The MSCI Emerging Markets index rallied more than 30% in U.S. dollar terms, easily outpacing the S&P 500 and other developed market benchmarks. And many are expecting that broader outperformance to continue in 2026 – thanks to a combination of macro developments, valuations and AI exposure.
In order to develop prudent spending plans for clients that are consistent with their spending goals, advisors should employ reasonable client-specific LPP assumptions. The three-step process and tools highlighted in this article can help advisors get started.
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.
Today, we continue my 2026 economic and market forecast. Last week, I described our current environment as The Bipolar Economy, and noted that the real goal here isn’t to tell you what will happen. It’s to help you know what could happen so you can be prepared.
There’s a lot of buzz about the opportunity in US small cap stocks this year. There’s a confluence of factors that seem aligned just right for the segment, chief amongst them earnings growth expectations.
Last year, gold rose by over 64 percent, setting 53 new record highs along the way. Silver gained just under 148 percent. Platinum’s price increased by 125.9 percent. Palladium was up just over 80 percent.
Portfolio Managers Benjamin Wang and Zoey Zhu explain how a historic valuation discount in small caps versus large caps combined with quality’s worst performance in 30 years creates a noteworthy setup in 2026.
Billionaire Stephen Ross aims to position Florida’s Palm Beach County as the next Silicon Valley, calling the region a more business-friendly environment for tech investors and executives than California.
The billionaire Ellison family said this week that it will try to overhaul the board of Warner Bros Discovery Inc. unless the Hollywood studio engages with their $108 billion takeover bid. But winning support in a corporate fight won’t be easy as long as their offer contains holes.
EM stocks have increasingly become tied to the fortunes and risks of the growth in AI. Should the AI capex race continue, and earnings estimates are realized, EM stocks have the potential to continue to rise, because valuations are not yet extended.
What happened in Venezuela last weekend may turn out to be the most consequential energy and geopolitical event of the decade. In a swift, coordinated operation that stunned the world, U.S. forces captured Venezuela’s longtime socialist dictator, Nicolás Maduro.
The materiality of ESG factors differs across sectors and markets. Investors need to understand how.
As index investing continues to evolve, it does not have to be towards ever-expanding complexity. Sometimes progress comes from asking simpler questions and answering them consistently.
According to just about every significant economic indicator, including the December jobs numbers released Friday, the US economy is doing fine. Not great, mind you: Job growth stalled in 2025. But unemployment is low, gross domestic product growth is solid, and inflation is seemingly trending downward.
Going public used to be a sign that a company had made it. In the last decade or so, however, IPOs started to become a little … cringe.
Living in a bipolar economy is hard. Last year saw wild swings in attitudes about the economy and financial markets. Not a bad year overall, but it was a rough ride at times. Today and next week, we’ll look ahead to 2026, drawing on my expert network and my own ideas as well.
The removal of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro under “Operation Absolute Resolve” has materially improved the country’s outlook by breaking a long-standing political and economic impasse that had prevented reform, external engagement and debt resolution.
Well-known factors such as value and momentum are widely recognized to have predictive power. Advanced systematic approaches, however, seek to identify additional drivers of performance—including proprietary factors—to integrate into their multifactor models.
The ETF ecosystem grew once more in December with more than 100 new launches joining the fray. Three funds invite a closer look.
As we kick off the new year, here are some suggestions for areas to focus on with your team in 2026 to build momentum, enhance momentum or change direction
The defining feature of every bubble is the same: a growing inconsistency between the long-term returns that investors expect in their heads - based on extrapolation of the past, and the long-term returns that properly relate prices to likely future cash flows - based on valuations. Every bubble smuggles the same tragic past into the same tragic future by packaging it with new wrinkles that convince investors that this time is different. Ultimately, they still end the same way.
Trillions of dollars hang in the balance of two questions that dominated this year and loom perilously large over the next. “Will the artificial intelligence bubble burst?” and “Will China beat the US?”
RiverFront’s Investment Team is proud to present the summary of our 2026 Outlook, which will be released this Friday, December 19th. In 2025, the tech-heavy US stock market rode a wave of AI awareness and spending.
In 2025, Advisor Perspectives’ most-read commentaries mainly centered on uncertainty around U.S. equities and on record-high valuations, in particular. Key themes included the bleak forecast for U.S. equities and the opportunities presented by non-U.S. stocks. Other articles weighed in on the risks around private equity that await retail investors delving into the space and on the investment potential of utilities due to AI and the shift to clean energy.
Like previous generations, most young people are going to end up owning homes. The housing market is in transition, and despite the current lack of affordability, there’s compelling evidence that we’re grinding back toward more normal levels.
As we pass the halfway mark of the 2020s, comparisons now abound between our current decade and the roaring 1920s. F. Scott Fitzgerald best captured the opulence of the Flapper Era in The Great Gatsby, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness.”
Finding ways to effectively diversify a multi-asset portfolio allows investors to maintain their strategic equity allocation while managing risk. We may be entering a period when bonds can, at least in part, start to once again fulfill that function.
Planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions kept rising in 2025 and country pledges to cut them are nowhere near where they need to be to avoid catastrophic climate change, but there were silver linings too.
Our monthly workforce recovery analysis has been updated to include the latest employment report for November. The unemployment rate inched up to 4.6%, its highest level since 2021. Additionally, the number of new non-farm jobs (a relatively volatile number subject to extensive revisions) came in at 64,000.
This week, President Donald Trump ordered a blockade of oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, dramatically escalating U.S. pressure on the Maduro regime.
Many beneficiaries who inherited retirement accounts after 2019 must begin taking required minimum distributions in 2025 under the SECURE Act's 10-year rule. Our Bill Cass notes that heirs should plan distribution strategies based on their individual tax situations.
On this episode of the “ETF of the Week” podcast, VettaFi’s Head of Research, Todd Rosenbluth, discussed the VictoryShares Free Cash Flow Growth ETF (GFLW) with Chuck Jaffe of Money Life. The pair discussed several topics related to the fund to give investors a deeper understanding of the ETF.
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.
ClearBridge Investments expects a broadening of market participation that should benefit more diversified portfolios in 2026.
Emerging market carry trades, a popular strategy that returned about 17% in 2025, are widely expected to continue yielding gains in 2026 due to persistent interest rate gaps and a weakening US dollar.
Investors are navigating not just uncertainty, but an unstable environment influenced by tariffs and inflation, among other factors. While volatility may increase, there is likely room for another solid year in 2026, especially for fixed income and international stocks
Value seems to be having a moment — over the last six weeks value style and value factor indexes (a subtle but real nuance, as we will show) are outperforming representative broad market and a representative growth style index.
Despite the concern post-2024 election about rising U.S. deficits and a potential return of "bond vigilantes," the supply side of the Treasury market has remained stable, with deficits settling near the $1.8 trillion baseline.
The U.S. economy depends on consumers buying stuff. Persistent price inflation forced Americans to blow through their savings and then turn to credit cards to make ends meet.
The dot-com bubble burst in 2000. Now, 25 years later, anxiety abounds about the potential for a similar AI bubble burst and resultant crash.
Growth, growth, and more growth — that’s been the common refrain in the current market environment. However, peeking from behind the curtains is the quality factor. While it has yet to receive the full spotlight in 2025 relative to growth, it’s due for a breakout performance (potentially in 2026).
We believe the macro environment will continue to be unstable given policy crosscurrents and a wobbly labor market, but stocks can likely churn higher given a firmer earnings backdrop.
While Netflix Inc. and Paramount Skydance Corp. vie for President Donald Trump’s blessings in their competing bids for Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., investors have an irony to consider.
A conventional data center uses between 5,000 and 15,000 tons of copper. A hyperscale data center, on the other hand—the kind being built to run artificial intelligence (AI)—can require up to 50,000 tons of copper per facility, according to the Copper Development Association.
Federal Reserve officials are poised to cut interest rates again next week, but any benefit to the economy is likely to take much longer to show up than normal and may be blunted by factors that monetary policy can’t control.
In this third installment of the retirement income series, Chuck Carnevale (“Mr. Valuation”) walks through the completion of a hypothetical $2 million dividend portfolio designed for a retiree who requires at least $100,000 per year in income—equivalent to a 5% yield, with annual income growth to offset inflation.
here’s something comforting about dividends. For decades, investors have turned to them as tangible proof that a company is generating real cash flow and is willing to share it.
Spreads are essential for investors who utilize leverage, but for most fixed income investors, yields are much more important. Fortunately, in today’s market, yields are relatively attractive despite historically tight spreads.
We expect 2026 to be another good year for fixed income investors. However, yields that are lower than where they were a year ago and less room for rate cuts by central banks likely will mean less-robust returns.
The passage of new US stablecoin legislation has intensified Wall Street debate over the tokens' potential to significantly boost the dollar and become a multi-trillion-dollar source of demand for short-dated Treasuries.
