Money Life with Chuck Jaffe

Bill Smead, manager of the Smead Value Fund , (SMVLX), says that the market has "all the pre-conditions for the [Standard and Poor's 500 to do very poorly," noting that current conditions are the "antithesis of 1980," when everyone got excited about Ronald Reagan took office at a time when stocks were cheap and inflation and interest rates are high. This time, he says, people are getting excited "...

John Cole Scott, president of Closed-End Fund Advisors and the chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance , looks at how discounts have narrowed in closed-end funds amid the strong market this year, but he digs into his firm's data to find three closed-end funds and one business development company trading at attractive discounts to make them appropriate picks for year-end portfolio moves....

Talley Leger, chief market strategist at The Wealth Consulting Group , likes small-cap stocks, financials and consumer discretionary and industrial companies, saying he expects a lot of the recent winners to slow as part of a shift in leadership that could lead to a market that slows or creates attractive buying opportunities with intermediate-term losses. Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at Vett...

Carley Garner, senior commodity strategist at DeCarley Trading , sees the stock market completing its current rally with a small gain that would move the Standard and Poor's 500 to about 6,200. But once the holiday euphoria passes, she sees the market being hit, taking the S&P 500 down to roughly 4800. She also worries about how gold and oil prices will play out as the second Trump administration...

The National Association for Business Economics released its November Outlook Survey today, and nearly all of the economists surveyed expect moderating growth and slowing inflation but, most importantly, no recession until at least 2026. Kathy Bostjancic , chief economist at Nationwide and the outlook survey chairperson for NABE, called the results "Goldilock-ish," noting that forecasting firmer g...

After waiting over three years for "one of the worst recessions ever anticipated that never happened," Edward Yardeni, president and chief investment strategist at Yardeni Research , says that the economy is now moving forward without much recession worry, buoyed by consumer spending — especially from Baby Boomers — and rate cuts from the Federal Reserve that he considered mostly unnecessary. Yard...

George Bory, chief investment strategist for fixed income at Allspring Global Investments , says that 'the soft landing was earlier this year,' and now the Federal Reserve is trying to "prevent a recession in an otherwise fairly healthy but unevenly distributed economy." Bory notes that central bankers typically cut interest rates to stimulate a slowing economy, but that's not the case currently i...

Nick Nefouse, global head of retirement solutions in the multi-asset strategies and solutions team at BlackRock , says that in a world where investors are increasingly nervous about sequence-of-return risk — the potential for the market to crater just as they start withdrawing from their retirement nestegg, forever damaging their finances — and longevity risk, investors may be looking for ways to...

Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist at LPL Financial expects the stock market's return levels to "return to normal," which means slower growth but not anything that ends the bull market as it rolls through its third year. Turnquist does think the short-term action has put the bulls on trial, forcing them to prove that the market can go higher without some sort of interim downturn. Turnquist...

Fritz Folts, chief investment strategist at 3EDGE Asset Management, sees "unprecedented degrees of overvaluation" in the market, and he says the market is "dramatically overvalued" and at risk of a severe correction, but he notes that economic and fundamental models are pretty good, and investor behavior keeps driving momentum, so the positives continue to drive the market more than the overvaluat...

David Keller, president and chief strategist at Sierra Alpha Research says that the market has made meaningful moves to landmark new highs but he questions whether the rally is sustainable. He says that market leaders like the Magnificent Seven need to keep rolling to propel the indexes higher, and he says that weakness is showing up in Alphabet and Meta Platforms, which makes him believe that the...

Paul Christopher, head of global investment strategy at the Wells Fargo Investment Institute discusses the firm's research looking at whether campaign promises have translated into long-term outperformance for sectors that were likely to benefit from proposed policies , and while there were positive gains in the immediate aftermath of elections, many sectors underperformed the Standard & Poor's 50...

Laurence Kotlikoff , professor of economics at Boston University — the founder of Maxifi , which factors economics into personal financial planning — says that while the economy is humming along now, investors should be wary of the potential for trouble, especially stemming from the high levels of tariffs that were a part of President Donald Trump's campaign promises. Kotlikoff — who hosts the Eco...

Jerremy Newsome , founder at Real Life Trading , says he thinks the stock market has entered another period like the Roaring 20s of a century ago, and while that period ended withthe start of the Great Depression, Newsome says he thinks "we're in the middle right now. ... I see that we have truly three to six good years left of overall, bull sustainable markets before we have that big, big, big me...

Bill Adams , chief economist for Comerica Bank , says his forecast for 2025 now includes fewer rate cuts, slightly higher inflation, and increased fiscal support for the economy, but those conditions are signs of an an economy "that's humming along, continuing to grow, it's not a recession," and he says the risk of a recession in the next year or two is now "back to its historical normal." Charles...

Doug Roberts, Chief Investment Strategist at Channel Capital Research Institute — the author of "Follow the Fed to Investment Success" — says that under the new Trump Administration it is possible to return to a status where goods inflation is declining while wage growth pushes core inflation up, which could lead Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell to be reluctant to make further rate cuts. Whi...

Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi , makes the Calamos Standard & Poor's 500 Structured Alt Protection ETF for November his "ETF of the Week," noting that the fund has 100 percent downside protection, making it ideal for investors who were shocked by the election results and who think the market is headed for a downturn. Rosenbluth runs through the complex details on the fund, which caps...

Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Zweig — who recently released the third edition of " The Intelligent Investor ," Benjamin Graham's classic that many believe is the greatest investment book of all time — says that 'It used to be that your stockbroker tried to pick your pocket, and now your stockbroker is in your pocket." Those changes in technology make it hard for investors to stay focused on...

Joe Kalish, chief global macro strategist at Ned Davis Research , says he won't be surprised if there is a "normal correction" for the stock market once the presidential election is decided, followed by a pick-up into year's end, regardless of the election outcome. Kalish says he is skeptical that the economy can get to a 2 percent inflation level sustainably without going through a recession, but...

Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at BankRate.com , says the Federal Reserve has little choice when it meets this week but to follow through on its signals and cut interest rates by one-quarter of a percent, noting that anything larger or smaller than that come Thursday would wind up being destabilizing for the market. The anticipated rate cut, however, may not move all interest rates as expec...

Mark Newton, Global Head of Technical Strategy at Fundstrat Global Advisors , expects the market to go through a brief correction after the election, but to have turned that into a buying opportunity by the time December rolls around, bringing with it a Santa Claus rally to end the year. Newton says that for all of the worries investors have about the market, the numbers remain solid and while it...

Mona Mahajan, senior investment strategist at Edward Jones , says the stock market is likely to moderate, but investors should lean into any volatility or price declines as an opportunity to buy and build their portfolio. In a wide-ranging Big Interview, Mahajan — who sees a soft landing as the most likely economic outlook — gives her take on every asset class from the Magnificent Seven to small-c...

Jordan Rizzuto, managing partner at GammaRoad Capital Partners , says his firm's models are finding two economic factors looking negative with just one — stock price direction — looking bullish, and when that happens it typically means the market is nearing "a major inflection point and a significant change in market conditions," though there is always a chance that it is simply a refreshing pause...

John Kosar, chief market strategist at Asbury Research , says the stock market "doesn't know exactly what to do here," with the economy clicking but sector bets being hard to make because it's hard to know which areas to favor until the re4sults of the election are in. Still, Kosar is generally bullish, noting that he has been risk-on since early August and that he will feel even more strongly if...

Joseph Hogue of the YouTube channel " Let's Talk About Money with Joseph Hogue " says investors want to keep the bulk of their money in simple buy-and-hold strategies and shouldn't be swayed by wild recommendations coming from the blogging and podcasting community, but also says that they should scratch the itch of their fun side -- if they have one -- by taking controlled chances with the fun-mon...