Tax Loss Harvesting

Domestic demand for gold bars and coins tends to rise modestly under Democratic administrations. However, elections have not historically had a significant impact on gold’s global performance over the long haul.

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

Portfolio Manager Denny Fish explains why the market was justified in assigning a higher level of regulatory risk to the AI ecosystem after the midterm elections. But in his view, the secular strength of this theme, along with the massive bottlenecks and geopolitical implications, mean that this historic investment cycle will likely continue.

Franklin Templeton Institute’s Stephen Dover and Larry Hatheway opine on the US stock market’s recent volatility in the wake of the US midterm elections and the path forward for investors.

The big story last week? The Federal Reserve paused despite stronger growth and persistent inflation. It was a hawkish pause, with a December hike still the base case, according to Franklin Templeton Fixed Income. Third-quarter gross domestic product showed the US economy's resilience, but also its growing dependence on artificial intelligence investment, and household purchasing power took a hit.

Understanding the FAFSA process can help families navigate college financial aid. Bill Cass, director of US Wealth Planning, explores five important considerations, from income and assets to application timing and aid offers.

The 2026 midterms may have changed Washington, but they haven’t changed the macro regime. Tariffs, geopolitics, and deficits remain key forces for investors.

The votes have been cast. While control of the House and Senate has been decided, now we wait for the final tallies (and celebrate the end of the political ads — at least for another 20 months or so). We’re not political strategists, but policy does move markets, so it’s important to pay attention.

Amid a rapidly changing world, where China’s rise as an industrial powerhouse has nations around the globe on alert, we believe that American reindustrialization will be an important driver of investment returns in the decade ahead. Standard U.S. equity indexes are poorly positioned to capture the benefits of this generational opportunity due to their global, technology-heavy composition.

Duration management is a key function of fixed income portfolio management. However, as yields have moved approximately 100 bps in 2026 and the monetary regime has sharply changed from rate cuts to rate hikes, duration management has come into greater focus.

Municipal bonds posted their best month since 2023. See how high-yield muni ETFs help advisors capitalize on the municipal market recovery.

October reminded investors that markets rarely move in response to a single factor. The US economy continued to expand at a moderate pace, supported by healthy consumer spending and solid business activity, even as markets contended with higher energy prices, renewed inflation concerns and heightened geopolitical tensions.

Following U.S. midterm results, Paul Eitelman, Chief Investment Strategist, Russell Investments, shares the potential implications for markets and the data center rollout. Views are as of 10:00 am Eastern Time on November 4, 2026.

Notwithstanding that the major U.S. equity indexes are sitting on healthy double-digit gains heading into the final two months of 2026, the calm at the index level belies a lot of churn and rotation underneath.

Taken together, these trends point to a healthier, broader economic backdrop than the AI-driven narrative alone would suggest. For us as investors, it reinforces the case for individual, fundamental stockpicking over simply riding the AI wave. There's more supporting this market than one theme, and that breadth matters for how we position portfolios.

Equity markets are caught between tighter liquidity conditions and increased geopolitical uncertainty on the one hand, and solid economic growth and corporate earnings on the other. We have consequently reduced our exposure to stocks leading into year end.

Following the U.S. midterm elections, investors will naturally focus on what the results mean for fiscal policy, geopolitics, and the regulatory outlook. But there’s another more immediate way the midterms have already mattered for the economy: The campaigns themselves have provided a meaningful boost to U.S. growth.

One concern raised by the recent backup in rates is whether CRE is about to relive the stress of 2023, when depressed post-pandemic office demand coincided with rising rates and a regional bank crisis, including Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic Bank. The selloff in public REITs suggests investors are repricing property values for a higher-rate world.

Elevated Treasury yields have created attractive income opportunities across the fixed income markets. Corporate and municipal bonds offer additional yield opportunities, while positively sloped yield curves provide investors with further motivations to extend maturities. For many investors, the opportunity to capture higher income and lock it in for longer periods has renewed interest in exploring bond swaps.

We expect the rotation to continue. The earnings bar is high—very high. Any minor misstep has led to punishment, which has led to rotation. Rotation is not a bad thing, and if you are running a diversified equity portfolio, you should be in good shape.

The Federal Reserve meeting last week was largely uneventful. The S&P 500 and the 10-year Treasury yield ending the trading session almost exactly where they stood before the Fed’s announcements. Despite some disagreements within the Fed, there was virtually no forward guidance.

Most of us consider the end of the year as the season of giving. While you may have put some thought into how much you’d like to give this year, have you considered the best way to do it? The biggest benefit of charitable giving is supporting an organization that holds special meaning to you. But that doesn’t mean you can’t incorporate some potential tax advantages as well.

Election Day has markets watching how divided Washington will be over the coming two years. Jeff Schulze shares insights for investors based on different potential outcomes.

The broad markets experienced volatility in the 3rd quarter with concerns over the impact of energy prices on inflation as well as CapEx spending by hyperscaler companies in the AI space driving technology stocks. The price of WTI Crude oil rallied sharply during the quarter by nearly 30%.

Last week, the AI trade began to crack further with Alphabet’s release, missing on both the top and bottom lines. Mirroring Meta’s print from the prior week, massive AI capex turned free cash flow negative, alarming investors.

As the days grow shorter and the nights longer, Americans will turn their clocks back, shifting from daylight saving time to standard time. But the clocks won’t be the only thing changing. Americans will also head to the polls, with the potential to reshape Congress in the 2026 midterm elections.

With the one constant being that gold fell again, this time by 6.6%, October’s price action is a mirror image of what happened in markets in September. In September, tech and momentum led the charge higher, with anything value- or rate-related leading the selloff. October was the exact opposite.

The stock market doesn’t wait for GDP. The ratio of consumer discretionary stocks to consumer staples has fallen about 19% from its late-2025 peak, suggesting the so-called “smart money” has been quietly moving out of what people want and into what people need for most of this year.⁵

Starting December 6, 2026, Nasdaq and NYSE Arca will officially launch extended trading sessions, expanding U.S. stock trading to up to 23 hours a day, five days a week.

Infrastructure has long been valued for its defensive characteristics, income potential and ability to protect against inflation. Essential assets such as electricity networks, pipelines, railways, airports and toll roads typically benefit from high barriers to entry and predictable revenues.

Today I want to tell you about the city of Shenzhen. Unless you are in global manufacturing, you may not have heard of this Chinese city of 18 million people. As recently as 1979, the area had only 30,000 residents, living in small fishing villages. Today, it is one of the most modern cities in the world. It is also quite wealthy.

The Fed held rates steady at its October meeting but kept the door open to further tightening, with two dissenting votes and hawkish rhetoric signaling that the pause is a skip, not a stop.

Consumer staples are behaving (in a good way) like their technology counterparts. It may be the latter that’s helping the former. There are currently renewed fears about AI bubbles and hefty spending by hyperscalers. So some investors are trimming tech exposure and heading to more docile pastures, including staples.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decided to keep rates unchanged, maintaining the fed funds trading range at 3.75% to 4.00%. After some early back and forth on the chances for a rate hike at this gathering, this result was largely expected. In fact, fed funds futures were pricing in more than a 90% chance that the fed funds target would remain unchanged.

Royce Investment Partners: Co-CIO Francis Gannon details why recent volatility looks like the typical pattern of a US small-cap leadership cycle.

Investors may be overlooking one of the most established drivers of long-term wealth creation: dividend yield. In his October insight, Richard Bernstein, Global Head of Macro & Customized Investing, examines the broad availability of dividend opportunities, how income-focused stocks have performed relative to growth stocks, and why dividend yield may help investors balance portfolios increasingly geared toward capital gains and higher risk.

After overshooting projections for years, AI capex is slowing down. The shift doesn’t spell the end of the AI trade but a move to a more mature, predictable cycle that favors higher-quality borrowers.

New charitable deduction rules may affect year-end giving strategies. Bill Cass examines the changes for 2026 and considerations for taxpayers looking to align charitable goals with tax planning.

The Federal Reserve decided to wait for more data rather than raise rates at its October meeting. Two policymakers dissented, favoring a rate hike of a quarter percentage point.

Could the near to medium term finally see value ETFs take the starring role back from growth? Value indices have provided some steady returns this year, but the question is, can they accelerate into the new year? Economic headwinds and concentration risk for the AI hyperscalers could see value stocks outperform. The American Century U.S. Quality Value ETF (VALQ) presents a strong candidate to do well if value stocks do.

How many eyeball-grabbing headlines can we stuff into the next few weeks? For tech investors, AI concerns mount, with rising credit default swap prices among the hyperscalers and sagging neocloud equities.

With the recent movements in both the stock and bond markets, there was some noteworthy news that got kind of lost. Indeed, the U.S. government posted a $1.99 trillion budget deficit for fiscal year (FY) 2026. While technically it is not a record amount of red-ink, it represented the largest non-COVID-related shortfall ever recorded in modern history.

Gold has traditionally been one of the most popular ways for investors to gain commodity exposure, but its recent weakness highlights the differences across various commodities. While precious metals have struggled, energy and certain agricultural commodities have seen stronger returns. Existing diversified strategies are also giving investors more ways to access commodities beyond traditional gold funds.

Reasonable minds can disagree about the ideal scope of government, but no one argues against nations providing for their defense. As conflicts emerge and tensions rise, defense spending will take a larger role in all nations’ budgets, with effects that will flow across the economy.

Income ETF strategies have exploded in popularity in recent years. Historically, investors have looked to bond coupons to add durability to their portfolios. The explosion of ETF popularity, launches, and adoption, however, has seen some intriguing options join the fray. The Goldman Sachs Municipal Income ETF (GMUB), which hits its three-year ETF milestone next year, represents just such a strategy.

US midterm elections take place on Tuesday, November 3. Currently, the Republican party is in control of the House and the Senate. This vote will essentially be a referendum on the Republican party’s body of work. It’s likely the composition of either the House or the Senate will change.

Keynes’ influence is still very much alive. As one point of evidence, Robert Hall of Stanford University and Michael Woodford of Columbia University, champions of what is now known as “The New Keynesian Theory,” were recognized with this year’s Nobel Prize in Economics.

Record ETF launches are compressing product shelf lives and raising closure risks. Learn the real costs for advisors and clients.

Rick Polsinello, Christian Galipeau Discuss high-conviction insights that go beyond media headlines.

The Middle Eastern waters might be calm enough to allow for energy shipments to recover toward pre-war levels, but Asia-Pacific (APAC) economies are not yet in calm waters. Tight petroleum product supplies and higher shipping costs leave the region vulnerable to further shocks.

We have been arguing that the reset higher in yields has restored the dual role of bonds in multi-asset portfolios: providing attractive income while once again offering the potential for meaningful risk mitigation. This month’s tech market turbulence has provided a clear example: As equities came under pressure, U.S. Treasury yields fell amid a flight to safety, allowing duration to behave like a diversifier again.

Last year, U.S. charitable giving hit a record $617.20 billion, according to Giving USA. That’s the first time it’s ever topped $600 billion. Individuals gave $394.2 billion of that, foundations gave $117.15 billion, bequests added $62.19 billion and corporations contributed $43.67 billion.