What stock fund could be safer than a total U.S. stock market index fund with thousands of securities? That was my thinking for the last three decades, but things are changing.

When data can’t give us the answer, we have to think from first principles. If your objective is to maximize the risk-adjusted return of your savings, finance theory and common sense both suggest that higher risk, all else equal, calls for cutting exposure, not adding to it.

San Juan, the economic hub of Puerto Rico, triggered a rush for its $121 million muni-bond sale this week, as investors seized a rare opportunity to get exposure to island.

The leveraged ETF boom is creating new ways to profit from sudden bursts of volatility in tech stocks.

US natural gas futures rose by the most in more than two months as an unusually large swing in weather forecasts triggered a wave of short-covering among money managers who were the most bearish on gas since 2020.

US lawmakers from both parties are seeking to boost federal funding for quantum computing as China and other countries race to transition from research to deployment of the nascent technology across defense, intelligence and cybersecurity.

“Sound money,” in its purest form, is money whose supply a government cannot expand at will. Under a gold standard, every dollar is a claim on a fixed weight of gold. You can’t print gold. So the government can’t monetize its deficits, and the money supply grows only as fast as miners pull metal out of the ground, historically around 1.5% a year.

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

While long-term interest rates have been trending higher driven by a combination of persistent inflation, Fed uncertainty and geopolitical conflict, earnings growth this year has been very strong. If the trend continues, earnings could continue to help equity markets outpace rising interest rate and inflation risks.

Stronger gold prices are happening for a couple different reasons. First of all, optimism is rising that the Strait of Hormuz may finally reopen soon. The news in Iran is certainly welcome, but new jobs data from ADP is helping gold, too.

The AI trade has faced renewed volatility as investors question AI spending and current valuations. Semiconductor stocks and related areas — including memory, networking, photonics, and chip equipment—have all been caught in the pullback.

There is no one-size-fits-all individual investment strategy. We all have different needs. Once I decided I needed a portfolio that would work for today, I became convinced that a dividend growth portfolio should be the core of my long-term investment strategy. Not an addition, but the core.

Here is a summary of the four market valuation indicators we update on a monthly basis.

• The Crestmont Research P/E ratio
• The cyclical P/E ratio using the trailing 10-year earnings as the divisor
• The Q ratio, which is the total price of the market divided by its replacement cost
• The relationship of the S&P composite price to a regression trendline

The Q Ratio is the total price of the market divided by the replacement cost of all its companies. As of July 2026, the latest Q-ratio is at 1.83.

Based on July's S&P 500 average of daily closes, the Crestmont P/E of 43.8 is 184% above its arithmetic mean, 212% above its geometric mean, and is in the 100th percentile of this 14-plus-decade series.

The inflation-adjusted S&P Composite Index was 211% above its long-term trend at the end of July.

Morningstar research shows ETF investors gave up 1.2 points a year to poor timing, a gap advisors can help clients close through discipline.

The latest employment report showed that 23,000 jobs were shed in July, compared to June's 20,000 gain. This figure was significantly lower than the projected addition of 85,000 jobs. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.1%.

US Treasuries rallied after data showed employers unexpectedly cut jobs in July, suggesting labor market challenges that could impact the Federal Reserve’s willingness to raise interest rates.

Gold jumped more than 3% after an unexpected contraction in the US jobs market, extending a rebound from its slump below $4,000 an ounce.

Investors remain cautious despite bullish positioning, as rotations curb speculation while record margin debt and high equity allocations raise longer-term risks.

In this article, Russ Koesterich explains how the recent market rotation has pressured tech stocks while creating an attractive long-term buying opportunity.

A clear-eyed view of past experience shows that where wealth taxes have been tried, they have usually been abandoned—and for good reason. As policymakers in California, New York, France, and elsewhere revisit this old idea, they should heed the lessons of this history.

Investors are warming to systematic processes in bond markets. In this new approach, a dynamic multifactor process drives the investment decisions, using predictive factors with demonstrable links to outperformance.

Discover why higher Treasury yields, strong ETF demand, and active management are creating new opportunities in muni bonds for advisors.

Given the current state of inflation and interest rates, it’s probable that many advisors and investors are considering alternative ways of fostering income within their portfolios.

Reflecting on the first half of 2026 provides a clear roadmap to strategize for the remainder of the year. Before that can occur, however, it’s imperative to check the pulse on the current state of the market and posit what may happen next.

A growing number of investors from the US to South Korea are using leveraged exchange-traded funds for long-term investing, a far cry from the day trading they were designed for.

Alphabet Inc. is looking to raise as much as $25 billion from its latest US investment-grade bond offering, a deal that will test investor appetite for AI-related debt following a July selloff.

While the outcome of the July FOMC meeting itself was in line with expectations, the aftermath has proven to be far more challenging for the money and bond markets, especially for longer-dated maturities, a.k.a. duration. Investors, as well as Fed Chairman Warsh, have quickly discovered something we have been highlighting about over the last few months: a lack of forward guidance can have unintended consequences.

Investors worried about highly appreciated stock positions and the related capital gains exposure may avoid transitioning concentrated portfolios to more diversified tax-managed solutions. In our view, a multiphase transition may enable them to strike a balance between how fast concentration risk is diversified and the size of their annual tax bill.

In the span of a few weeks, a new college student takes on loan debt, gets their first credit card offer, and starts managing daily expenses on their own. They're buying groceries, splitting costs with roommates, saying yes to things they probably can't afford yet. No other period of life throws that many financial decisions at someone with that little experience.

One of my most controversial opinions is that the 401(k) is one of the great financial inventions of the 20th century. It is not a view shared by many people — including, apparently, the inventor himself, Ted Benna, who argues that the 401(k) has mainly benefited the wealthy.

High-net-worth investors and institutional managers continue to allocate heavily to muni bond ETFs to lock in attractive yields.

July 2026 was a flattish month for markets. The S&P 500 index was down slightly. Value did well, while momentum did poorly. Smallcaps, midcaps, and emerging markets, all of which have been the year’s best performers, had a bad month. Commodities, driven largely by oil prices, led the pack, as the fragile ceasefire in Iran failed to hold.

The numbers are in, and the story of ETF adoption goes on undeterred. In July, ETFs saw their third month this year of asset inflows exceeding $190 billion. If 2025 was a record-breaking year for ETF asset creation, 2026 is promising to upstage it.

July was an eventful month for both domestic and international markets, with US-Iran tensions flaring up, increasing energy prices and changing investor expectations for the Federal Reserve (Fed) cutting rates.

The financial markets expected the Federal Reserve to leave interest rates unchanged at its recent meeting, and it did just that. However, three members of the FOMC dissented, voting to raise rates by 25bps in an effort to combat stubbornly high inflation.

The Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge of price inflation is set for a methodological update, as the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) is expected to implement revisions to its price index for Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) as early as September.

State Street's July Flash Flows report highlights record ETF inflows, and a major rotation into value and dividend strategies.

The concept of the 530A accounts is sound, and the initial $1,000 deposit is worth having. So claim the seed money if your child qualifies. But before you make additional contributions, compare these accounts to the other options and choose what is appropriate for your circumstances.

SpaceX’s first earnings release following its record initial public offering is one of the most anticipated reports of the summer for traders on Wall Street and beyond. Whether it’ll give investors a reason to buy the sinking stock is another matter.

Kevin Warsh became Fed Chair barely ten weeks ago. He has presided over just two sets of monetary meetings and held two press conferences. Nonetheless, more than any chairman since at least Alan Greenspan, he has come under harsh criticism by the press right out of the gate.

You spent years building your retirement savings with one goal in mind: having enough to live comfortably when you stop working. The strategy that got you here probably leaned heavily on growth. But as retirement gets closer, that same approach may not be the right one to carry you through it.

In January 1790, the House of Representatives put a simple question to its new Treasury Secretary: what should America make for itself? Alexander Hamilton took almost two years to answer.

S&P 500 companies are turning in their strongest earnings season in five years. And a handful of sectors are doing most of the heavy lifting.

Advisors and investors of all kinds are used to closely watching the outcome of each of the Federal Reserve’s meetings, given how critical interest rates are to equity and fixed income markets alike. However, the recent July Fed meeting was particularly crucial. Many were uncertain what direction the central bank would go with interest rates.

Every time China tightens its grip on rare earths, the rest of the world becomes a little better at finding them.

As companies race to capitalize on the AI boom, water security is emerging as a material risk across the value chain. While data centers attract headlines, semiconductor fabrication remains one of the value chain’s most water-intensive activities, requiring reliable supplies of high-purity water.