilient as gross domestic product (GDP) continues to expand, the unemployment rate remains low and wage growth has held up better than expected. However, these figures reflect averages, not the lived experience of households.
Much of the conversation around private credit versus public high yield focuses on yield levels, default expectations and headline volatility. But we think what matters most is how each market lets investors measure, manage and reprice risk as conditions change.
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. This article examines the major economic news from the week of April 6-10th, 2026.
Over the past year, LPL Research’s Strategic and Tactical Asset Allocation Committee (STAAC) has emphasized that tactical investing does not require constant activity. Instead, it requires preparation, patience, and the discipline to act only when the expected benefit of a change clearly outweighs the risks.
Focusing on tax planning year-round can significantly improve your financial situation. By reviewing your recently filed 1040 form, you can uncover valuable opportunities to optimize investments, maximize deductions and strategically plan for retirement, ensuring long-term financial health and tax efficiency.
Asia and emerging markets experienced extreme volatility in the first quarter of 2026 as markets surged in the first two months, supported by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and an easing of the global monetary environment.
The Middle East war has replaced tariff-driven inflation concerns with fears of rising energy prices feeding through the economy. On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its March CPI report, when markets received their first ‘official’ glimpse of how the surge in energy prices has begun to impact the U.S. inflation setting.
Rising oil prices and the historically inflationary aspects of war have changed expectations for Federal Reserve interest rate policy and have pulled Treasury yields higher.
In an investment world marked by ongoing macro uncertainty, more investors are seeking alternative strategies to navigate murky markets. One of the funds capturing this shift is the Fidelity Managed Futures ETF (FFUT). That fund secured the award for Best New Alternatives ETF in the 2026 ETF.com Awards.
In what should be a surprise to no one, energy has been one of the better performing sectors since the joint U.S.-Israel airstrikes on military targets in Iran on February 27, although it has given up some ground since a two-week cease fire was announced last week.
Despite a confluence of economic shocks in the first quarter, markets have held up remarkably well, but cracks appear to be forming beneath the surface.
The US dollar's obituary has been written many times—with increasing frequency over the past year. Each time we get a fresh round of analyses declaring that de-dollarization is accelerating, the world is reorganizing its financial architecture around alternatives and the greenback's reign is drawing to a close.
I came across a statistic the other day that goes against the intuition of practically everyone in the US who has a job: Americans are working less than they did in the 1950s and ’60s. How is this possible, when we all feel chained to our desks or our phones?
The first quarter was defined by overlapping macro shocks and a violent shift in market leadership, punctuated by the war in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. As capital surged into physical assets such as energy, materials, and defense, software and other digital businesses faced a historic repricing.
The war in the Middle East has brought about an elevated uncertainty quotient when examining the U.S. macro backdrop. The resultant rise in energy prices is being looked at as both a potential ‘tax on the economy’ as well as a catalyst for a near-term elevation in inflation.
Bitcoin trended toward the high end of its more than two-month trading range as risk assets rallied on optimism that the US can strike a deal with Iran to end their conflict.
With the US-Iran war demonstrating not just how captive the world economy remains to fossil fuels, but also how easily energy can be weaponized, whether to drill at home is becoming an even more pressing question for some countries.
Over the past several years, those patterns have been changing. The evolving flows of both tourists and emigrees will have important economic effects.
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.
In a rare plot twist, Goldman Sachs front-run the banking pack today, marking the first time the firm has kicked off the earnings season ahead of JPMorgan Chase since 2018. The storied investment bank delivered notable results, comfortably surpassing analyst’s estimates on both the top and bottom-line.
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.
