Global Markets

The relative cheapness of Treasuries versus interest rate swaps mechanically affects how corporate bond spreads are measured, but it appears to have limited influence on how corporate bond spreads actually behave.

Chris Galipeau discusses high-conviction insights that go beyond media headlines.

The equity bull market is expected to continue through the second half of 2026, supported by resilient U.S. growth, AI investment and solid earnings.

For a Federal Reserve (Fed) chairman committed to reducing noise coming from the institution and/or to changing how the Fed communicates, his first attempt to do so was not very promising. Just after Chair Warsh’s first press conference, we argued that inflation was not a choice, as he suggested during the press conference.

The market received encouraging inflation news last week as both the CPI and PPI came in below expectations, as inflation pressures moderate. A negative monthly CPI print effectively removed any concern about an immediate Federal Reserve rate hike.

LPL Research analyzes China’s declining crude imports, inflation risks, and the resilient U.S. economy driving above-trend growth.

Equity markets have shown resilience amid persistent headwinds, supported by index evolution and earnings strength

A Roland Berger study finds family offices moving capital into infrastructure and private equity while retreating from riskier bets abroad.

VettaFi’s Midyear Market Outlook symposium Thursday saw industry leaders take on the big questions. Where is the market going? How should investors and advisors navigate uncertainty and potential volatility? Leaders from Fidelity Investments and Invesco both joined for one of the early segments, focused on innovative U.S. strategies.

GMO has posted a new 7-Year asset class forecast for 2Q 2026.

When you measure home affordability today against the metric that actually governs the check you write each month, the picture flips. By that measure, buying a home may be easier now than it was for the Boomers and Gen Xers who get blamed for everything.

As we move into the second half of 2026, U.S. large-cap stocks may be on pace to deliver their fourth straight year of double-digit gains, with the S&P 500 Index up 11.4% through July 10, 2026.

Financial markets were eventful this week, with key inflation reports, Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Warsh’s first semiannual testimony to Congress, renewed Middle East tensions, and the start of earnings season all helping shape the narrative.

The shine has come off silver since it skyrocketed to over $100 an ounce in January. The price has dropped by over 50 percent from the record high. However, there are still reasons to be bullish on silver moving forward, including persistent supply deficits and growing industrial demand.

I really struggle to understand my utility bills. They often run to several pages, with sections describing just how difficult it is to get water from the source to your faucet, or internet service from a satellite to your home router. At the end, there is a long list of charges from a range of payors that adds up to an astronomical sum.

We’re back to reading tea leaves! Hooray! Next week the Federal Reserve will have its second meeting since Kevin Warsh officially took the helm. And, at this point, the outcome is far from certain, which is unusual given that ever since Ben Bernanke instituted “forward guidance” the market usually knew what to expect.

The second-quarter earnings season kicked off last week with a resounding statement from Wall Street, led by stellar results across the nation's six largest banking institutions.

AI is changing the investment landscape, but fundamentals still matter, and we remain focused on quality companies with growing free cash flow.

Whenever I speak at investment conferences, I like to point out that we invest in a number of publicly traded airports. I even list them: Spain’s Aena. Aeroports de Paris. Zurich Airport. Airports of Thailand. Two of the world’s largest operators, Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste and Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico, trade in Mexico.

I’ve been writing about inflation more in recent months and quarters because inflation has become the major driver of the US macroeconomic landscape. This week, we take a deep dive into inflation and interest rates, and at the end, I talk about why I am buying gold for my grandkids.

Decades of data across global markets reach the same verdict: the more frequently retail traders trade, the worse they perform. The infrastructure has never been more inviting. The losses have never been more documented. Here are some key statistics we will dive into further.

Chairman Warsh has made clear his aim to be a strong leader, neither shackled by any attempts by his predecessor to shift policymaking power to the voting members of the FOMC nor susceptible to political pressures or past policy precedents to deter data-driven monetary policy decisions.

It seems to be the end of the Great Moderation Era for the U.S. economy. The Great Moderation Era—which marked most of the two decades leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic—is drifting away into what we call the new Temperamental Era.

In this video, Chuck Carnevale, co-founder of FAST Graphs and known as "Mr. Valuation," explains why overpaying for a stock is often the greatest threat to long-term investment success. Using over 30 real-world examples, Chuck demonstrates how even outstanding companies can deliver poor returns when investors buy them at excessive valuations.

So far in 2026, we’ve seen that benchmark index returns can obscure important market dynamics. Even during a historically strong quarter, underlying dispersion created meaningful opportunities for tax-loss harvesting in custom equity portfolios.

The measurement of inflation has been getting a lot of attention lately. Some modifications are underway, with more potentially to follow.

The first half of 2026 reinforced the importance of balance, selectivity and income generation. Franklin Income Investors Chief Investment Officer Ed Perks discusses how markets have evolved, where opportunities are emerging, and why diversification remains critical heading into the second half of the year.

Investors must determine what the AI capital-spending surge means for long-term business durability.

For physicians, major financial decisions may rarely affect just one area of their financial life. The real potential risk is failing to understand how those decisions impact everything else.

I have been tracking the ETF industry for a long time. I remember when the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) made history as the very first ETF to hit the $100 billion mark. Since then nearly two dozen have joined SPY.

Markets are embracing the idea that we are in an AI supercycle. Investors are betting on a multi-decade technological shift, similar to the internet, that will transform industries, computing, and infrastructure.

A handful of key economic data points dropped last week, painting a picture of an economy that is successfully downshifting from its recent inflation peaks even as consumers keep their footing.

Something unusual is happening in the US equity market. AI infrastructure winners continue to power market gains, yet more stocks are moving against the S&P 500. That doesn’t necessarily signal widespread fundamental weakness, though it may reflect AI-driven market imbalances creating opportunity beyond today’s leaders.

Halfway through the year, the U.S. equity market performance is broadening. That said, market concentration remains incredibly high, while equity and bond correlations sit in positive territory — conditions that scream a call for diversification. Investors are heeding that call, many with alternatives ETFs.

Entering Wednesday, the Russell 2000 and S&P SmallCap 600 indexes were up an average of 20.8% year-to-date, confirming small-cap stocks are back with a vengeance. Arguably overlooked in that scenario, some vibrant ETFs represent higher-quality approaches to smaller stocks.

A country drowning in energy shouldn't also feel like it's running out of electricity. In other words: before we ask whether America can make more things again, we should probably ask whether America can power the production.

On July 15, Direxion launched the Direxion Daily SK Hynix Bull 2X ETF (SKHL), seeking to replicate double the daily performance of the South Korean semiconductor manufacturers Sk Hynix (SKHY). The fund provides leveraged exposure to the world’s leading supplier of high-bandwidth memory chips. It boasts an expense ratio of 97 basis points.

At any rate, the value of the trophy reflects the value of gold. It’s almost certain that when they play the next World Cup in 2030, the trophy will be worth even more. Or I should say, the value of the dollar we price the trophy in will be less.

As the forces shaping bond markets become more local, the opportunities become more global. From energy stress to fiscal policy to advances in AI, today’s defining market forces are likely to play out differently across regions, sectors and issuers.

For many investors and families, tax planning may become a year-end exercise squeezed into November and December. But by the time the calendar turns to the fourth quarter, many of the most effective opportunities are already limited.

Tax-aware long-short strategies are no longer the exclusive domain of institutional investors. As separate account delivery has expanded access, more advisors are asking whether tax-aware long-short belongs in their clients’ portfolios. Here are five practical considerations to help you decide.

Big Pharma has a $300 billion problem, and biotech developers with promising drugs are becoming the fix. Major drugmakers are spending at a pace not seen since 2019 to replace medicines that will soon lose patent protection.

The good news is real. The easy trade is not. Growth has held up, artificial intelligence investment is showing up in earnings and capital spending, and fixed income is offering yields that create serious cushion for portfolios.

Small-cap stocks remain the cheapest corner of the U.S. market. That’s true even after posting their best first-half performance in more than three decades, according to Morningstar’s Q3 2026 stock market outlook.