Recessions are a regular part of the economic cycle, which means planning ahead is essential. You can't control the economy, but you can take steps to help protect your savings, manage debt, and keep your goals on track. Here are some smart ways to prepare when the economy shifts.
January is a time to revisit financial plans, make changes, and ensure objectives are being met. This review isn’t about exposing bad financial plans, but instead finding what is outdated and revising.
Investing in financial markets is not for the timid. In a very recent Bond Market Commentary, the Head of Fixed Income Solutions, Nick Goetze, discussed “Preparing for the Storm.”
As markets rotate to favor small caps and international equities, rising risks are likely to make investment discipline even more important for seizing opportunities, write Chris Galipeau and Lukasz Kalwak of Franklin Templeton Institute.
Energy is among the smallest sectors in the S&P 500, representing only about 3.5% of the benchmark’s sector allocations, and yet, it’s energy that’s capturing investor attention this year. A big part of the story centers on oil and natural gas, now in sharp focus due to an ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
As industry experts convened at SFVegas 2026, the world’s largest structured-finance conference, insurers showed up in large numbers, underscoring growing exposure to securitized assets and private credit in portfolios. We also attended the event and returned with a few key takeaways.
A guide to helping HNW investors align tax efficiency with philanthropy, retirement strategy, and multi-generational wealth transfer planning.
From real estate to multi-generational planning, learn the key strategies high-net-worth individuals use to maximize wealth and legacy.
Adding tax management services to your practice calls for more than an assessment of potential revenues and client interest. Tax management introduces new compliance demands and sometimes complex business management needs that might not be right for every firm.
Most investors, from grandma to the mightiest sovereign wealth funds, own bonds to help steady their portfolio and provide a ready reserve for spending. So, it’s notable when prominent voices start questioning their safety.
Looking beyond recent dividend strategies' performance, LPL Research asks and answers the question, “How should I think about dividend stocks or building an equity income portfolio?”
Stocks were choppier in January, but most areas of the market showed gains. The one laggard was large-cap growth, which was strong in recent years and for most of 2025, but trailed other stock indices.
International value stocks outpaced US equities in 2025. See the five catalysts fueling the shift—and why investors still have time to act.
While idiosyncratic and recessionary default risks remain present within this asset class, senior-secured private debt continues to offer the potential for more favorable risk-adjusted returns, particularly when compared to public equities and fixed income.
A tax system should raise revenue efficiently, transparently, and fairly. When it requires billions of hours simply to comply, it may be time to ask whether we have built something too complicated for its own good.
Energy is dominating headlines on escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. Following military strikes over the weekend, disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz — a chokepoint responsible for roughly 20% of global oil flow— have sent markets into a risk-off frenzy.
Gold sank after a four-day rally, as traders weighed the escalating war in the Middle East against the prospect of a stronger dollar and elevated inflation.
With uncertainty rising through geopolitical conflict, AI risk, and inflation, ETFs that offer greater portfolio control may be the way to go.
By now you’ve likely seen the news that the Department of War (DOW) issued a Friday-evening ultimatum to Anthropic, maker of the Claude AI chatbot, demanding unrestricted military access to its technology.
The market spent the week digesting a modestly hotter PPI print, a pullback in NVIDIA after earnings, and a move in the 10-year Treasury yield below 4 percent.
AI fatigue has taken hold of financial markets. The companies powering the AI revolution (Nvidia, Google, Microsoft) were down. The companies that are being (or might be) disrupted by AI, like software makers, were also down.
Last week’s Supreme Court ruling has prompted a re-set of U.S. tariff policy. As an updated strategy is being formulated, it is worth assessing whether the effort is worth sustaining. A high level review suggests that American trade policy over the last year has detracted from economic performance, and should be re-thought.
Strong performance and dividend yields amid volatility — typically, an investor may need to sacrifice one in order to maximize the other.
I know what it sounds like when the bond market breaks. I was there for the 4 a.m. call in the summer of 2007. I also know what it looks like when the bond market offers something genuinely good. It rarely happens. And when it does, you need to grab it with both hands and not let go until it’s gone. Yield levels of this magnitude don’t come along often.
The recent rotation from growth to value is well documented. While the return divergences between technology stocks and materials or industrials stocks are significant, they do not tell the whole story. There are also extreme return differentials between broad industries and their sub-industries. In this article, we address the divergence of the broad technology sector and the software-as-a-service (SaaS) sub-industry.
Amazon.com Inc. may be a leader in the artificial intelligence race, but investors are increasingly unwilling to pay up for the cost of maintaining that position.
Economic growth metrics for the United States have recently shown surprising resilience; however, consumers’ economic sentiment has not. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis’s advance estimate, real Gross Domestic Product expanded at an annualized rate of just 1.4%.
I am indeed working on my book about what I believe is a coming crisis by reviewing five different cycle theories. They all suggest a crisis occurring sometime around the end of this decade or perhaps shortly thereafter. And all for different reasons. One background element ties them together, which is the subject of today’s letter.
As speculation builds around a Warsh-led Federal Reserve, the prospect of eliminating the ‘dot plot’ could mark a major shift in forward guidance—potentially increasing rate volatility and reshaping how fixed income markets price policy risk.
This week, Burger King announced the first changes to its signature Whopper in nearly a decade. New premium bun. Creamier mayonnaise. A clamshell box instead of paper wrap that left the burger smashed before you ever opened it.
With traditional private equity investment exits facing difficulty over the past few years — albeit improving somewhat recently — private equity sponsors have increasingly relied on the use of continuation funds. Once a niche tool, continuation funds have become mainstream and investors should learn to understand how they work, why they exist, and what risks they carry.
The Trump administration on Wednesday closed a $26.5 billion loan package for Southern Co. power projects in Georgia and Alabama amid rising concern about electricity price affordability and electricity-thirsty data centers.
OpenAI has raised $110 billion in a deal that values the startup at $730 billion, representing the ChatGPT maker’s largest funding round to date and bolstering its costly push to secure more computing power and talent for AI development.
High-net-worth investors have unique opportunities for tax optimization. Learn how to leverage tax advantaged investments, charitable vehicles, and sophisticated structuring approaches seeking to maximize returns and minimize tax drag across a diversified portfolio.
Q4 wrapped a solid year of U.S. company earnings. But as the numbers rolled in strong, stock markets oscillated widely. Fundamental Equities Global CIO Carrie King is optimistic as she looks ahead to 2026 and offers three observations on the prevailing dissonance.
US bonds are wrapping up their best monthly performance in a year against a backdrop of rising global risks, with resurgent demand serving as proof that investors still see Treasuries as the premier haven in turbulent times.
The recent report by Citrini Research paints a frightening future of massive AI- induced unemployment, crashing stock markets, rising default rates, and a general descent into economic chaos.
The frontier AI companies are building exactly the kind of cost structure Christensen warned about at a scale he could never have imagined. No companies in the history of capitalism have ever paid their employees like this.
Managers are strategically maintaining AI exposure toward memory and semiconductor supply chains, and rotating toward enterprise adopters while trimming crowded hyperscalers.
Let’s develop a scenario to explain the importance of foreign exchange (FX) markets and specifically, the dominance of the U.S. dollar. Say, for example, Thailand, one of the world’s major rice exporters, engages in trade with Brazil, the second‑largest cotton exporter.
After peaking above 114 in September 2022, the dollar index has spent the last several years drifting lower, touching 96 a few weeks ago before stabilizing at 97.68 as we write. Much of that move has stemmed from weakness relative to the euro specifically.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday invalidated tariffs that President Donald Trump had imposed under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Most of the administration’s 2025 tariffs will therefore be rolled back, and importers should eventually receive refunds.
The year got off to a cold start in the U.S., with many regions experiencing unusually freezing temperatures and precipitation. February has brought relief in both the weather and in economic reports.
Almost 1,000 active ETFs launched in 2025, but did their performance substantiate the demand? Across the universe of funds, active managers for ETFs and mutual funds found that outperformance was elusive compared to their passive peers based on the latest Morningstar US Active/Passive Barometer report.
Matt Markiewicz, Head of Product and Capital Markets at Tradr ETFs, highlights the company’s leveraged single-stock ETF lineup and innovative monthly and quarterly reset products, while offering insight into the growing sophistication of retail investors navigating leveraged and inverse ETFs. Christian Magoon, Founder and CEO of Amplify ETFs, discusses Amplify’s rapid ascent past $20 billion in assets, driven by strong demand for its YieldSmart ETFs and thematic offerings.
In a notable shift for the start of 2026, the S&P 500 is experiencing a divergence in factor performance. Typically, high beta (aggressive, high-risk) and low volatility (defensive, safe-haven) factors sit on opposite sides of the seesaw. When one goes up, the other usually comes down.
As the artificial intelligence (AI) transformation unfolds, Portfolio Managers Denny Fish, John Lloyd, and John Kerschner share their views on equity valuations, identifying the next wave of winners, and the impact on fixed income markets as companies aggressively raise capital to finance the AI boom.
The playing field presents broad opportunities for income investors today, with income and growth potential across asset classes. But an effective defense is also critical in capturing that potential. When it comes to the tools of the trade, we think broader is better.
Money – everybody wants it, but few actually have it. As shown in recent financial statistics, the “wealth gap” in America continues to grow between the “haves” and the “have-nots.”
