The Santa Claus Rally often grabs headlines because markets tend to deliver solid gains during this short window — or perhaps because it falls during a typically quiet news cycle.
Now that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the delayed October and November nonfarm payroll numbers, do we know more about the US labor market than we knew before the release? Probably not.
It’s that time of year when Wall Street polishes up its crystal balls and begins predicting returns for 2026. Since Wall Street never predicts a down year, which would be unwise for fee-based product revenues, these forecasts are often inaccurate and sometimes significantly wrong. Let’s review some previous years.
Challenging the conventional view of gold as a bubble, this analysis explores whether the metal's 109% surge since 2024 signals a permanent paradigm shift rather than a looming crash.
After three strong years in a row, major indexes ended the year seeking direction. While optimism abounds, here are some potential issues that could trip up U.S. stocks.
Cinthia Murphy, Investment Strategist at VettaFi, breaks down new survey data on how financial advisors are thinking about equities, fixed income, and crypto heading into 2026. Brittany Christensen, Head of Business Development at Tidal Financial Group, highlights her top ETF stories to watch in the year ahead.
While often overlooked, water management plays an important role in oil and gas production. Oil wells typically produce more water than oil, while hydraulic fracturing (or fracking) requires water to be pumped into wells. Water infrastructure related to oil and gas production is considered midstream and is classified within gathering and processing.
US economic growth is set to accelerate with cheaper oil. Federal Reserve rate cuts are likely with inflation cooling.
This week, President Donald Trump ordered a blockade of oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, dramatically escalating U.S. pressure on the Maduro regime.
Last week delivered welcome news on inflation in the United States. The November report showed headline inflation slowing to 2.7% year-over-year and core inflation easing to 2.6%—both below consensus expectations of 3.1% and 3%, respectively.
As your balance sheet grows, the questions you ask about money tend to change. You move from wondering how to build assets to asking how long they will last, who will manage them after you, and how to keep family relationships steady along the way.
Driven by a more predictable regulatory backdrop and a surge in large-scale deal flow, 2025 has delivered the strongest merger arbitrage returns since the post-pandemic boom. This resurgence, characterized by narrowing spreads and a notable lack of failed deals, has set a robust foundation for continued activity into 2026.
The market’s big “aha” moment last week was a CPI print that came in meaningfully cooler than expected, followed immediately by the usual chorus that it must be “distorted.”
In this year-end reflection, we eschew the typical theater of market predictions to instead examine the "knew-it-all-along" effect and the cognitive illusions that make past volatility seem orderly.
Reflections on the unexpected outcomes of an unpredictable year.
Over the last couple of years, inflation alarmists such as Paul Tudor Jones, James Grant, and Jeff Gundlach have all said that inflation is returning with force. In different ways, they each stated that they would not own Treasury bonds due to the expectation that inflation would rise as the dollar declined due to the ongoing deficits.
Emerging markets are poised to start 2026 as a favored trade on Wall Street, with money managers betting a multi-year cycle of investment inflows is underway.
Gold and silver soared to all-time highs, as escalating geopolitical tensions and bets on further US rate cuts added momentum to the best annual performance in more than four decades.
The S&P 500 is near all-time highs, leading some to question whether markets are in a bubble. A careful analysis of past bull markets suggests this is not the case.
This article explores the tension between individual economic outlooks and the institutional desire for collective stability in a highly scrutinized environment.
Shifting geopolitics are causing policymakers in Europe and Japan to step up fiscal spending to gain self-sufficiency and generate growth.
This year was a difficult one for Americans looking for work. Forecasters don’t see much improvement in their prospects coming in 2026.
Traders who spent most of December wondering if the typical year-end “Santa Claus rally” was ever going to kick in may finally be getting what they’ve been waiting for.
Three years ago Mustafa Ismael launched Karcsham Co., a Kenya-based company that resells Starlink devices and manages subscriptions for thousands of customers across a dozen African and Latin American countries.
Gold and silver hovered near record highs, after slower-than-expected inflation in the US supported bets for more interest-rate cuts.
Price inflation has slowed, but that doesn’t mean prices are coming down. They just aren’t rising quite as fast as they were.
Franklin Equity Group’s Grant Bowers suggests the US economy may be approaching a Goldilocks equilibrium in 2026, supported by stable growth, anchored inflation and policy tailwinds.
Understand how a recession is defined and how to avoid common investment mistakes during recession-driven stock market downturns.
Investors navigating the 2026 landscape must balance a fragmented "K-shaped" consumer market against the tailwinds of falling interest rates and the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" (OBBBA). Despite a cautious Federal Reserve and potential government shutdowns, the prevailing view is that structural transformation and fiscal support will foster economic resilience.
Treasuries gained across the curve as softer-than-forecast US inflation data led traders to step up bets that the Federal Reserve will cut interest-rate next year.
Gold traded near a record as investors assessed US inflation data that came in softer than expected. Platinum extended a breakneck rally that saw it surge close to $2,000 an ounce.
In statistical terms, the coming year will offer a multi-modal distribution of possibilities: a plausible path of robust, AI-led growth sits in the middle, flanked by a productivity miracle on one side and a risk-laden, bond-market-led downside on the other. Investors and policymakers must prepare for all of these outcomes.
As widely expected, a divided Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point, marking the third consecutive meeting with a rate reduction. One voting member dissented in favor of a larger half-point cut, while two members voted to leave rates unchanged. T
LPL Research examines why the bull market appears ready to continue its run in 2026, powered by AI enthusiasm and further easing of monetary policy from the Fed.
Doug Drabik discusses fixed income market conditions and offers insight for bond investors.
Here’s a shocker — if you give businesses more time to respond to a survey, chances are you’ll get more data back in return.
Elevated yields, steeper yield curves, and ongoing volatility make core bonds a compelling choice for total return, income, diversification, and downside risk mitigation in today’s markets. Active management is key: Historically, it has helped core bond portfolios outperform passive strategies through a rigorous, diversified approach.
Investors should treat bitcoin as the volatile, high-risk asset it is. A look at the data, along with comparisons to the Magnificent 7 stocks, indicates a small (1% to 2%) portfolio allocation for most investors would be the safest.
The Federal Reserve wrapped up its final meeting of 2025, delivering – as expected – its third consecutive rate cut. Policymakers lowered the fed funds rate to a target range of 3.5% to 3.75%, signaling continued support for the economy.
We’re finally breaking out of the clouds! Economists have mostly been flying blind because of the government shutdown, but this week the data really start to flow again. In particular, we get a partial report on the employment situation in October and a full report for November, retail sales in October, and consumer prices in November.
This data shows we’ve just experienced one of the biggest periods of financial turbulence in the last 20 years, but are we, as financial professionals, acting accordingly and showing our clients enough support?
One of the most important roles of a financial advisor is to help retired clients determine how much they can afford to spend each year. It might be a good idea for advisors to ascertain whether their client’s spending goals are actually consistent with a retirement paychecks approach.
Last Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) delivered a widely anticipated 25-basis-point rate cut at its final meeting of the year. In the press conference that followed, Chair Jerome Powell emphasized that monetary policy is now much closer to neutral and that the central bank is likely nearing the end of its rate-cutting cycle.
ClearBridge Investments expects a broadening of market participation that should benefit more diversified portfolios in 2026.
A generation ago, a single income could support a family, buy a house and pay for a vehicle or two in the driveway. Today, even two high earners are struggling to purchase a new home.
Researching lesser-known economic indicators on the thinkorswim® platform is a low-effort way to potentially elevate an investor's game.
Chief Economist Eugenio J. Alemán discusses current economic conditions.
Our year ahead explores what could challenge the consensus outlook, how rate-cut expectations shape market behavior, and why quality, dividends, and broader opportunities may matter more than investors realize.
The Federal Reserve delivered a "dovish version of the hawkish cut," confirmed by the market's rally, new equity highs, and subtle shifts in leadership. The surprising effective end of Quantitative Tightening and a softening inflation framework underscore a clear turn toward accommodation and ample market liquidity.
While the Federal Reserve is expected to cut short-term interest rates next year, these reductions are predicted to have minimal effect on long-term rates, such as the 10-year Treasury yield.
