MPLX (MPLX) has reported third-quarter 2025 financial results that aligned with market expectations. MPLX has recently announced positive updates for investors, including a 12.5% increase in its unitholder distribution and a strategic new opportunity to support data centers in Texas.
After the first rate cut of 2025 and the prospect of more rate cuts to come, the capital markets are now wondering at what pace the U.S. Federal Reserve will institute them. For fixed income investors looking for options that balance credit quality and yield, municipal bonds should be considered.
For many crypto investors, it’s fine to focus on Bitcoin and Ethereum. After all, those two assets combine for nearly $2.7 trillion of the crypto universe’s total market capitalization of $3.75 trillion. “Dominant” doesn’t begin to underscore the status of bitcoin and ether.
Amid headline-grabbing AI funding rounds, managers are focusing on specialist infrastructure and supply-chain bottleneck companies with clear order-book visibility and strong pricing power. These include semiconductors and components.
The ongoing U.S. government shutdown has policymakers – and investors – operating without much of the timely official data that usually inform their decisions. This could have a tangible impact on Federal Reserve policy in particular.
We often hear about the Fed chair, but who are the governors at the Fed and what is their role? Recent events have raised the profile of other Fed interest rate voters.
U.S. tech equities driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) theme have been a prime catalyst for market gains this year. Have valuations exceeded their underlying fundamentals? If so, one potential avenue to diversify tech exposure is the Invesco China Technology ETF (CQQQ).
The all-ETF portfolio is becoming a reality, as product offerings have evolved into a comprehensive tool kit for total portfolio construction.
There is (another) framework for a deal with China. That is a positive for risk markets. There is increasing evidence of waning tariff effects on company earnings and outlooks. That is a positive for risk markets. The interaction of the two is by far the most intriguing.
Chuck begins by reminding viewers that investors tend to be about two-and-a-half times more sensitive to fear than to greed. When stocks are expensive, investors often ignore the overvaluation.
Though many AI-related stocks continued to struggle, including Advanced Micro Devices despite solid earnings, indexes rebounded early as a private jobs report exceeded forecasts.
It’s been a good year for international equity ETFs. As a category, broad exposure funds tapping into both developed and emerging market equities have delivered outsized gains relative to U.S. markets this year, as well as much sought portfolio diversification.
The Federal Reserve’s (Fed) balance sheet runoff — commonly referred to as quantitative tightening (QT) — is set to conclude on December 1. Since initiating QT, the Fed has reduced its balance sheet by over $2 trillion, largely through the drawdown of its overnight reverse repo program (O/N RRP).
It's been a minute since we’ve touched on traditional stock splits. Our last look at this type of share-price engineering came in Q2, when reverse ETF splits were happening all around us. For individual investors, when a company’s management team chooses to split its stock, it can have more impactful implications for longer-run returns.
Wall Street excels at creating catch phrases. The latest one is the “debasement trade.” JP Morgan analysts coined the term earlier this year. Thanks to macroeconomic and geopolitical factors such as lower interest rates, rising fiscal deficits, trade policies, and global geopolitical tensions, concern is rising about the debasement or devaluation of fiat currency.
Big tech names performed strongly last week, carrying the S&P 500 into positive territory. Fears of an AI bubble are making investors wary of the breakneck pace of capital expenditures. Amazon’s (AMZN) stellar earnings after Thursday’s close indicate the capex boom is pressing on, however.
Even with the government shutdown casting a shadow over Washington D.C., equity markets have continued their upward march, fueled by a trifecta of positive surprises: cooler-than-expected inflation, another rate cut by the Federal Reserve (Fed) and easing trade tensions.
Open enrollment is a crucial time to review and choose employee benefits. It's an opportunity to make informed decisions that can significantly impact your financial and health well-being.
High concentration makes it hard for diversified active portfolios to outperform. While the mega-caps include great businesses, active strategies may avoid or underweight popular stocks over concerns about valuations, business models and interrelated risks, or because of regulations on weighting individual holdings.
Often framed as rivals, private and liquid credit should instead be viewed as powerful complements for both issuers and investors. We believe these two markets are settling into a symbiotic coexistence, as the distinctions blur between the likes of direct lending and broadly syndicated loans.
When it comes to taking financial advice, humans still prefer their own kind. That's crucial in helping to meet an advisor shortage.
In their latest article, Why Hold Expensive Slow-Growing Stocks? An Alternative Framework for Value and Growth Indices, Chris Brightman, Campbell Harvey, Que Nguyen, and Omid Shakernia, argue that traditional style-box construction forces investors to hold stocks that are neither true “value” nor true “growth”—notably, expensive, slow-growing companies that have historically underperformed.
Before we started some recent home renovations, neighbors offered advice: stay patient. Construction projects feature weeks that feel like no progress has been made, and days that feel like everything has changed at once.
China’s “anti-involution” policy to tackle deflation, announced in 2024, is still in its early stages. Some effects are already visible, but compared with China’s last deflation fight in 2014–2015, the policy may take longer to work, in our view.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell caught everyone's attention when he cast doubt on a December rate cut. It’s easy to see why. Standard Fed logic is simple: 2, 3, 4.
German officials announced a massive stimulus program in early 2025. The results have been underwhelming so far, but we believe the economic boost to Germany and Europe is still coming.
Amidst ongoing US policy unpredictability and signs of a softening labor market, the US economy and markets have continued to demonstrate notable resilience. A long-awaited Federal Reserve interest rate cut, and strong corporate earnings supported equity and credit markets - yet policy shifts, elevated stock valuations, and ongoing geopolitical tensions continue to pose potential headwinds.
Q3 Earnings growth continues to improve, with 64% of constituents reporting thus far, S&P 500® EPS growth for Q3 2025 accelerated to 10.7%
LPL Research reports on Fed rate cut, U.S.–China trade truce, strong earnings, and AI spending scrutiny amid narrowing market breadth and volatility risks.
Advisors may sometimes feel like they’re venturing out to solve the world’s personal financial problems alone. They don’t have to feel that way when they’re recommending active funds with the requisite expertise and experience behind them. Vanguard active ETFs can offer that.
Every month, TMX VettaFi publishes hundreds of articles across our ETF-focused websites. Reviewing the pieces that capture our readers’ attention provides a clear picture of prevailing advisor and investor sentiment. In October, five articles stood out. They primarily focus on the surging themes of AI, international equities, and alternatives.
Advisors are using exchange traded funds to expand beyond public markets to private markets to modernize 60/40 portfolios.
Investors who watched the robotics space peak back in 2021 may see the current rally with apprehension. Back then, the narrative of a China-driven logistics and e-commerce boom sent robotics stocks to dizzying heights. What followed was China’s economy first slowing down, and then a pandemic-fueled demand shock. The sector fell hard.
Following this year’s impressive rally in gold (the best year for the metal since 1972) investor attention has once again turned toward its role as a long-term portfolio component.
Actively managed ETFs, particularly those of the fixed income variety, are among the fastest-growing ETF segments today. That growth has been facilitated in part by advisors moving away from higher-fee mutual funds and issuers converting popular mutual funds to the ETF wrapper, among other factors.
An advisor or allocator needs to do three things: understand the goals of their client, find different ways to earn returns for taking risks, and then take the right amount of risk to meet those goals.
While many commentators have criticized Argentine President Javier Milei's draconian approach to economic reform, the results of the October legislative election show that the Argentine people would prefer short-term economic pain over a return to Peronist policies. Milei now has a clear path to finish what he started.
October was a good month for financial markets, with a broad-based rally across geographies and sectors. Tech stocks and gold led the way, and the dollar finally had an up month. QuantStreet's strategies, across different risk levels, moved in line with or slightly exceeded benchmarks.
Classical conditioning teaches us a valuable lesson regarding the current investor dilemma. Pavlov’s research discovered a basic psychological rule: when a neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with a reward‑stimulus, eventually it will trigger the same response even when the reward is absent.
As policy priorities evolve, Japan’s focus on “responsible fiscal expansion” could reshape bond dynamics.
Every innovation follows a lifecycle, from breakthrough to ubiquity to obsolescence. The Edison bulb once lit up the world, transforming how we lived and worked. But it was ultimately replaced by more efficient and sustainable alternatives.
Last week’s main story for markets was the meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Following the talks, both sides announced a modest set of agreements aimed at improving trade relations.
Markets were taken by surprise by Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Powell’s strong suggestion that a rate cut in December is not a certainty, as they were sure they were going to get one at December’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.
October saw some strong data for bond ETFs, according to recent research, suggesting opportunities may abound in the category.
Rising electricity demand continues to be a key trend for investors to watch, with the latest news revolving around Google (GOOG). GOOG, a key AI hyperscaler, announced a collaboration with NextEra Energy (NEE) for the restart of the Duane Arnold nuclear plant earlier this week.
The Halloween week Fed meeting was more trick than treat for bonds with only a mild and temporary scare for stocks. As soon as Chair Powell signaled the next cut is “not a foregone conclusion – far from it!,” the Dow swooned before recovering about half the drop, while the 10-year drifted higher.
The good news for investors is that history may be on their side. According to the Halloween effect—also known as the Halloween strategy or indicator—stocks have tended to outperform in the six-month period from November to the end of April, compared to the six months from May to the end of October.
History is absolutely clear – Capitalism is the best system ever developed (actually evolved by human experiment) to boost living standards. At the same time, Socialism has a seriously lousy record.
Progress toward resolving the US government shutdown remains limited despite increased bipartisan dialogue. Senate Majority Leader John Thune noted that “a lot more conversations” are happening across the aisle, suggesting some softening in tone compared with previous weeks.
The term 'digital gold' is often used by cryptocurrency enthusiasts to describe Bitcoin, Ethereum, and similar assets. However, our latest research shows they behave differently in portfolios. We look at how liquidity and uncertainty drive returns, and why that matters for positioning.
