While it seems fitting that rates are beginning to fall within days of the Autumnal Equinox, I doubt Fed officials were aiming for the play on words. So, what were they paying attention to as they made this most recent decision?
Corporate tax rate policy is a routine hot-button issue during every presidential election cycle, and this year’s campaign is no different.
Since mid-2022, when the Federal Reserve was in the midst of its aggressive hiking cycle, investors piled over $1.6 trillion into money market funds, which include Treasury bills.
The impressive arc of AI stock growth has been something to behold. Touring Silicon Valley and meeting with AI and tech company leaders offers another level of inspiration and insight on the market juggernaut. Active equity investor Tony Kim shared the experience and his broader AI investment outlook with The Bid podcast.
After more than six months of indicating that it lacked conviction regarding the path of inflation, the Federal Reserve (Fed) seems to have gotten a conviction boost so large that it pushed it to lower the federal funds rate by 50 basis points at the September Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.
Since 2020, momentum investing has generated significantly better returns than other strategies. Such is not surprising, given the massive amounts of stimulus injected into the financial system. However, Brett Arends for Marketwatch noted in 2021 that momentum investing can give you an edge.
What is your personal financial code of conduct? Whether you’re consciously aware of it or not, chances are you have an internal set of standards and taboos that guide the way you handle money.
While the stock market rallied after the long-awaited Federal Reserve rate cut last week, there’s a sense of unease accompanying the gains.
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic said starting the central bank’s cutting cycle with a large move will help bring interest rates closer to neutral levels as the risks between inflation and employment become more balanced.
The Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut last week has led many to wonder what it means for mortgage rates. The housing website Redfin noted that some would-be homebuyers aren’t aware that we’ve already seen a steep decline, while others are waiting for mortgage rates to fall more.
Gold is seeing record prices, and while exposure to gold can be useful to a portfolio, it could behoove some investors to look at gold miners instead. Gold miners are well positioned to capitalize on the recent surge in interest in gold.
Join the experts at REX Shares for a free educational webcast and learn all about gold and gold miners.
A popular rebuttal of the idea that the US ought to worry about its surging public debt is, “What about Japan?” America’s taxpayers are currently on the hook for 123% of gross domestic product, exceeding the previous record of 118% in the aftermath of the second world war, and the number is going up.
On this episode of the “ETF of the Week” podcast, VettaFi’s Head of Research Todd Rosenbluth discussed the WisdomTree International Hedged Quality Dividend Growth Fund (IHDG) with Chuck Jaffe of “Money Life.” The pair talked about several topics regarding the fund to give investors a deeper understanding of the ETF overall.
There’s opportunism — and there’s Qualcomm Inc.’s approach to buy Intel Corp. The acquisitive semiconductor giant has an opening to attempt such a momentous deal thanks to the yawning gap between their market capitalizations. The snag is that many obstacles remain to a successful transaction.
Not surprisingly, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are floating opposite approaches to modifying the corporate tax code. If enacted, both proposals would significantly impact corporate profits and, thus, share prices. Currently, the plans are only campaign promises
The ERISA Advisory Council is conducting hearings on Qualified Default Investment Alternatives (QDIAs), seeking recommendations for improvements. The big challenge is making better decisions for people who do not want to engage.
Today, I’m going to share stories about my best and worst investment decisions. Don’t worry, this isn’t just a brag-and-cringe session about making or losing money. These stories are about the valuable lessons learned, and how these adventures in investing helped shape my current approach.
I’m moving up a letter I was planning to share with you on my birthday weekend in two weeks. The story about sandpiles and the financial system may be the most popular letter I’ve written in the last 25 years. It is one we should all re-read every few years to remind us how change happens slowly, then suddenly.
For years, the U.S. has been the dominant player in military spending, with American companies like Lockheed Martin and RTX (formerly Raytheon) commanding the global arms market. But now, Europe—specifically its arms manufacturers—may be the next big opportunity for savvy investors.
More than two years after first taking steps to contain swelling inflation, the Federal Reserve (the Fed) has taken a step back, suggesting monetary policy decision-makers have confidence that inflation will continue to move closer to the Fed’s target, allowing them to turn some attention to economic growth.
We expect the Fed to cut rates by 25 basis points at each of its remaining meetings in 2024 and to sustain that pace into 2025. This trajectory would get the Fed down to our estimate of the normal or equilibrium rate of interest of 3%-3.25% this time next year.
As GMO celebrates its 30th anniversary managing emerging debt this year, we offer our comprehensive guide to emerging debt markets. Given the tumultuous recent events – a global pandemic, defaults, repricing of interest rates, relentless strength in the U.S. dollar – we’ll focus on the Why as a starting point. Then we’ll dive into the proliferating How, covering strategies and vehicles.
From "how" to "why now," here are four things investors should understand about bond investing.
The Northern Trust Economics team reacts to the Fed's decision and shares its outlook for U.S. growth, employment and inflation.
Despite forthcoming volatility, it's an ideal time to get municipal debt exposure, especially in the current market environment.
Trend-following is an exercise in technical analysis, systematic rules following, and signals reading that’s objective and agnostic.
Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said inflation will probably prevent the Federal Reserve from lowering interest rates as much as expected in coming years.
Jay Powell: Federal Reserve Chair, soft-landing pilot … car dealer extraordinaire?
With interest rates on the decline, investors may want to consider filling gaps in small- and mid-cap quality ETF exposure.
Now that the Fed has begun the rate-cut cycle, investors can use option income ETFs to provide long-term income and risk protection.
It’s understandable that bank regulators, facing zealous industry opposition, are retreating from their effort to require the biggest lenders to fund their assets with more equity. After all, there hasn’t been a major blowup in 18 months and the banks insist they have more than enough capital.
Earlier this month, OpenAI released its most-advanced models yet, saying they had the ability to “reason” and solve complex math and coding problems. The industry-leading startup, valued at some $150 billion, also acknowledged that they raised the risk artificial intelligence could be misused to create biological weapons.
With the decision on Wednesday to lower interest rates (for the first time since March of 2020) by a substantial 50 basis points (bps), rather than the 25 bps cut we typically see at the beginning of an easing cycle, the Fed is showing confidence that the disinflation trend will continue.
What history can tell us about seasonal returns.
Sometimes that means lower priority tasks fall through the cracks. Here are four tips for managing procrastination tendencies.
Americans might be forgiven for basking in self-satisfaction when it comes to the economy. The country’s most prominent CEO, Jamie Dimon, has called the country’s boom “unbelievable,” and its most stimulating magazine, The Atlantic, has dubbed it a “superstar.”
The rise of artificial intelligence has reordered the American stock market, pushing the likes of Nvidia Corp. and other chipmakers into the upper echelons. There’s one storied corner, though, where the changes wrought by AI haven’t shown up: the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Wall Street’s biggest banks are divided over how fast and deep the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates over the next year, setting the stage for jittery financial markets until the outlook clears.
Millions of Americans are falling behind on student loan payments a year after the pandemic freeze ended – and soon that will start hurting their credit scores.
The owner of the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania will invest $1.6 billion to revive it, agreeing to sell all the output to Microsoft Corp. as the tech titan seeks carbon-free electricity for data centers to power the artificial intelligence boom.
An action-packed week on Wall Street ends with a bang as index-tracking funds are set to reshuffle $250 billion of shares, just as a “triple witching” trading event hits.
We believe the Fed is on a path to continue to cut rates over the next several meetings to realign monetary policy with a now more “normal” U.S. economy.
Many financial planning actions are linked to age milestones. Our Bill Cass highlights what key birthdays and other dates could mean for your financial plan.
The half-percentage point reduction at the September 17-18 FOMC meeting represents the largest non-COVID era cut by the Fed since 2008.
Conference season brings about its own set of volatility catalysts. Portfolio managers and traders must keep their ears out for clues on the state of the broad economy, specific industries, and individual companies.
In this video, Chuck Carnevale, Co-Founder of FAST Graphs, a.k.a. Mr. Valuation is going to be highlighting what he considers to be the best investment in AI – Super Micro. Chuck has done a lot of research on Super Micro Computer.
The Fed began the process of rate cuts today, and they came out not with a whimper, but with a bang, cutting rates by 0.5% (50 basis points). Following the June meeting, Fed members forecast it would be appropriate to cut rates once – by 25 basis points (bps) – in 2024. Three months on, they have already surpassed those expectations, and forecast further cuts before the year is through.
GMO has posted a new 7-Year Asset Class Forecast.
The Fed enacted a 0.50% interest rate cut, the first in the Fed’s historic fight against inflation that’s lasted over two years.
Most American couples say they trust their partner regarding financial matters, but many reveal they aren’t necessarily in full agreement.
