Monetary and fiscal policy are now decisively stimulative to the economy thanks to interest rate cuts and the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. This should provide a tailwind to investments.
The U.S. economy shows moderate growth and rising inflation, with manufacturing lagging and services expanding. Recession fears have faded; policy uncertainty and deficits remain concerns. AI drives market highs, gold surges, and investment focuses on healthcare, materials, and gold.
We examine the broader implications of China’s threat to expand restrictions on rare-earth exports.
Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley exposed a stock market puzzle on Wednesday. Both reported record third-quarter earnings following roaring results from rivals the day before.
After joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, China’s trade with Latin America grew an average of 31% a year for approximately the next decade. In 2024, bilateral trade between the two regions hit $518 billion, overtaking the U.S. as South America’s top trading partner.
OpenAI signed a multiyear agreement with Broadcom Inc. to collaborate on custom chips and networking equipment, marking the latest step in the startup’s ambitious plan to add computing infrastructure. Broadcom shares jumped.
NVIDIA’s $100 billion partnership with OpenAI signals a paradigm shift, as demand for AI compute infrastructure surges beyond even the boldest forecasts.
A decade ago, stablecoins were conceived as a bridge for speculators to travel between risky digital assets like Bitcoin and the less turbulent world of fiat money. That is changing fast. In the hands of a crypto-loving Trump administration, these dollar clones are shaping up as a highway that will carry America’s influence around the world.
How AI will reshape our lives is clouded with uncertainty. Researchers are debating what it means to achieve artificial general intelligence, or AGI, or whether the neural-network systems that drive chatbots like ChatGPT can lead us to that big prize.
The Buffett Indicator, made popular by Warren Buffett, assesses the overall value of the stock market relative to the economy. This video provides the September 2025 update on Buffett Valuation Indicator.
The market is in a funny place. September was a strong month for financial markets, its typical negative seasonality notwithstanding.
The extra yield investors demand to own dollar bonds of emerging market sovereigns rather than US Treasuries has shrunk to the least in seven years — and the rally is set to run further.
With the global economy proving more resilient than expected, we upgrade equities to overweight.
Like AI stocks, precious metals look overbought; but unlike AI stocks, they’re structurally underinvested. As such, I believe they deserve another look.
Some political commentators believe Stephen Miran is a pawn of President Trump, aiming solely to lower interest rates, regardless of whether such action is justified. But, regardless of your political views, set aside your own perspectives for a moment and consider Miran’s views on the economy and monetary policy.
Powering intelligence: the molecules, metals, and markets behind AI.
Central banks are walking a tightrope, carefully fine-tuning their next moves as they face lingering inflation and subdued growth.
LPL Research analyzes recent market performance as Fed expectations, strong economic data, government shutdown concerns and more continue to have an impact.
Consumption spending surprised to the upside once again in August, something we had already seen from last week’s release of retail and food services sales during the same month.
While the market is betting on an economic revival to support current valuation levels, the real economy is suggesting things are slowing down. Notably, the evidence isn’t coming from obscure corners. It’s showing up in the indicators designed to give us a heads-up before a storm arrives.
In 2025, the U.S. dollar's image of unassailable strength is being rigorously questioned. The U.S. government budget deficit remains stubbornly elevated, hovering just north of 6% of gross domestic product (GDP), and the debt-to-GDP ratio is tracking beyond 100%.
The Federal Reserve cut interest rates, but uncertainty is high and the FOMC is deeply divided on where policy should go next.
At BlackRock Inc., PGIM and other Wall Street firms, bond-fund managers are sticking to trades that will likely pay off even if the Federal Reserve’s path is again knocked off course by surprising turns in the economy.
Global bond markets have sold off recently due to uncertainty surrounding key political changes most notably in France and Japan.
We will examine five major investment strategies: value, growth, momentum, dividend, and index investing. Each comes with strengths and weaknesses. More importantly, each offers lessons from history’s greatest investors, including Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett.
A Federal Reserve rate cut won't necessarily lower longer-term bond yields or mortgage rates.
A key theme dominating global financial markets in recent weeks has been the general upward pressure on sovereign bond yields, particularly at the long end of government bond market curves.
While equity markets are buoyant worldwide, emerging markets stocks and bonds are the only assets that merit an 'overweight' allocation.
Last week's employment update seems likely to prompt a shift in the Federal Reserve's monetary policy. The August jobs report revealed a significant slowdown, with Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) increasing by only 22,000, well below the 75,000 expectation from economists surveyed by Dow Jones.
The question isn't whether mobile compliance can be efficient and effective. The benchmark study proves it can. The question is whether more firms will join the 25% that have figured it out or continue subsidizing the inefficiency tax that's bleeding talent, budget, and regulatory confidence.
Given the economic uncertainties around trade policies and their impact on the markets, might this be a good time to add more real estate to your investment portfolio?
The U.S. economy has thus far avoided recession, yet growth has decelerated and economic risks persist.
Based on valuations, there's no denying we're in a bubble. That's noteworthy by itself, but it doesn’t tell us what will happen next. I will explain why selling now might not be the best move.
Discover how the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) may impact the municipal bond market, and find out which institutions are better positioned to overcome the sweeping policy reforms.
This past week, we saw a sweeping change in U.S. trade policy come into effect with the termination of the long-standing “de minimis” exemption on small, imported parcels.
Nvidia made a splash last week, or maybe an anti-splash, when it reported earnings and stated an intention to buy back $60 billion in stock.
Markets surged late last week after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell suggested at Jackson Hole that the U.S. central bank may be ready to cut interest rates in September. Traders took it as a green light, while Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Barclays and others quickly pivoted their forecasts. The CME FedWatch tool now puts the odds of a September cut at nearly 90%.
Streamlining government spending is a worthy cause in the effort to establish a more sustainable budget. Let’s review the progress of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and outline some areas for improvement.
There’s been renewed optimism about housing in the stock market recently. Mortgage rates have fallen and home improvement giants Home Depot Inc. and Lowe’s Cos Inc. reported an uptick in activity in July.
The financial markets often shift gears in September, moving away from the quiet summer months marked by low trading volumes and limited volatility, and entering a period historically associated with seasonal weakness and increased market instability.
According to recent analysis from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), tariff revenue could meaningfully impact both sides of the bond market pendulum, which on net, could be beneficial to the Treasury market.
Bond investors are accepting the smallest compensation in years in return for taking default risk, as a potent combination of economic optimism and too much cash chasing too few securities skews costs.
Benefit Street Partners believes private credit managers need to focus on the financial conditions during a fund’s investment period. Skilled managers know when to dynamically deploy more capital or pull back, as the weather changes.
“Buy Every Dip” has lately been the “Siren’s Song” for this market. Such is seen in the flows into ETFs over the course of this year. Retail investors treat pullbacks as temporary noise, and their behavior borders on mechanical. Every sell-off is seen as an opportunity, not a warning.
The latest economic data suggests the US economy is decelerating. That means growth is slowing, jobs are shrinking, and households are spending less.
Since the global financial crisis, value investing has been a lonely grind. Yet I know several managers who never gave up on value, and others who are uncomfortable with tech valuations and have been reallocating to lower P/E stocks.
Investors have talked a lot about the Buffett indicator since the Oracle of Omaha began commenting on it. Buffett compared the market cap of the US stock market to GDP.
Investment assets – things such as stocks, bonds, companies, and buildings – have a value, which is sometimes referred to as their “intrinsic value”: what the asset is “worth” at a point in time. This value is subjective. It can’t definitively be found anywhere – not even by AI, as far as I know – and opinions will differ as to what it is.
Despite triple the amount of tariff income, the July budget deficit surged to $294.14 billion, 19 percent higher than a year ago, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement.
To benefit from a corporate buyback, an individual must sell their shares to the company. Conversely, those holding on to their shares are not compensated.
