European stocks fell in the penultimate trading session of 2024, a year of modest gains for the region that contrasted with the bullish Wall Street rally.
While Bitcoin’s surge above $100,000 captivated the headlines in 2024, many financial firms were more focused this year on a different type of cryptocurrency whose price is never meant to rise — or fall for that matter.
As is our custom, we conclude the year by reflecting on the 10 most-read practice management articles over the past 12 months. Enjoy!
On this special episode of the “ETF of the Week” podcast, VettaFi’s Head of Research Todd Rosenbluth reviewed the ETF industry’s 2024 performance with Chuck Jaffe of Money Life. The pair discussed the ETF industry’s record breaking performance, evolutions in product development, and more.
With Donald Trump’s re-election as President of the United States, debates have reignited about the potential impact on markets, trade, and the global economy. The new administration has promised deregulation, tax cuts and a focus on energy independence.
By this time last year, the stock market’s rally had blown past even the most optimistic targets and Wall Street forecasters were convinced it couldn’t keep up the dizzying pace.
Advances in AI, including artificial general intelligence, are very likely to continue — but it’s unclear how much of a difference they’ll make.
BlackRock Inc.’s iShares unit offers more than 1,400 exchange-traded funds around the world, yet none of them have performed quite like this.
The dollar is headed for its best year in almost a decade as US economic strength reins in expectations for the Federal Reserve’s rate-cutting cycle and President-elect Donald Trump’s threats of harsh tariffs underpin bullish bets on the currency.
Tokenization, or the process of creating digital representations of real-world assets on a blockchain, has become one of this year’s buzzwords in both conventional and crypto finance circles.
The new year will start with plenty of intrigue, especially in manufacturing, aerospace and logistics, the area where I hunt for interesting storylines about how companies navigate opportunities and pitfalls.
Recommend reading that provides a bed of knowledge for the key themes we think will define 2025. Ours differs from other lists you might see elsewhere at this time of year in that we focus on relevance rather than recency, though there are new books here, too.
The S&P 500 Index posted its best month of the year in November, with a clear election result and a “no-surprise” Fed rate cut providing support.
Treasuries were under pressure in a holiday-shortened session as investors remain wary to park cash in US government debt that matures in a decade or more.
Over the last decade, U.S. large cap growth stocks have been far and away the best performing major financial asset in the world.
We expect the playbook for emerging markets to be one of volatility at the start of the year, transitioning to growth and opportunity as U.S. trade policies and China stimulus plans become clearer.
This analysis explores why SOC2 certification, despite its widespread adoption and respected status, may provide a false sense of security and prove inadequate in protecting organizations against modern cyber threats.
People often make a distinction between “good debt” and “bad debt,” in terms of both personal finances and public spending.
The crypto market’s center of gravity is back in the US as 2025 approaches, courtesy of Donald Trump’s reelection to the presidency and widening demand for the nation’s digital-asset funds and derivatives contracts.
Some hedge fund managers are sounding the alarm on overvalued nuclear power stocks and scaling back exposure after a stunning rally this year.
It’s that time of year when Wall Street polishes up its crystal balls and predicts next year’s market returns. Since Wall Street never predicts a down year, these forecasts are often wrong and sometimes very wrong.
If you happen to be a Bitcoin skeptic, you’re not alone. A recent Pew Research survey found that 63% of Americans are not confident in the reliability or safety of cryptocurrencies in general.
Index funds emerged in the early 1970s and were designed to match rather than beat the market. For decades, they were associated with the capitalization-weighted (CW) market indexes that defined their investment approach.
As we near the end of 2024, researchers, businesses, and investors have begun to question the overheated artificial intelligence sentiment.
J.P. Morgan’s Jon Maier highlights the firm’s suite of ETFs and discusses the industry’s accelerating momentum behind active management. VettaFi’s Roxanna Islam offers insights into the recent Nasdaq-100 index rebalance and its connection to broader ETF trends.
Has the U.S. economy diverged from the global economy, or are a lot of economic canaries in coalmines keeling over and warning the U.S. is soon to catch down?
On this episode of the “ETF of the Week” podcast, VettaFi’s Head of Research Todd Rosenbluth discussed the iShares Nasdaq Top 30 Stocks ETF (QTOP) with Chuck Jaffe of Money Life. The pair discussed several topics related to the fund to give investors a deeper understanding of the ETF overall.
CAPE, or the cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio, introduced in 1988 by economists John Campbell and Robert Shiller, is arguably the best-known indicator of broad market valuation. And CAPE is now at an almost (though not quite) all-time high level, according to data from Robert Shiller's website.
To Michael Saylor’s online fanbase, it’s the next step in the great normalization of crypto: Bitcoin proxy MicroStrategy Inc. enters the S&P 500 next year, forcing the likes of index-tracking funds to buy his controversial company en masse. Whether they like it or not.
Bond traders have rarely suffered so much from a Federal Reserve easing cycle. Now they fear 2025 threatens more of the same.
Forced to seek a government rescue barely a year ago, Siemens Energy AG was an unlikely candidate for Europe’s best performing stock of 2024.
This is the first part of a series of Bloomberg Opinion columns exploring the risks related to the US’s rapidly expanding debt and budget deficit.
OpenAI is preparing to launch a new artificial intelligence model that it said is capable of more advanced human-like reasoning than its current offerings, ratcheting up the competition with rivals such as Alphabet Inc.’s Google.
I must confess, I have been aware of quantum computing for quite some time, but it was one of those things that always seemed far off. It’s now getting much closer.
This brief market commentary will run through some stats and provide context to the market’s recent fluctuations.
From Brazil to South Korea, emerging-market central banks are forming a line of defense as a rising dollar pushes their currencies to multi-year lows.
As the year comes to a close, we revisit some of the key market themes and moves for 2024 and the year ahead.
Private credit firms want more than corporate lending. The largest are laying the groundwork to finance everything from auto loans and residential mortgages to chip manufacturing and data centers in an effort to swell the size of the market by the trillions.
Take it from Niels Bohr: “Those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it.”
Despite the expectation of rate cuts, a push-pull dynamic could exist if high inflation continues, opening the door for short-term bonds.
Bitcoin extended its slide from this week’s record high to almost 15% as hawkish signals from the Federal Reserve prompted traders to sell an asset that has more than doubled this year.
The $10.4 trillion US exchange-traded fund industry’s blockbuster year comes with an asterisk: even amid record inflows and launches, funds are shuttering at a nearly unprecedented clip.
The Exchange Team is full of gratitude for our sponsors and the community coming to the 2025 financial services conference.
Taxes are on my mind. Do I factor in whether a dividend is considered qualified or ordinary when making my recommendations?
The Conference Board Leading Economic Index (LEI) increased slightly in November. The index rose 0.3% from the previous month to 99.7 after eight consecutive monthly declines.
On Friday December 6th, the U.S. stock market pushed to the most extreme level of valuation in U.S. history
A BlackRock Inc. fund has bought municipal debt issued earlier this year in a first-of-its-kind deal that relies exclusively on blockchain technology.
At a time when the American consumer’s resiliency has been questioned amid signs of a slowing economy, Walmart Inc. has thrived. The world’s largest retailer, famed for its discount prices but increasingly known for its pursuits in advertising and an online marketplace, is headed for its best year since 1998.
Why cyclical leadership in equities could continue into 2025.
At the time of year where everyone is reflecting on the things that matter most to them in their personal lives, it is important to also consider what matters when it comes to investing. In this investment commentary, Johnson Financial Group shares what really matters as you put your money to work.
