Something remarkable happened the other day: I tried an AI device I didn’t instinctively loathe. It was a smart ring, created by two former Meta Platforms Inc. employees, that finally met some of the key criteria I think about when it comes to wearable tech and artificial intelligence, an intersection already fraught with failure and no shortage of justifiable anger.
High concentration makes it hard for diversified active portfolios to outperform. While the mega-caps include great businesses, active strategies may avoid or underweight popular stocks over concerns about valuations, business models and interrelated risks, or because of regulations on weighting individual holdings.
The US stock market has roared past every caution sign on its way to a dizzying 36% surge since the April lows. It’s now staring down one favored by investing legend Warren Buffett.
Global bond sales have soared to a record this year as borrowers take advantage of easy market conditions to fund everything from the boom in artificial intelligence projects to a revival in acquisitions.
AstraZeneca Plc’s profit rose more than analysts anticipated last quarter, buoyed by demand for its blockbuster cancer and diabetes drugs.
In their latest article, Why Hold Expensive Slow-Growing Stocks? An Alternative Framework for Value and Growth Indices, Chris Brightman, Campbell Harvey, Que Nguyen, and Omid Shakernia, argue that traditional style-box construction forces investors to hold stocks that are neither true “value” nor true “growth”—notably, expensive, slow-growing companies that have historically underperformed.
China’s “anti-involution” policy to tackle deflation, announced in 2024, is still in its early stages. Some effects are already visible, but compared with China’s last deflation fight in 2014–2015, the policy may take longer to work, in our view.
German officials announced a massive stimulus program in early 2025. The results have been underwhelming so far, but we believe the economic boost to Germany and Europe is still coming.
Q3 Earnings growth continues to improve, with 64% of constituents reporting thus far, S&P 500® EPS growth for Q3 2025 accelerated to 10.7%
LPL Research reports on Fed rate cut, U.S.–China trade truce, strong earnings, and AI spending scrutiny amid narrowing market breadth and volatility risks.
Advisors may sometimes feel like they’re venturing out to solve the world’s personal financial problems alone. They don’t have to feel that way when they’re recommending active funds with the requisite expertise and experience behind them. Vanguard active ETFs can offer that.
Every month, TMX VettaFi publishes hundreds of articles across our ETF-focused websites. Reviewing the pieces that capture our readers’ attention provides a clear picture of prevailing advisor and investor sentiment. In October, five articles stood out. They primarily focus on the surging themes of AI, international equities, and alternatives.
Advisors are using exchange traded funds to expand beyond public markets to private markets to modernize 60/40 portfolios.
AUM-based compensation was a necessary evolution. But it isn’t the endpoint. If our profession is serious about being a profession, not an asset-gathering enterprise, we must continue to evolve. That means taking a hard look at how we get paid.
Remember that people have different communication and learning styles. What works for one person who “gets it” doesn’t work for another. If a message is important, make sure to use several modes of communication — written, verbal and interactive — wherever possible.
Investors who watched the robotics space peak back in 2021 may see the current rally with apprehension. Back then, the narrative of a China-driven logistics and e-commerce boom sent robotics stocks to dizzying heights. What followed was China’s economy first slowing down, and then a pandemic-fueled demand shock. The sector fell hard.
There can be only one Highlander, but Palantir’s Alex Karp shows there can be multiple highly paid, outspoken chief executive officers of richly valued tech companies with cult followings and unsettling stores of political power. That still doesn’t guarantee it’s a durable model for success.
Actively managed ETFs, particularly those of the fixed income variety, are among the fastest-growing ETF segments today. That growth has been facilitated in part by advisors moving away from higher-fee mutual funds and issuers converting popular mutual funds to the ETF wrapper, among other factors.
As policy priorities evolve, Japan’s focus on “responsible fiscal expansion” could reshape bond dynamics.
On this episode of the “ETF of the Week” podcast, VettaFi’s Head of Research, Todd Rosenbluth, discussed the Capital Group Municipal Income ETF (CGMU) with Chuck Jaffe of Money Life. The pair discussed several topics related to the fund to give investors a deeper understanding of the ETF.
Eric Balchunas, Senior ETF Analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, offers a tour through the ever-evolving world of ETFs – covering crypto funds, the rise of exotic products, industry flows, the coming multi-share class structure, and more.
October saw some strong data for bond ETFs, according to recent research, suggesting opportunities may abound in the category.
Nothing says gold is hot quite like a story that big US banks are considering getting back into the business of holding other people’s bullion.
U.S. workers, particularly those in the Gen Z and millennial generations, are facing a “financial vortex” of financial pressures that are eating into their savings, including rising debt, housing, healthcare and caregiving costs.
Rising electricity demand continues to be a key trend for investors to watch, with the latest news revolving around Google (GOOG). GOOG, a key AI hyperscaler, announced a collaboration with NextEra Energy (NEE) for the restart of the Duane Arnold nuclear plant earlier this week.
History is absolutely clear – Capitalism is the best system ever developed (actually evolved by human experiment) to boost living standards. At the same time, Socialism has a seriously lousy record.
Progress toward resolving the US government shutdown remains limited despite increased bipartisan dialogue. Senate Majority Leader John Thune noted that “a lot more conversations” are happening across the aisle, suggesting some softening in tone compared with previous weeks.
The term 'digital gold' is often used by cryptocurrency enthusiasts to describe Bitcoin, Ethereum, and similar assets. However, our latest research shows they behave differently in portfolios. We look at how liquidity and uncertainty drive returns, and why that matters for positioning.
The U.S. government shutdown is about to enter its second month. We did not rush to comment on it, because we didn’t think that it would have much of an economic impact. But the risk that lasting damage will be done is rising.
For the second straight meeting, the Fed cut the federal funds rate by a quarter percent on Wednesday. In an even more aggressive move toward monetary easing, the FOMC also announced balance sheet reduction will end in December.
Wall Street is riding this era of American state capitalism — tracking it, packaging it and offering it back to investors through a new ETF.
Join Dr. Ankur Crawford, Executive Vice President and Portfolio Manager at Alger, for a product due diligence session on the Alger Concentrated Equity ETF (CNEQ).
Five of the so-called “Magnificent Seven” firms reported earnings this week in a major milestone for 2025’s economic narrative. Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT), Google (GOOGL), and Meta (META) all shared their earnings, offering some important insights into key tech firms amid the AI revolution.
More than a generation ago, financial historian Peter Bernstein wrote about investors’ 'memory banks,' the market experience that accumulates in their hippocampi over their investing lives and molds their investment strategy. As he put it, looking back on the 1990s: 'Most of the new participants in the market had no memory of what a bear market was like.'
As equity valuations approach — or in some cases surpass — the record highs of 1999, investors are growing increasingly anxious. This unease is partly driven by the media issuing grim warnings, often based in part on CAPE valuations.
My series on Ray Dalio’s book raised a bunch of questions, one of which stood out above the others. To paraphrase, readers asked, 'How do we get ready for this?' It is certainly fair for you all to ask what I am personally doing to prepare for the big picture I anticipate. It’s tough to answer because the coming debt crisis could unfold in many different ways.
Gold is not immune to market cycles. It’s a volatile asset driven by shifting narratives and capital flows. If you’re buying gold today, understand what’s supporting the price, and what could shake that support loose. Treat gold as a hedge, not a core growth asset.
One of the things we have in common with Warren Buffett is that we started our risk-taking career handicapping at racetracks. Buffett handicapped the horse races in Omaha, and I handicapped greyhound races near Portland at Multnomah Kennel Club in Gresham, Oregon.
Gold steadied near $4,000 an ounce as traders weighed a US-China trade truce that failed to quash concerns about long-term competition between the world’s two largest economies.
Global electricity demand is accelerating as AI data centers, electrification, and economic growth drive an unprecedented need for reliable energy. Nuclear power is uniquely positioned to meet this challenge, delivering clean, zero-emission baseload electricity with the highest capacity factor of any major energy source.
Last week’s economic narrative centered around the Federal Reserve's latest rate cut, a decision complicated by the government shutdown and lack of economic data.
Over nearly every meaningful time frame, Bitcoin has dramatically outperformed traditional asset classes. In the last 3 years, it has returned an astonishing 79.2% annualized, compared to 18% for the S&P 500, 24.4% for gold, and just 2.6% for the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index.
Rather than toil over the construction of an ideal fixed income portfolio for a client, advisors can simply apply a template primed for success using Vanguard’s model portfolios. On that note, Vanguard just introduced two new dynamic asset allocation fixed income model portfolios that can suit various investor profiles.
One of the most fundamental decisions facing fixed-income investors is determining the optimal maturity for their Treasury holdings.
We continue to hold gold across all strategies, viewing it as a strategic asset. Central banks remain steady buyers, underscoring gold’s role as both a store of value and an inflation hedge.
The three themes we laid out will take a few years to play out, if at all. Our portfolio positioning reflects our belief in the economic strength and momentum of the US Tech / AI trade, and we would want to see more policy clarity and earnings confirmation before we make any large shifts into international.
US stocks are hovering near all-time highs, buoyed by the prospect of cooling trade tensions between the US and China as corporate America largely brushes off tariff pressures. But that doesn’t mean that Wall Street professionals will be sleeping easy this Halloween.
Long-dated bonds are looking more attractive as governments and central banks take steps to curb the glut in that segment of the market, according to JPMorgan Asset Management.
Meta Platforms Inc. found record-shattering demand for its bond sale on Thursday even as its shares plunged, in a sign that bond investors are looking past any concerns about its artificial-intelligence spending plans.
There’s no official read on how fast the US economy grew last quarter, thanks to the government shutdown. But almost everyone reckons it was a healthy pace — and that’s largely thanks to AI.
