April delivered a constructive backdrop for preferred securities, with the ICE BofA Fixed-Rate Preferred Securities Index rebounding 2.23% and bringing YTD returns back into positive territory at 0.8%.
Artificial intelligence (AI) leadership is no longer a developed-market monopoly. Emerging markets (EM) now have their own AI champions, and productivity gains may follow. For bond investors, we expect the implications to differ by country—driven by industry composition, capital intensity, digital infrastructure and speed to adoption.
Many have drawn the comparison between the current AI buildout with the dotcom period in the late 1990s, when the infrastructure for the internet was built. It’s a sensible comparison to make because of the massive amount of capital deployed to commercialize the buildout of revolutionary and life-changing technology.
Royce Investment Partners: Co-CIO Francis Gannon looks at how recent performance may be subtly announcing a turning point in market leadership.
Typically, an investor’s traditional bond portfolio begins with a cornerstone, or core holding of some sort. From either a strategic or tactical perspective, a core fixed income position provides the investor with some ballast to help anchor any other strategies that may be included.
State revenues are softening, and rainy day fund capacity has declined for the first time since the Great Recession, he wrote in his second quarter outlook report released Wednesday. The end of pandemic-era stimulus programs, slowing tax collections and rising costs are all adding to the weakness.
The logic of balanced investing is straightforward: equities drive long-term growth, bonds provide income and ballast when stocks fall, and the combination delivers a smoother ride than either asset alone. For decades, the 60/40 portfolio has been the default framework for good reason – it has worked, often brilliantly, across multiple market cycles.
Our reading is that this is a meaningful positive at the surface — a real-time confirmation that the most pessimistic recession scripts written in March can be set aside — but it is also a print that fails to alter the structural calculus we have been describing all year. The labor market is steady. The trajectory of fiscal policy, monetary credibility, and dollar reserve status is not.
Kevin Warsh set to be confirmed as the next Fed chair, Senate committee meets to consider the CLARITY Act, President Trump heads to China, and the gerrymandering wars heat up.
With inflation persistent and rising due to soaring energy prices, it’s not surprising that advisors and fixed income investors are revisiting Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS). In fact, data indicate that inflation-linked bonds have been among the most popular fixed income destinations, dating back to 2022.
The ETF landscape is ever changing, and has grown massively since the ETF rule arrived in 2019. It was the game-changer that streamlined the launch process for new funds, thus allowing asset managers to offer new and innovative strategies in the wrapper.
Multiple jobholders accounted for 5.2% of civilian employment in April.
March’s Producer Price Index (PPI) data offered a significant reprieve for inflation watchers, as wholesale price growth came in broadly softer than expected.
April's employment report showed that 17.5% of total employed workers were part time and 82.5% of total employed workers were full-time.
What does the ratio of unemployment claims to the civilian labor force tell us about where we are in the business cycle and recession risk?
This webinar will examine how RaaS is accelerating deployment across manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, and facilities management — and what this structural shift means for the competitive landscape and long-term investment opportunity in robotics and automation.
Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS) executives detailed their artificial intelligence strategy for operational efficiency as new data showed the top 100 registered investment advisor firms now manage more than $1.6 trillion in client assets, double what they controlled just two years ago, according to Padi Raphael, global co-head of third party wealth at the firm.
Fears of hotter-than-expected inflation were realized today. Consumer Price Index (CPI) data revealed that headline CPI rose 0.6% month-over-month in April. This pushed the year-over-year figure to 3.8%, which constitutes the highest reading since May 2023. To beat the CPI heat, three distinct natural resource ETFs offer varying ways to hedge against higher inflation.
To understand the full impact of AI on advisor productivity, it’s important to look beyond speed alone. The more relevant question is whether efficiency gains are creating meaningful breathing room or simply raising expectations and expanding the scope of work.
Advisors may need to amend their wealth management or financial planning strategy, if many of their clients work in the public sector, or are based in geographic locations unevenly impacted by government cuts or mandates.
I’m all about trying to build bridges and fix things, and I am also a realist. I often tell clients there is a right way, and then there is what you can get done within your environment. I’ll always lean toward the second one.
The rules haven't changed. The obligation to capture, retain, and supervise communications is exactly what it was in 2021. What changed was the enforcement spotlight — and firms that have mistaken a quieter SEC for a changed regulatory landscape are building exposure that will surface eventually.
US equity futures pushed higher early Wednesday as traders snapped up technology shares after a pullback in the group, with enthusiasm around strong earnings outweighing a resurgence in inflation.
The nuclear power industry is booming. With electricity demand surging, dozens of nations have set a goal of tripling the world’s capacity by 2050. And the US, which has the biggest fission fleet, is pushing to quadruple output from its reactors.
Alphabet Inc.’s Google introduced a new high-end laptop segment called "Googlebook" that will run Android and prominently showcase Gemini artificial intelligence. Hardware partners Dell Technologies Inc., Lenovo Group Ltd. and HP Inc. will debut models built on the platform in the coming months.
Mamdani called the pied-à-terre tax and the change in the unincorporated business tax credit, which would mostly affect affluent taxpayers, “common-sense measures.” He said the city is working with Albany on plans to administer the second-home levy.
Nvidia Corp. co-founder Jensen Huang joined US President Donald Trump on his visit to China as a last-minute addition, thrusting AI and technology into the spotlight before a high-stakes Beijing summit.
The College for Financial Planning is a degree-granting institution offering various financial certification programs. It provides graduate degree, non-degree and continuing professional education programs for students. Founded in 1972, today it is part of Kaplan Financial and has trained over 165,000 professionals.
A real fundamental story doesn’t require a parabolic chart to validate it. In fact, fundamentals tend to drag prices up the trend line, not push them through the ceiling. When a “shortage” narrative arrives at the same moment that the worst-quality names in the sector are leading the index higher, that’s not fundamentals at work.
Within private credit, attempts to increase liquidity – the ability to buy or sell an asset quickly, in size, and at prices reflecting fundamental values – are welcome developments, in our view. Yet until these efforts address the market’s inherent structural constraints, including a lack of true price discovery, they will only increase the perception of liquidity without truly improving liquidity.
A tariff is a tax on the value of an imported good, paid by the importer at the time the good is taken from an entry port. The tariff is absorbed in some combination of price concessions by the exporter, lower margins for the importer or higher final prices.
Access to private equity, private credit, private infrastructure, and private real estate assets can potentially improve long-term investment outcomes for participants.
Psychology plays a larger role in our investing lives than many of us care to admit. Often, when investing, we would be better off being a bit more robotic and a bit less human. The reason behind this is often our feelings influence our decisions in ways that are not always to our advantage.
Get ready each week with high-conviction insights that go beyond media headlines.
The inflation dragon is alive and well. Last November, Donald Trump called himself “the affordability president.” However, it appears that the message is falling flat with your average American.
Beneath the surface, however, the story is more complicated. The economy is still advancing, yet it is doing so with a growing bifurcation between households and sectors, while inflation pressures continue to simmer in the background.
Emerging market stocks have rebounded to new highs following their correction at the onset of the Iran war. The recent rally has been concentrated around AI. Can this continue?
The April release of the Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers (CPI-U) places the year-over-year inflation rate at 3.81%. This marks the first time since May 2023 that inflation is above the post-WWII average of 3.72% and the second consecutive month that the current rate has dipped below the 10-year moving average, which currently sits at 3.24%.
Join the experts at SS&C ALPS Advisors for an educational webcast exploring everything from energy security to the investment implications of resource nationalism and their place in investment portfolios.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has released its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), providing forecasts for energy markets. This article presents the annual production outlooks for crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids (NGLs), comparing the May 2026 projections against the previous month's estimates.
Total U.S. household debt climbed to a record $18.79 trillion in Q1 2026, a modest 0.1% ($18 billion) increase from the previous quarter. The overall rise was driven by increases across a handful of categories, specifically mortgage and auto loan balances.
Inflation affects everything from grocery bills to rent, making the Consumer Price Index (CPI) one of the most closely watched economic indicators. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) tracks this by categorizing spending into eight categories, each weighted by its relative importance.
In the current market, broad healthcare exposure means navigating relentless regulatory pressure and drug-pricing reform, a combination that can erode returns quickly. To find true value in this challenging macro environment, investors are increasingly turning to cash as the ultimate truth-teller, specifically, free cash flow (FCF).
This series has been updated to include the March release of the consumer price index as the deflator and the monthly employment update. The latest hypothetical real (inflation-adjusted) annual earnings are at $54,469, down 5.8% from over 50 years ago.
Once clients’ taxes are filed, most assume the story is over for another year. For many, filing season ends with relief, frustration, or confusion — a refund that feels arbitrary, a payment that stings, or little clarity about what to do differently next time. That’s where you, as the advisor, can step in.
Setting and working toward a financial goal that represents your own freedom number is well worth doing. I suggest treating that number as a beginning and a continuing journey rather than a destination. Recognize that achieving financial independence alone is no guarantee of happiness and wellbeing.
AI infrastructure costs just keep on rising. Big tech firms are likely to invest several trillion dollars over the next few years to satisfy your ChatGPT and Claude habit.
The nearly $13 trillion market isn’t the flashiest outpost on Wall Street, but it’s the vital plumbing that keeps the money flowing. Through repurchase agreements, or repos, firms exchange Treasuries for cash — typically overnight — providing the short‑term funding that underpins trading, settlement and market‑making across the financial system.
China investors are counting on the summit between Xi Jinping and Donald Trump to deliver just enough to sustain the detente trade underpinning stocks and the yuan.
A scorching rally in Intel Corp. shares is threatening huge losses for traders wagering that they’re due to fall. But that isn’t stopping them from placing those bets.
