Amazon.com Inc. has blown the primary market for new debt wide open just days after market volatility, sparked by soaring-then-plummeting oil prices, all but halted issuance. Its mega offering is priced cheaply, for a reason: Too much of a good thing is still too much.
Hedge fund positioning across US equities has created a setup for stocks to rip higher after their recent wobble, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s trading desk.
After months of heavy selling on fears of artificial-intelligence disruption, software stocks appear to have found a bottom — at least for now.
The US and Israel’s war on Iran is forcing world governments to intervene to shore up energy supplies, with ongoing missile fire from both sides disrupting flows through a key waterway.
President Donald Trump said the US will get its first new oil refinery in 50 years with the help of investment from India’s Reliance Industries Ltd.
Prediction markets aren't going away. They're designed to be fun and exciting for bettors, intellectually engaging, and culturally resonant. The question isn't whether your clients will participate, but whether you'll have a productive framework ready when they do.
War with Iran is adding a new level of chaos to already uncertain times. What about your retirement savings? Is your investment portfolio safe? Is it time to think about pulling out of the stock market?
Sustainability analysis is most useful when it helps investors and advisors understand how structural economic forces may shape risk and opportunity over time. This includes energy demand, resource constraints, regulation, and physical risk.
For months, Wall Street’s panoply of risk-hedging strategies did little but lose money. Now, as uncertainty sparked by the war with Iran hits the market’s most popular trades, investors that loaded up on portfolio protection are being rewarded.
President Donald Trump said the US and Israel are making significant progress in the war on Iran and could end the conflict “very soon,” cooling a surge in oil prices.
Those are a lot of disappointments in a relatively short time. That also left some investors wondering if Treasuries are still the bear-market hedge they are touted to be — which prompted me to ask if they ever were. After digging into the data, I discovered a surprising answer: no.
The European Central Bank can be forgiven for feeling nauseous as a massive global deleveraging of risk since the Iran war started has hit the euro area’s currency and interest-rate markets particularly hard.
Big Tech’s consolidation of power seemed a foregone conclusion even as Sam Altman’s OpenAI sparked an artificial intelligence boom with ChatGPT.
In this article, we explore how this speculative environment and the aggressive trading in passive ETFs are playing out. We also examine how to identify and capitalize on sector and factor rotations, turning passive investors' aggressive behavior into an opportunity.
The global economy is now moving through what Absolute Strategy Research (ASR), an award-winning macro-strategy firm, has described as a rupture, meaning a break from the assumptions that governed the post–Cold War era. Governments are intervening more directly in markets and supply chains are being reshaped with geopolitical considerations at the forefront. Nowhere is this shift more visible than in industrial metals.
While we don’t find much reason to underweight our allocation to U.S. stocks based on the current high degree of concentration, we do believe that the valuation of the overall U.S. stock market today is consistent with low expected returns relative to safer fixed income investments.
Stocks and currencies have seen steep losses, with the MSCI equity index posting its biggest weekly drop in six years, and bond yields have jumped.
Gold fell, pressured by a stronger US dollar and concern about the prospect of higher interest rates, as the war in the Middle East extended into a second week and oil rallied.
US stocks dropped on Monday, continuing on from the biggest weekly drop since October, as the prospect of a prolonged war in Iran sent energy prices soaring and stoked fears over inflation.
Netflix Inc.’s stock price is staging a dramatic reversal triggered by management’s decision to walk away from its proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. late last month.
Iran’s strategy in its war with the US and Israel is by now clear: Impose an intolerable economic cost on President Donald Trump, forcing him to abandon his “war of choice” as American gasoline prices surge. Is there any way the Islamic Republic’s blueprint for survival can fail?
Traditional safe havens — Treasuries, the yen, the Swiss franc, and gold — have offered investors no refuge as the Middle East conflict roiled markets this week.
With “energy dominance” comes great turbulence. President Donald Trump’s open-ended war against Iran reflects a US seemingly unconstrained by energy needs and ready to wield its own fossil fuels as instruments of power.
Nearly 50 million Americans go to court each year without a lawyer. Low-income Americans are especially vulnerable, with most saying they “do not get any or enough legal help” for their major civil legal problems.
Bond investors, who have been focused on inflation since the Iran war began, say a surprise in the monthly US jobs report has the potential to upend their expectations for Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts.
Looking at the energy market with a wide-angle lens, I don’t see anything remotely approaching the pain of 2021-22, when the energy crisis label was appropriate for Europe. There’s nothing matching the contours of the 1990-91 shock, let alone the 1973-74 and 1979 crises.
The most-read articles on Advisor Perspectives for February covered an eclectic mix of interesting topics, ranging from whether money can buy happiness to what a depreciating dollar could mean for investors.
US stocks have flipped the script for international investors since war erupted in the Mideast, handily outpacing the rest of the world after trailing their global peers badly last month.
Credit investors are unwinding long positions worth tens of billions of dollars and jumping into hedging trades.
A great financial economist once tried to convince me that retail investors should not be allowed to buy individual stocks. I strenuously disagreed: Wasn’t this America, the country that encourages risk-taking? Why shut regular investors out of the chance to get rich?
A world where we can cook up AI videos in seconds from the apps on our phones might seem remote from the physical realities of warfare in the seaways of the Persian Gulf. In fact, they’re closely intertwined.
Treasuries fell for a fourth day — lifting yields to the highest levels in several weeks — as rising oil prices ignited inflation expectations and dented the outlook for Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts.
The Trump administration has struck a deal that would see Venezuela’s state mining company sell as much as 1,000 kilograms of gold to commodities trader Trafigura, according to people familiar with the matter.
The war in Iran is forcing investors to reevaluate one of their most profitable stock strategies, leading some to conclude that the “Sell America, Buy Asia” trade has reached an inflection point.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission asked leveraged-ETF issuers not to move forward with a new wave of planned funds, using a rare group call Monday to renew its push against increasingly aggressive fund structures.
Intercontinental Exchange Inc. is acquiring a stake in OKX in a deal that values the cryptocurrency exchange operator at $25 billion.
It turns out, the biggest financial victim of President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iran is not the S&P 500, but equity markets across North Asia.
Adding tax management services to your practice calls for more than an assessment of potential revenues and client interest. Tax management introduces new compliance demands and sometimes complex business management needs that might not be right for every firm.
Take an educational approach. Underscore how pleased you are about her energy and excitement and how much you want her to be an enthused member of the team. Perhaps you could guide her on how to find opportunities more aligned with your ideal client focus
Transforming a practice built on guardrails and restrictions into a strategic enabler might seem contradictory. But the conditions for this shift have been building, and they're finally converging.
Stocks attempted a rebound Wednesday morning as traders seized on a report that Iranian officials had indirectly reached out to the US about potentially ending the conflict in the Middle East. New data pointing to steadiness in the US labor market also helped fuel gains.
The last time an armed conflict upended the global energy economy, crude spiked past $100 and shares in oil and gas producers rallied for months. A similar trajectory might be unfolding as war rages in the Middle East.
Decades of “regulatory creep” and onerous disclosure requirements have discouraged companies from going public, say leaders of the Securities and Exchange Commission. To revitalize American markets, they plan to pare back those demands, especially for smaller firms. “We need a reset,” Chairman Paul Atkins recently declared.
Most investors, from grandma to the mightiest sovereign wealth funds, own bonds to help steady their portfolio and provide a ready reserve for spending. So, it’s notable when prominent voices start questioning their safety.
The public loves to hate short sellers, the investors who profit from declining securities’ values. Their bad reputation is mostly undeserved. In reality, many provide a valuable service, taking the other side of frauds and bubbles, and generally helping drive prices toward a semblance of fair value.
President Donald Trump said the US will provide insurance guarantees and naval escorts to ensure safe passage for oil tankers and other vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, aiming to head off a potential energy crisis caused by the war with Iran.
While idiosyncratic and recessionary default risks remain present within this asset class, senior-secured private debt continues to offer the potential for more favorable risk-adjusted returns, particularly when compared to public equities and fixed income.
A tax system should raise revenue efficiently, transparently, and fairly. When it requires billions of hours simply to comply, it may be time to ask whether we have built something too complicated for its own good.
This might be the artificial intelligence era, but AI’s greatest contribution to financial services isn’t replacing advisors — it’s making them more human. Advisors have an unprecedented opportunity to focus on what their clients truly value: empathy, understanding, and genuine presence.
Oil surged for a second day as the US and Israel stepped up their war against Iran, with the sprawling conflict’s impact on energy assets in the Persian Gulf continuing to grow.
