Bananas are an interesting food for a number of reasons. But why would they matter to someone who is interested in the financial markets?
Trade developments and continued momentum pushed all three major averages to modest gains again for a shortened holiday trading week. So while there is good news overall, uncertainty still lingers beneath the employment surface.
Investors are far less freaked out about tariffs than they were just three months ago, but they remain a sore subject. At the same time, most of us either know or have participated in, the roller-coaster ride of Tesla (TSLA) shares over the past several months.
Interactive Advisors turns 18! From candlesticks to candles then, we continue our steady run as a financial robo-advisor, and stay fully invested in giving our customers the same quality of experience they signed up for on day one.
Economically, the major implication is in the energy markets. Lower energy prices are a good thing for many countries and for the global economy. The utility industry needs power generation capabilities after all.
Once again, the decision to keep Fed Funds at its current level came as little surprise, as the Fed continues to be sitting back and waiting to see how the economic and inflation landscape unfolds given the uncertainties that have arisen from tariff-related developments.
There is no dearth of remarkable purchases, being made at ridiculous price points, by different folks, for all sorts of reasons. For active participants in the investing world though, investments involve looking out for fees vs. returns to begin with.
Markets are strange animals: just when everything seems perfectly aligned for a particular outcome, they have a way of knocking you down. The upcoming week will be short but busy, packed with economic data and potential surprises.
Structuring equity portfolios to withstand macroeconomic uncertainty means rethinking geographic diversification, focusing on quality stocks, and positioning for secular tailwinds from broadening AI adoption and greater defense spending.
The recent large moves in the US dollar have brought the idea of currency hedging to investor attention. Currency hedging is often ignored when discussing international equity investments but this recent period of unusual currency moves (discussed in another insight) reminds us of the impact of currency risk.
Chair Powell has managed to stay on message about remaining cautious ahead of the potential effects of tariffs and resisted getting sucked into partisan politics. Since nothing he wrote or later said was particularly market-moving, equity traders could resume buying.
As autonomous vehicles and industrial robots converge under the banner of autonomous systems, investors should recognize robotics as the foundational layer of a new physical economy operating system.