United Airlines Holding Inc. is returning to the municipal bond market with a junk-rated $256 million sale, after last year’s volatility forced it to postpone the deal.

The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index inched up 0.1 points to 95.9, remaining below the index's historical average for a second straight month.

Inflation surged to 3.8% year-over-year in April, hitting its highest level in nearly three years. The headline figure for the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was slightly above the forecast of 3.7%, driven primarily by cost increases in energy, shelter, and food.

Firms pulled back sharply on hiring last year as policy uncertainty and higher input costs – driven largely by tariffs – forced a reassessment of risk. Nonfarm payroll growth averaged just 9,700 per month in 2025, down dramatically from 121,600 in 2024. That slowdown reflected a familiar corporate response: When uncertainty rises, labor – the largest and most flexible cost – becomes the primary adjustment mechanism. Rather than expand headcount, firms chose to wait.

After going negative in March after the outbreak of hostilities between the U.S. and Iran, flows of gold into ETFs flipped positive again in April, with all regions reporting inflows of metal.

The stock market is on an absolute tear, with the Nasdaq up 5% last week and nearly 13% year-to-date. The proximate causes include a cease-fire somewhat holding with Iran, a 28% surge in S&P 500 corporate profits in the first quarter, and some consensus-beating economic reports, like Friday’s payroll numbers.

Wendy Li spent 20 years working with large endowments and foundations before founding Ivy Invest. In the latest Alternative Allocations, she discusses how institutions approach illiquid investments, the importance of manager selection, and where she sees opportunities in today's private markets.

With those simple words, Jerome Powell departed his final press conference as Federal Reserve Chair. Powell’s eight years at the helm have been anything but simple, however. A review of his tenure includes some hits, some misses, and some important lessons in leadership.

Innovation drives portfolio growth, but how can investors access it while limiting concentration risk – or paying for red-hot valuations? Most investors are already significantly exposed to megacap tech names, but there are plenty more tech players out there that can deliver for investors.

Early detection, I believe, is one of the smartest investments you can make, whether we’re talking about your portfolio or your health.

Scalable personalization means saving time while not sacrificing the “secret sauce” that is unique to your practice. Time savings can come from scaling portfolio construction via model portfolios or direct indexing, adding tools or talent to complement strengths, and using technology like AI.

LPL Research explores how a potential Warsh-led Fed could reshape policy, Treasury markets, and volatility amid rising deficits and shifting demand.

Last week was very strong for the market narrative because the economic data continued to show resilience where it matters most: jobs, earnings, and investor confidence. The latest payroll report was not just stronger than expected; it showed broad private-sector strength, with government jobs actually declining and the prior month revised higher. That is an important distinction.

Munis may have struggled a bit in March, but the long-term environment for these bonds remains full of potential.

Explore the new 529 rules, including Roth IRA rollovers, the grandparent loophole, and higher K-12 limits.

Join the experts at Goldman Sachs Asset Management as they explore structural shifts within private equity and outline how the characteristics of private equity, such as sector, country and style, can be accessed by capturing replicable performance drivers through public markets in an ETF wrapper.

For business owners, your company is more than an asset; it’s your livelihood, your legacy, and often your largest source of wealth. Yet too many owners delay succession planning until it’s urgent, limiting options and potentially eroding value. A well-structured exit isn’t a last-minute decision; it’s a multi-year strategy.

A look at the highlights for the year to date via four charts, including updates about diversification, economic indicators and the national debt.

Rather than worrying about the narrow impact of faster IPO inclusion on index fund performance, we think investors would be better served by focusing on the long-term expected returns offered by the markets in which they’re investing – in particular the U.S. and non-U.S. equity markets.

Existing home sales were modestly boosted in April, inching up 0.2% following a 2.9% decline in March. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), sales reached a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.02 million units, falling just short of the projected 4.05 million.

Gold bugs often claim that when more dollars are in circulation, each dollar buys less; prices rise, and gold, as a store of value, helps protect purchasing power from that decline. As a result, they believe that a rising money supply, in and of itself, is inherently inflationary.

The nuclear industry has seen a recent flurry of announcements, headlined by two major industry partnerships to rapidly deploy new reactors. These exciting developments come against the backdrop of a new national poll showing increased positive sentiment towards nuclear energy. This all adds to the positive tailwinds for nuclear development in the U.S.

In my former life as a mutual fund analyst, T. Rowe Price was always a staple of my research. Back then, the focus was on their fundamentally focused active mutual fund lineup. However, in the last 15 years, the investment world — and my own research focus — has moved toward ETFs. I watched with strong interest as this Baltimore-based firm brought its active management expertise into the ETF world in 2020.

Copper headed toward its highest close ever — and other metals advanced — as traders shrugged off the apparent deadlock between the US and Iran to join a broader rally for risk assets.

Oil rose after US President Donald Trump rejected Iran’s response to his latest peace proposal, prolonging the effective closure of the crucial Strait of Hormu

Retail traders largely sat out a record-setting advance in chip stocks in April. Now they’re diving in just as worries mount that the group’s rally may be losing steam.

Cerebras Systems Inc. increased the size of its initial public offering, now seeking to raise as much as $4.8 billion, as demand for the artificial intelligence chipmaker and data center operator’s shares continues to build

The travel and leisure space remains a bright spot, with Marriott posting a robust earnings beat driven by a 12% increase in gross revenue and strong global booking trends. Airbnb also had a strong showing, topping revenue forecasts and raising its full-year outlook as global travel momentum drove a 19% increase in gross booking value.

That skepticism isn’t contrarianism for its own sake, but rather the recognition that when a thesis achieves consensus, the crowd has usually already priced the easy part of the move, and the hard part is what comes next.

With 82% of market cap having reported, the S&P 500 is on track for 27% year-over-year earnings per share (EPS) growth, the strongest since 4Q21. More than 84% have beaten earnings estimates − the most since 1Q21 − while earnings revisions are up 12%, the fastest pace in four years.

Gold demand was up 2 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, setting a record in value terms. Including over-the-counter (OTC) selling, gold demand came in at 1,231 tonnes.

Ironically, the story I want to discuss today involves two companies we do not own and never have owned. Though they are household names, and this transaction is one of the most significant acquisitions in business history.

Artificial intelligence unknowns are creating stress in the market, and we don’t see that ending any time soon. For long-term investors, these stressors can create opportunities.

Putting money directly into Trump accounts is fundamentally different: It goes directly to the beneficiaries. Whether it will be more effective at improving prosperity or reducing populist anger is unclear. The public/nonprofit model can be better targeted and address specific societal needs, such as hunger or education.

In this month’s Allocation Views, the Middle East conflict and its impact on the global economy in 2026 continue to be the chief concern for asset allocation, as inflationary pressures challenge central bank policy.

The U.S. labor market demonstrated remarkable endurance in April, with job gains outpacing expectations and private sector expansion reaching its strongest point in over a year. As the Federal Reserve maintains a steady interest rate policy, the focus now turns to upcoming inflation and retail data to gauge the sustainability of this momentum.

Emerging markets have grown more resilient, according to the Templeton Global Macro team, and the Iran-driven oil shock is a fresh test. Impacts will likely diverge between oil importers and exporters and vary widely within each group.

Though the U.S. drills far more oil than in the past and relies less on supplies from the war-torn Persian Gulf, U.S. consumers see there's no escaping global price realities.

With the war in Iran dragging past the original ceasefire deadline, how might the situation impact global energy markets—and other sectors—from here? To cut through the noise, we asked Luke Pryor, Security of the Future Portfolio Manager and Co-Portfolio Manager of Strategic Equities, to share his oil and gas industry expertise.

What to do? Does one capitulate and chase the bubble at the highest valuations in history? Does one wring their hands at the prospect of a bubble that might only go higher and higher forever without end? My hope is that this month’s comment will offer both perspective and confidence that it is not necessary to chase current extremes, nor to be anxious even about the possibility of steeper ones.

As market volatility lingers, the latest S&P Persistence Scorecard reveals a sobering reality for active managers.

DoubleLine Capital’s Jeffrey Gundlach is repositioning some of his funds for the extreme scenario that the US government could choose to restructure its debt in response to a potential future recession.

US stocks were on track for a record closing high, buoyed by semiconductor stocks, strong monthly payrolls figures and a US-Iran ceasefire that appeared intact even with overnight clashes near the Strait of Hormuz.

US employers added more jobs than expected for a second month and the unemployment rate held steady in April, indicating the labor market is holding up despite rising energy costs sparked by the Iran war.

After years of U.S. equity dominance, conditions were shifting coming into 2026. Earnings growth outside the U.S. had begun to converge, wide valuation gaps narrowed modestly, and investor interest in international equities was rebuilding. While the Iran war injected uncertainty and temporarily dampened enthusiasm for non‑U.S. stocks, the underlying setup remains intact.

The April FOMC meeting’s four dissents and resistance to maintaining an easing bias signal a higher bar for rate cuts under incoming Chair Warsh, suggesting investors may favor Treasury floating-rate strategies to navigate a prolonged “higher-for-longer” environment.

Last week was the busiest week of Q1 earnings season, as close to half of the S&P 500 reported quarterly results including Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, and Apple. Alphabet stock jumped 10 percent on the back of strong results from Google Cloud and Gemini.

Opening a 529 plan is a tax-advantaged way to set aside money for college. The money you contribute can grow tax-deferred and qualified withdrawals are tax-free.

Dividends have historically been the dominant method by which companies returned capital to shareholders. Share repurchases have only recently surpassed cash dividends as the primary form of corporate payout in the United States. Investor interest in buyback strategies has grown rapidly as a result.

In this video, Chuck Carnevale explains why valuation is critical when investing in growth stocks and why investors must balance growth potential with the price they pay.