Money Life with Chuck Jaffe

Larry Cordisco, portfolio manager at Osterweis Capital Management, says that investors should look for industry leaders that are depressed by the current economy, because they're in a strong position to weather the market and economic storm created by the coronavirus pandemic. When the current economy weakens -- which Cordisco expects, despite his long-term view that recovery is coming -- the stro...

Brian Barish, president and chief investment officer at Cambiar Investors, says that the Federal Reserve's actions to keep money flowing have allowed the stock market to rebound and rise despite the obvious economic issues that might otherwise punish stocks. He suggests not fighting the Fed while looking for opportunities now, but warns that in 2021 or '22, 'the Fed will stop doing these things, a...

Melanie Lieberman, senior travel editor at ThePointsGuy.com, discusses the unique challenges people are facing now as they try to plan summer vacations and family trips at a time when traveling presents a very real health risk. Also on the show, Jeff Kolitch, manager of the Baron Real Estate Fund, joins Chuck to chat about how investors benefit when they look past REITs and go for service-companie...

Jack Janasiewicz, portfolio strategist at Natixis Investment Managers, says that while thw worst of the stock market's troubles should be behind us, there is a long way to go before he can say things are good. Right now, he says, it's more of a 'less bad' environment, with the market grinding higher and climbing the proverbial wall of worry. He suggests strong positions in domestic equities, most...

Michael Kagan, portfolio manager for ClearBridge Investments, says in the Market Call that investors are looking at a 'very concentrated market,' noting that a huge percentage of the market's recent gains have been driven by just 10 stocks and pointing out that the last time the market was this concentrated was during the first quarter of 2000, just before the Internet bubble burst. While he's not...

Rob Sharps, head of investments at T. Rowe Price, says investors need to focus on balance sheets, fundamentals and 'the ability of businesses to make it to the other side [of the pandemic] with their businesses intact,' and warns that we're well past the point where investors can buy stocks broadly and expect to benefit from a recovery. 'Aggregate market valuations,' he says, 'have never been more...

Kristina Hooper, global macro strategist at Invesco, says we are seeing a global economic ping-pong game, where the information we are getting about coronavirus, health policies, economic news, monetary policy and more are bouncing around to create an outlook that is changing on an almost-daily basis. Still, she said that creates opportunities for investors who are patient and tactical through a s...

Tracie McMillion of the Wells Fargo Investment Institute discusses the firm's most-recent  investor-optimism survey, which saw seven years of gains and positive outlooks wiped out in the last calendar quarter. She discusses what happened and why investors are so much more pessimistic now despite the market's rebound from March lows. Also on the show, author Christian Busch discusses 'The Serendipi...

Goerge Milling-Stanley, chief gold strategist at State Street Global Advisors, says that in hard-to-gauge circumstances, gold is the one asset class that is performing in line with investor expectations, working appropriately to diversify portfolios and balance the volatile market. Neil Azous of Rareview Capital talks about a unique opportunity in municipal-bond closed-end funds, where the four re...

Brian Nick, chief investment strategist at Nuveen, discusses his firm's outlook for the remainder of 2020, while noting that there is little clarity in any outlook right now thanks largely to coronavirus, but also owing to the election, the economy and more. Nick also talks about how the falling rates story in bonds -- which is forcing investors to re-think the role of bonds in their portfolios --...

Brad Lamensdorf of the Lamensdorf Market Timing Report and the Ranger Equity Bear fund (HDGE) says that the market's expectations are swinging between extremes -- from a high-greed environment to a high-fear market and back again -- and that investors should pay more attention to technical signals because there are so many unknowns happening to fundamentals for the foreseeable future. Lamensdorf b...

Michael Falk of Focus Consulting Group returns to the show for another intimate life and money discussion. Dealing with ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease, Falk explains why he doesn't think today's investors should be wasting time and money on bonds, noting that he won't buy any during the short time he has left but why younger, healthier people shouldn't buy them either. He also discusses how the pande...

Money manager Jim O'Shaughnessy -- the best-selling author of 'What Works on Wall Street' -- says that investors can look back through history to see that the United States has come through 'some really scary things.' which is why his outlook hasn't and won't change. He's expecting to ride out the current stock market and economic concerns, betting on the American people to 'figure stuff out.' Als...

Crit Thomas, global market strategist at Touchstone Investments, says that the market has written off 2020 and is looking out to 2021, meaning that upcoming corporate guidance is likely to have more market impact than soon-to-be-released economic numbers. Thomas noted that the market's rebound -- which he warns could be affected sharply by coronavirus news concerning a resurgence of afflicted Amer...

In an extended Big Interview, Dan Fuss -- vice chairman of Loomis Sayles and Co., and a leading bond fund manager for more than half a century -- says that investors should not feel that bonds can play their traditional role as a portfolio safety net right now because fixed-income investments can't provide the level of yield investors typically expect. Fuss says the market 'is far more dangerous o...

Mark Newton of Newton Advisors says that while markets are poised to move higher into July, they face a challenging path to continue rising as the economy reopens. Newton favors health care stocks and commodities, but dislikes financials. Also on the show, Alessandro Valentini of Causeway Capital Management discusses what it will take for value investing to finally deliver superior results to grow...

Stephanie Kelton, an economist whose recent book 'The Deficit Myth' has moved onto the best-seller lists, says that the many real problems facing the country -- including but not limited to the coronavirus pandemic, the loss of jobs and health care and benefits for many workers, and more -- can be solved or helped by the government increasing targeted spending, but she notes that concerns about su...

David Jilek, chief investment strategist at Gateway Investment Advisers, says that high valuations and disrupted earnings make the market now riskier than it was before the global pandemic, and while that won't necessarily create a crash it will make the indexes more susceptible to volatility spikes and large impacts from small disruptions. With trade tensions, oil-pricing wars, the election and a...

Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research, says that the stock market is getting 'a BTE bounce' -- better than expected -- but that it's not following its usual seasonal patterns which tend to show weakness in the summertime. Stovall says that the market is rotating the way he'd expect from a downturn like the one experienced in March, but that the 'bizarro' market is trading in re...

Scott Wren, senior global market strategist at the Wells Fargo Investment Institute, says that he expects the Standard and Poor's 500 to be between 3,400 and 3,600 by the end of 2021, meaning that the market will be volatile without a lot of upside as it heads back toward a fully functioning economy. Wren noted that economic data has been better than expected, which has helped the market and inves...

Adam Grimes, president of Talon Advisors, says that rapid snap-back after the stock market's big March swoon was the 'least-expected outcome' from a sharp decline, and is symbolic of just how hard it is to make accurate technical forecasts right now. Grimes says the Federal Reserve's clear intention 'to do whatever it talks as long as it takes' has created significant market distortions, leaving m...

Long-time Wall Street observer Charles Biderman says that the current market is showing signs of craziness that should scare investors, with companies seeing revenue declines that might bankrupt a business in ordinary conditions but that Wall Street investors are bidding up now. He urges caution and suggests a heavy dose of research for anyone wading into the market now, because the market seems t...

Axel Merk, president and chief investment officer for the Merk Funds,says that with market volatility and uncertainty picking up, investors should focus on their process and should stick with their plan rather than jumping around chasing either additional returns or greater safety right now. He notes that investors whose process is not working right now are the ones who are  are so nervous that th...

Brent Wilsey of Wilsey Asset Management say that while the current market reminds him a bit of the tech bust of 2000 -- when many people thought that because the market had gone higher that it would just keep going higher -- he does believe that the worst of the effects of the coronavirus pandemic are behind us. Still, he notes in the Market Call that investors should expect some trouble ahead and...

Paul Zemsky, chief investment officer for multi-asset strategies at Voya Investment Management, says that with the market near record highs despite earnings that are below expectations, it's not surprising that many observers think that stocks are overvalued now. He doesn't see things that way, noting that stocks are a good opportunity -- especially small caps and international stocks which have b...