Money Life with Chuck Jaffe

Bob Doll, chief investment officer at Crossmark Global Investments , foresees some slowdown in consumer activity this year — with middle-income consumers beginning to struggle — and he says that will lead to a sluggish economy with higher unemployment. He expects inflation to remain sticky, which will push the Federal Reserve to make fewer rate cuts — he says it's possible they make no rate reduct...

Kristy Akullian, head of iShares Investment Strategy for the Americas at BlackRock, says that "the most important thing we're watching is earnings" as an indicator for the year ahead, noting that in 2024 more of the performance came from earnings growth than from multiple expansion, particularly for the parts of the market like large-cap growth companies that had a banner year. While the stock mar...

Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management , says that 2025 is likely to see the leaders from the last few years move sideways while the rest of the market "can get some more traction and play a little catch-up." He notes that if the market broadens out and those other companies see earnings growth, it can keep the bull market rolling and offset a slowdown in rate cuts from the Fed...

Bob Doll, chief investment officer at Crossmark Global Investments , says that 2024 proved most pundits wrong, as they forecast years that were much more modest than the 25 percent that the stock market gained, with more economic struggles and more interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve. His forecasts , however, proved mostly right, as he reviews 2024 in today's Big Interview. Speaking of a r...

Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research , says 2025 will finish up a positive year, but it will likely be a year of single-digit gains that will be a struggle to achieve because the market is starting the year with stretched valuations and other headwinds. While he doesn't see a recession in the offing, Stovall sees other conditions making the market sluggish, ranging from the pr...

Jim Lee, founder at StratFi , says investors can be "reasonably optimistic" about the first half of 2025, but says that by the time June rolls around "I'd start to get careful." Among the technical indicators Lee leans on is the "Kitchin Cycle," which runs 180 weeks (or three and a half years) and has a solid record over the last century, and the cycle is showing a market peak at the start of Marc...

Whether it is making resolutions, setting goals or establishing targets, Chuck has tried every kind of plan for financial self-improvement over his decades as a personal finance journalist, and today he talks about the importance of having a system that helps you focus on making progress and how to set yourself up to end 2025 better off than you are now. Also on the show, author Steven Foerster di...

Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at Bitwise Asset Management , says that the real story in cryptocurrency in 2024 has not been the massive gains in Bitcoin -- which is up about 120 percent year-to-date -- but the way the business has matured, adding crypto ETFs from some of Wall Street's biggest firms. Coupled with the new administration, which is crypto-friendly, it makes Hougan more positiv...

Teralyn Pilgrim , author of "No Scrap Left Behind: My Life Without Food Waste," says that Americans are wasting significant dollars each month, simply with how they buy and use their groceries. She's not preaching radical lifestyle change as much is simply trying to plan and use food purchases efficiently to reduce or eliminate food waste. Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi , reviews the...

Avi Gilburt, founder of Elliott Wave Trader , says the market is in the final throes of a bull market that has been in place for nearly a century, noting that while there may be one more high or buying opportunity before things are exhausted, he sees the market turning in the next few months, noting that the Standard & Poor's 500 decisively breaking the 5400 support level would  be a sign that a b...

Amanda Agati, chief investment officer at PNC Financial Services Group ,  says investors who are worried about the Federal Reserve not cutting interest rates as much as previously expected are missing the idea that it's a sign of a solid backdrop for economic growth. She notes that the market and investors "crave the sugar high from more policy accommodations," and are overlooking the potential fo...

Mary Ellen Stanek, chief investment officer at Baird Advisors — president of the Baird Funds — says that the need to slow interest rate cuts has been building for a while, but that it's a sign of a strong economy and it's good for bond investors, without taking all of the starch out of the stock market. She says this week's news from the Federal Reserve about slowing cuts doesn't change Baird's fo...

Frank Holmes, chief investment officer at U.S. Global Investors , sees the market as being due for a big correction after an "amazing move" over the last two years, but he also sees the market beginning a new era of capital innovation and creativity that will help to push the market back to new heights over the next few years. He notes that artificial intelligence will keep leading the way higher,...

Brent Schutte, chief investment officer at Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co ., says that the current stock market reminds him of the late 1990s -- with a super strong dollar, a few stocks driving the market while the others are mediocre, where the American market and economy are exceptional and more -- but as economic seasons changed, it was the rest of the market that thrived. That's what...

Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Cresset Capital Management , says that the market is about 25 percent overvalued, but the momentum of the market suggests that investors shouldn't worry about an immediate downturn . Ablin says that traditional value metrics show the overvaluation and says that lofty prices eventually meet up with momentum that gets exhausted, leading to "a pretty good exit...

Disagreement makes a market, and the market on Robinhood Markets was wide open on this show as David Trainer of New Constructs put the stock in The Danger Zone, but Tom Martin, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments , made the stock a "buy" during "Quick and Dirty" in the Money Life Market Call. Also on the show,  Paula Fleming of the Better Business Bureau of Eastern Massachusetts, Maine...

Despite headlines that have dominated the news stating concerns about the stock market and its ability to keep thriving under a new political administration, Mick Heyman, founder of Heyman Investment Counseling , doesn't see the warning signs of a terrible market. "Close your eyes, it's fear of heights, and just let the long-term trend continue on," Heyman said. He is not the only one who sees lit...

Ben Harburg, founder of CoreValues Alpha — manager of the firm's Greater China Growth ETF — says that consumers in China have over $21 trillion in household savings sitting on the shelf and that as that money starts to be spent, it will drive the Chinese market to a long recovery. That should be happening at a time when Chinese stocks "are near rock bottom" but U.S. equities have been running to r...

Dan Fuss, vice chairman at Loomis Sayles & Co. — one of the longest-tenured and most decorated bond fund managers in history — says that the Federal Reserve has done its job and managed to avoid most of the trouble that observers feared was coming. Moreover, it has positioned the economy and the bond market to keep humming along. Yet Fuss also singles out several factors, including climate change...

Louis Navellier, chief investment officer at Navellier & Associates , says investors "have a lot to look forward to," starting with a strong ending to the year and a big January effect, but he notes that conditions are right to keep the economy chugging along and pushing through the occasional stumble and correction. That said, he notes in The Big Interview that he is worried about the potential f...

Todd Kellenberger, portfolio manager for public REITs at Principal Asset Management , expects that the Federal Reserve will make two to three interest rate cuts in 2025, but that the way rates move will be the real determinant in how the year plays out for real estate investors. Kellenberger says that the central bank's actions will be determined by inflation and jobs data, but he notes that if ra...

Brandon Thurber, chief market strategist at Regions Asset Management , says the market is looking strong for the next 12 to 18 months, provided it can avoid a big earnings shortfall. With high earnings expectations, he sees earnings pressure overhanging a market that is overbought but which still has pockets that represent good values. Thurber sees the market broadening out, with mid-caps being pa...

Lauren Sanfilippo, senior investment strategist for Bank of America Merrill and Private Bank, says that the market has reached highs on the backs of a few stocks, but that it is now rotating away from those popular trades. That will reward investors who stay balanced and diversified as the market broadens out next year, moving away from the Magnificent Seven stocks and a few names driving results...

Simeon Hyman, global investment strategist at ProShares , sees "rational exuberance" on today's market, noting that the stock market is a little bit expensive but not dramatically above long-term normal forward earnings numbers, and he notes that expectations are reasonable, a little  high but reasonable. Further, he suggests that all-time low levels of leverage and little debt on the books of the...

Josef Schuster, president of IPOX Schuster , says that the market for initial public offerings isn't just hot right now — it has outperformed the stock market this year, despite the market having gone up to record-high levels — but it is safer than it has been in years, with fewer issues going public and with much of the risk of default having been shifted to the pre-IPO market. And while artifici...