The AI boom has pushed technology stocks to new highs, but it has also masked headwinds in other sectors of the economy.

LPL Research examines how rising productivity, AI adoption, and structural shifts toward services are supporting U.S. economic growth in 2026.

By assessing the macro and market drivers that shape each outlook, we can lay out clear, practical tactics to prepare your portfolio for either path. Whether the bullish or bearish case prevails in 2026, your edge will come from disciplined risk management, not from guessing the future.

As geopolitical tensions reshape global trade, capital flows and investor risk appetite, gold is once again surfacing as an important component of asset allocation. Some investors and central banks are arguably viewing gold as a risk hedge, supplanting US Treasuries as a safe-haven asset.

Standard Nuclear Inc., a uranium startup, raised $140 million to boost production of fuel for advanced reactors in an effort to expand the US energy supply chain amid surging interest in fission power.

Blackstone Inc. is planning to hire more people across Asia to tap growing opportunities in private markets, said Ed Huang, the firm’s head of Asia Pacific private wealth.

The Fed meets on Wednesday to discuss the direction of monetary policy. With the futures market pricing the odds of “no change in rates” at 97.2%, no one should expect a rate cut at this meeting…or, we think, anytime soon.

Recently, stock market numbness closes the trading day. No wholesale crash, just a little wobbling for now with positive numbers for half of January. But I have a sense it’s in need of a cane to steady its momentum.

The key point is that nothing in the incoming data since December has undermined the Fed’s prior message. The economy remains strong, jobless claims are hovering near 200,000, and recession fears continue to recede.

Mathematics in the investment field is almost 100% phony. Virtually all that is really needed are the four arithmetic operations students learn by the third grade: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The rest of the mathematics used in the investment field serves no purpose other than to impress people.

This endless sequence of numbers that form ratios, known as the Fibonacci sequence, provides a technical analysis tool for managing financial securities. Before you assume we've lost our minds —relying on biology or, even worse, mysticism to predict stock prices — let us explain.

By asking New York traders to confirm the price of the Japanese yen against the dollar on Friday, US authorities handed investors yet another reason to sell the greenback.

It is critical to understand that 2026 will not deliver certainty. Instead, investors should focus and make decisions based on probabilities backed by data, earnings trends, policy shifts, and macro signals.

The Bank of Japan’s recent policy shift is sending shockwaves through global markets. Headlines this week highlight the dollar’s tumble against the yen and renewed chatter of an unwind to the massive yen carry trade, estimated at over $500 billion.

It was a volatile week in financial markets, largely driven by geopolitical developments. Last weekend, the U.S. administration proposed new tariffs on several European countries linked to tensions around Greenland.

Year-end S&P 500 price targets implicitly assume continuity and fail to recognize volatility and macro forces that affect markets throughout any given year.

Investors were thrown another tariff curveball, with the U.S. administration declaring that unless a deal for the U.S. to acquire Greenland can be reached, a 10% tariff will be imposed on eight European countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland) effective Feb. 1.

A quiet but telling shift is unfolding in the crypto derivatives market, as one of the most reliable money-making trades shows signs of breaking down.

Despite the broadening-out call in early 2024, narrow market breadth persisted through 2025. In 2025, around one-third of S&P 500 constituents beat the overall Index, but more than 60% are outperforming year to date in 2026.

These are times in life where any sort of note, acknowledgement or thoughtful gift is likely to be appreciated. You want to be supportive, but you also want to be careful you are taking your client’s feelings into consideration in all ways possible.

Seven hundred billion dollars. That’s the figure being floated as the potential price tag for acquiring Greenland, according to recent reporting. Call me skeptical, but I don’t think anyone’s cutting a $700 billion check anytime soon. For comparison’s sake, that’s more than half of the Defense Department’s entire 2024 budget.

For advisors breaking away to start their own practice, there’s no avoiding the risks that come with entrepreneurship — but in the current economic climate that includes high inflation, market volatility and heightened uncertainty — advisors need to be doubly prepared when going out on their own.

EMs are entering 2026 from a position of renewed strength. A weakening U.S. dollar, improving fundamentals, and broadening country and sector leadership have created a favorable backdrop for investors—and we believe

It’s a brave new world for educational savers — and none too soon. In 2025, lawmakers outdid themselves by expanding ways families can help their children or grandchildren obtain a degree or certificate.

LPL Research takes a look at fourth quarter earnings season as it unofficially kicks off this week with a dozen banks and asset managers in the S&P 500 slated to report.

“Party like it’s 1999” is a phrase made famous by the musician Prince’s 1982 song, which experienced a renaissance amid Y2K fears and has since entered the lexicon meaning to celebrate intensely because the future is uncertain.

IRMAA (Income Related Monthly Adjustment Amounts) acts as a penalty on prosperity, lightly touching the truly wealthy and passing over the poor and those doing okay. It is a dagger aimed at the heart of affluent professionals who diligently saved for retirement and are now drawing down their ample 401(k) funds.

For the third year in a row, stock investors had reason for a celebratory year-end toast. The year started strong with the S&P 500 jumping 2.7% in January on strong earnings reports and anticipation of a more business-friendly administration.

Silver was the best-performing commodity last year, up an astounding 145%, but precious metals as a whole delivered solid returns. Gold, silver, platinum and palladium all responded positively to a number of factors, from rising geopolitical tensions to changes to global trade to the accelerating energy transition.

In 2025, the prices of precious metals rose sharply, with silver prices recently surging past $80 per ounce. Of course, when precious metals rise, there is always the same group of commentators (mostly paid newsletter writers and physical metal dealers) to declare that a financial analysis is underway.

Silver surged above $80 an ounce on Friday, capping a meteoric rally that drove the metal’s price up 176 percent over the year. What is driving silver higher at such an unprecedented rate?

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.

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.

ClearBridge Investments expects a broadening of market participation that should benefit more diversified portfolios in 2026.

I’ve lived through several bubbles and read about others, and they’ve all hewed to this description. One might think the losses experienced when past bubbles popped would discourage the next one from forming. But that hasn’t happened yet, and I’m sure it never will.

Private credit is expanding beyond its traditional niche to finance major infrastructure projects for investment-grade corporate borrowers, a trend particularly notable among hyperscalers building AI infrastructure.

I suspect almost 100% of my readers live well above the “poverty line.” I also suspect that probably 99% of you don’t know exactly where that line is. I didn’t really know the number either until I read the article we’ll discuss today.

While 2025’s market performance has been mostly highlighted by large-cap growth equities benefiting from the theme of artificial intelligence (AI), investors might be overlooking one key ingredient in their portfolios: commodities.

The Benetton family’s holding company Edizione is setting up an alternative investment firm with about €3 billion ($3.5 billion) in assets under management as it seeks to grow its private markets.

In today’s markets, mentioning the “B-word” will get you thrown into the “permabear” camp, and everyone immediately assumes you mean the end of the world: death, disaster, and destruction. Yes, bear markets have terrible short-term impacts, but they also allow the system to reset for healthier growth in the future.

Financial planning helps families organize, save, and invest intentionally. It turns goals into a roadmap, budgeting for major purchases, setting aside for retirement, and aligning investments with life milestones. But at some point, the question shifts from how to grow wealth to how to protect and structure it.

As wealth continues to grow along with soaring equity markets, and technology enables customization and choices once reserved for a select few investors, financial advisors are tasked with constantly evolving to maintain their value position.

Like ducks on a pond, markets often appear calm on the surface while churning furiously underneath. For financial markets, above the surface, attention has focused on equity market valuations and record-tight levels of credit spreads, but a deeper look reveals even more extreme dynamics below.

AI looks like a classic investment bubble to us, with very high valuations and signs of rampant speculation. But we recognize that while many investors harbor fears that AI might be a bubble, they are far from sure of that fact and tend to assume the market is appropriately priced as a fairly strong prior.

The ETF industry continues to grow, with new funds arriving all the time. Each year, hundreds of ETFs arrive on the scene, from covered call ETFs to active bond ETFs and everything in between.

Retirement planning shouldn’t be defined by “needs” but by the lifestyle you want to sustain. This piece reframes retirement as a phase for living fully—balancing taxes, inflation, and income sources to enable abundance.

Markets don’t sleep over the holidays, but they do slow down. Historical trading patterns show consistent liquidity shifts from late November through early January.

This CE-eligible webcast gives RIAs a repeatable, compliance-ready playbook to keep proceeds invested — while avoiding boot, meeting IDs, and setting client expectations.

I recently penned an article on “Money Supply Growth,” which elicited a very thoughtful response from Garrett Baldwin via Substack. He argued that labeling Federal Reserve operations as “money printing” is not rhetoric, but rather a reality. He points to Ben Bernanke’s 2010 interview, where Bernanke described how the Fed marks up digital accounts.

Often framed as rivals, private and liquid credit should instead be viewed as powerful complements for both issuers and investors. We believe these two markets are settling into a symbiotic coexistence, as the distinctions blur between the likes of direct lending and broadly syndicated loans.