The AI bear case is worth taking seriously on price and financing. It is not worth taking seriously on demand. Anyone selling you the whole package as a single story, bull or bear, is selling you a mood, not an analysis. The revenue is real. The cash flow is the thing to watch. Price accordingly.
Mega-cap tech stocks have helped large caps dominate small-cap ETF flows and performance for years. However, this year a shift is taking place. In 2026, small-cap index ETFs are outperforming their large-cap peers as the market has broadened out.
This week’s vote from the Federal Reserve FOMC committee is going to have implications for quite some time. I think most of the pundits who are writing about this have their analysis wrong. This was not just a vote to not raise rates. I think there was a lot more going on behind the scenes.
Schwab Sector Views is our six- to 12-month outlook for stock sectors, which represent broad sectors of the economy. The Schwab Center for Financial Research (SCFR) combines a factor-based approach with a market and economic assessment to determine the ratings.
Consumer sentiment reached its highest level since March, driven by easing gas prices. The final July reading for the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index came in at 55.2. This marks an 11.5% (5.7 points) increase from June and beat the preliminary reading of 54.4.
Inflation remains a hot topic, directly impacting everything from your grocery bill to interest rates. As of the latest data, two key inflation gauges — the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index and the Consumer Price Index (CPI) — show that prices are still above the Federal Reserve's 2% target, with the core PCE at 3.3% and core CPI at 2.6%.
In the race to win a coveted role on the next mega US IPO and manage the ensuing riches, Wall Street’s wealth advisers are ramping up lending to founders and entrepreneurs based on the soaring values of their private companies.
For anyone worried about the gargantuan costs of developing artificial-intelligence infrastructure, it was comforting to think that Big Tech firms could just turn off the spending taps if demand for chatbots and coding tools didn’t pan out. That’s starting to look like wishful thinking.
It’s true enough that history rhymes, even if it doesn’t necessarily repeat. But that creates danger when we pick up resonances from the wrong episode of history, particularly in the fraught task of identifying and avoiding speculative bubbles.
As concerns grow about the market’s biggest companies, investors are looking further down the market-cap scale. Mid-cap innovators are drawing more attention because they have more room to grow.
Following historic inflows, momentum in the covered call ETF market continues unabated. Yet first-generation buy-write products were often viewed somewhat narrowly as high-yield income vehicles built on sacrificing equity upside for immediate cash flow. While early strategies proved the massive appetite for yield, they also exposed key advisor pain points — from steep NAV erosion in bull markets to tax-inefficient distributions.
One of the most noteworthy data points during July was the June CPI report. While some moderation in price pressures was expected, the actual ‘cooling’ in inflation that was reported was greeted as a long sought after welcome development by the financial markets.
LPL Research explores whether hyperscalers can generate attractive returns on massive AI investments through a framework focused on ROIC, growth, and capex.
Fixed income can serve several important purposes within an investment portfolio, including income generation, capital preservation, diversification, and supporting future cash flow needs. Unlike growth assets, an individual bond generally provides a defined schedule of interest payments and a stated maturity date.
Energy markets have reached a precarious moment, with the path of prices over the remainder of the year – and potentially beyond – hinging on two key questions.
In part two of AB’s “Build a Better Path” Disruptor SeriesTM, we shifted from diagnosing the challenge of long-term investing to a potential approach for solving it. With practical, actionable steps, investors have the potential to translate the concept of improving up/down capture into strategies aimed at improving portfolio design.
Cash is king. Not for investors right now, but among the hyperscalers. The craving for capital is high as the AI arms race takes new twists and turns.
Forecasting is always fraught, but geopolitical turmoil makes it especially hazardous. Economic projections are only as reliable as the assumptions behind them, and those inputs can change quickly when conflicts are involved.
In this report, John P Kerschner, Global Head of Securitized Products, Daniel Siluk, Head of Global Short Duration and Liquidity, and Michael Contopoulos, Head of Multi-Asset Macro Investing, make the case for why it’s time for short-duration bonds.
GMO’s liquid alternatives are hedge fund strategies (e.g., equity long-short, global macro, event-driven) managed with an emphasis on risk control and liquidity. The GMO Alternative Allocation Strategy (“ALTA”) is a liquid alternative solution combining several underlying strategies; ALTA is available in a mutual fund with daily liquidity.
Personal income (excluding transfer receipts) was up 0.13% in June and was up 3.81% year-over-year. However, when adjusted for inflation using the BEA's PCE Price Index, real personal income (excluding transfer receipts) was up 0.24% month-over-month and up 0.14% year-over-year.
The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, the core PCE price index, climbed 3.3% year-over-year in June. This marks a slight decrease from May's 3.4% reading. On a monthly basis, core prices rose 0.1%.
US stocks rose at the open on Thursday as Microsoft Corp. soared 16% after reporting the fastest cloud unit growth in four years. Top semiconductor companies, like Micron Technology Inc. and Nvidia Corp., gained as well.
Europe’s big banks have joined the global stock trading party. Danger lurks, however: When the market turns, it is often brutal.
The conventional wisdom in tech is that it’s better to overspend than miss out on a blockbuster hit. Of course, Big Tech’s investors hate when their companies overdo it.
In the week ending July 25th, initial jobless claims were at a seasonally adjusted level of 197,000. This represents an increase of 9,000 from the previous week's figure and was lower than the forecast of 201,000.
If you’d rather get ahead of where income allocations are heading than read about them in next quarter’s flow report, this is the session.
Oil markets have entered a period of heightened volatility. Geopolitical tensions, shifting supply expectations, and uncertain demand forecasts continue to weigh on investor sentiment. This environment can make traditional energy investing challenging. However, it also increases interest income generation strategies like the Amplify Energy & Natural Resources Covered Call ETF (NDIV).
The Federal Reserve left its policy rate unchanged in July, with three participants dissenting in favor of a hike. Prior to the meeting, markets had priced roughly a one-third probability of a rate hike, so the hold was dovish relative to market pricing.
As families prepare for college move-in season, the packing list usually starts with the obvious essentials: bedding, a laptop, chargers, school supplies and plenty of snacks.
The arithmetic of doom on America’s debt and budget shortfalls has been a favorite parlor game for fiscal conservatives since 1971, when Richard Nixon removed the last constraint on federal borrowing by ending the dollar’s convertibility to gold.
U.S. economic growth rebounded at the beginning of 2026, according to the BEA’s latest estimate. Real GDP rose at a 1.5% annual rate in Q2, falling below the 2.1% forecast, but marking an acceleration from the 0.5% final estimate seen in Q4 of last year.
Healthcare systems across the country are facing a difficult reality. Costs are rising faster than revenues, balance sheets are under pressure, the pacing of private market allocations are harder to manage, and liquidity has become an important topic for many organizations.
Once again, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decided to remain ‘on hold’, keeping the fed funds trading range at 3.50%–3.75%. Although there had been earlier conjecture in the money and bond markets the Fed may raise rates at the July gathering, that sentiment ultimately faded, and the final result was largely expected.
U.S. equities finished lower last week as investors weighed an escalating conflict with Iran against renewed concern over the scale of AI-related spending. The technology-heavy NASDAQ Composite was the worst performer, falling 2.1 per cent, while the S&P 500, an index of the largest U.S. companies, declined 0.6 per cent.
Private equity has become easier than ever for individual investors to buy. Founders, executives, physicians, and business owners now regularly see private funds offered through banks, wealth platforms, feeders, evergreen vehicles, or registered interval funds. However, just because these funds are more readily available, and at lower minimums, does not mean they should immediately be invested in.
Artificial intelligence is a transformative new technology, but we believe that it’s likely to follow a familiar pattern. From spreadsheets to the internet, innovations have historically given early adopters an edge—for a time. In our view, the ability to maintain that advantage depends much more on how effectively an asset manager integrates it throughout the organization.
South Korea and Taiwan are grabbing the majority of financial news headlines when it comes to international exposure, but a peek inside Latin America reveals potential opportunities. Brazil, in particular, could be offering investors ample value in both equities and bonds beyond those aforementioned countries already benefiting from the artificial intelligence (AI) buildout.
A continued escalation in the Middle East, where the Iranian-backed Houthis joined the conflict in an attempt to disrupt Saudi Arabian crude shipments that pass through the Red Sea via the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, drove oil prices higher, while new tariff announcements and Alphabet's earnings release created headwinds for equities.
Kevin Warsh’s second meeting as Fed Chair saw no change in rates and minimal edits to the Fed Statement, but included a press conference giving insight into what the Fed is focused on.
Considering that the Federal Reserve has been meeting this week, it’s safe to say that inflation is likely front-and-center on the minds of many advisors and investors. After all, energy prices and supply chain constraints have kept inflationary pressures far more persistent than the Fed would like.
The Federal Reserve concluded its fifth meeting of the year by holding the federal funds rate (FFR) steady in the 3.50%-3.75% range.
Join the experts at Harbor Capital and PanAgora for a product due diligence session exploring the Harbor PanAgora Dynamic Large Cap Core ETF (INFO).
Clients do not need us to predict whether the next 10% move is up or down. They need help staying invested in a way that matches their goals, their time horizon, and their actual tolerance for risk. Staying invested is easier when clients understand what each part of the portfolio is designed to do.
Investors overwhelmingly recognize the value of financial planning, but a substantial planning gap remains. The desire for guidance is there. Access remains the challenge.
The combination of succession planning — where the lead advisor wants to have a successful and well-funded retirement and the successors want to get paid for taking over — along with the riches of the market over the last few years are all adding up to significant unrest within many teams.
In the current macroeconomic landscape marked by higher-for-longer interest rates, investors looking to optimize their short-term capital allocations may want to consider collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) as a higher-yielding potential alternative to traditional cash proxies like money market funds.
At the party, hosted on a hot day last July at HPS business development head John Christmas’ New Jersey beach house, bandana-clad colleagues across his teams mingled poolside with the wind at their backs. With the addition of HPS, one of the biggest names in private credit, it seemed BlackRock was set to break through in the market in a way that had eluded the asset manager for years.
Wall Street is racing to roll out complex investment products tied to SpaceX shares that aim to shield buyers from future losses amid a sharp selloff following its market debut.
The US dollar will weaken if the Federal Reserve leaves interest rates unchanged this week, according to TD Securities.