Money Life with Chuck Jaffe

Niladri Mukherjee, head of portfolio strategy, Merrill Lynch and Bank of America Private Bank, said that fund flows -- rather than investor-sentiment measures -- are showing that individuals are too pessimistic right now, pulling billions from equity funds and moving all that money and more into bond funds at a time when the stock market still has room to run and doesn't have imminent signs of imp...

Albert Meyer of Bastiat Capital is concerned about trade and tariff wars and with the impact of interest rate cuts, but he noted that this is no time to be listening to the 'doomsayers,' suggesting that investors should not be fearful because while the market is highly priced, it's not in particularly dangerous territory. Also on the show, Karl Mills of Jurika, Mills and Kiefer expressed cautious...

Nuveen chief investment strategist Brian Nick said he expects the Federal Reserve to cut rates three times, but said the third cut 'won't be necessary,' and is more like 'mid-cycle insurance' to keep the economy humming along. Still, while he sees no threat of imminent recession, Nick suggested that investors get defensive, worry more about their asset allocation than about tactically deploying mo...

In answering a question from a listener, Chuck talks about financial challenges that savers can do to help them get out of debt or budget better, noting that coming up with necessary funds to cover emergencies can be done a dollar or five dollars at a time, or by going through a challenge to set aside an extra dollar every week for a year -- so one buck the first week, two the second and so on --...

Rob Sharps, head of investments at T. Rowe Price, said the economy is not as deep into the business cycle as many people believe, leaving more time and room for continued growth, yet with substantial weakness outside of the United States and an unresolved trade war and more, he suggested investors rein in their aggressive tendencies in favor of a more neutral and balanced approach. Alo on the show...

Veteran technical analyst Martin Pring of Pring Research said he expects the stock market to avoid a recession and keep going much higher, noting that the indicators he follows are almost all 'pointing north' as the market ignores any weakness it sees in the economy. He noted that if bad news can't knock the market down, there's not much out there right now that can. Also on the show, Sheraz Mian,...

Chun Wang, senior analyst at Leuthold Weeded Asset Management, said that his firm's analysis of the market has made the portfolio managers defensive, slightly below neutral on holding stocks, largely because the long-term picture is showing too many negatives, signs that there could be trouble ahead with a significant correction or bear market in the next year or two. Meanwhile, Lindsey Bell of CF...

Doug Foreman, chief investment strategist at Kayne Anderson Rudnick, said that investors have plenty of reasons to worry about whether the market can hold recent highs, but that if they focus on quality issues, there are plenty of cmopanies worth buying and owning regardless of what the market does next, where investors can buy into strong cash flows and dividend streams that are likely to remain...

Markus Schomer, chief economist at Pinebridge Investments, said that while job growth and economic activity are slowing, the anticipated interest rate cuts should reboot business activity and leave the economy at an equilibrium point it can maintain through 2020. Buck Klintworth of Chase Investment Counsel -- while discussing technical analysis rather than the economy -- came to a similar conclusi...

A recent study by Fidelity Investments found that money and healthy living are the two greatest concerns that women have, and each often affects the other. Lorna Kapusta from Fidelity said that the surprise in the study was not that 85 percent of women are stressed about finances, but that the high level of stress exists across all age groups of women, meaning that women always feel like they are...

In a wide-ranging, free-flowing 'no-pants Friday' show, Chuck talks with Tom Lydon of ETFTrends, who makes an innovative new fund his 'ETF of the Week,' he discusses the future of exchange-traded funds and the evolution of more active funds with John Swolfs, chief executive officer at Inside ETFs, he covers one of his favorite topics -- allowances for children -- with Bankrate.com's Ted Rossman, a...

Christopher Davis, chairman of Davis Advisors and portfolio manager for the Davis Funds, said in the Big Interview that financial companies now represent 'growth stocks in disguise,' and he said the financial sector is positioned to deliver oversized gains for at least the next decade. Also on the show, Peter Lang and Cory Bittner of highTower Advisors discuss the many non-financial ways they inte...

Kevin Mahn, president and chief investment officer at Hennion and Walsh Asset Management, said that while the economy is strong and still growing and the market is constructive toward stocks, investors should be focusing on quality, favoring companies with strong balance sheets, entrenched management, a history of growing earnings and dividends and more, noting that as the economy slows and electi...

Jill Gonzalez, spokesperson for WalletHub, said that her site's annual 4th of July survey found that millions of Americans are feeling more financial freedom this year, but that nearly one-quarter of Americans wish they could be free of credit-card debt, second by a hair only to over-eating as something people want to cut back on. The study also showed that Americans believe that the federal gover...

Ron Sanchez, chief investment officer at Fiduciary Trust International, said that the current market environment is not great for taking risks, but it also isn't terrific for avoiding risks. That means investors should stay neutral on buying stocks and bonds, putting their portfolios at their basic, starting-level allocations, not overweight or underweight anything while waiting for signs from the...

In a show that covers a wide range of investment types and strategies, Tom Lydon discusses fallen-angel investing -- buying junk bonds from companies that used to be of investment-grade calibar -- in the ETF of the Week, Nick Kalivas of Invesco ETFs talks about the inner workings of low-volatility investing and the types of market conditions when it works best, and Joe Barrato of the Arrow Funds t...

Bob Browne, chief investment officer at Northern Trust, said in the Big Interview that the market is acting in ways that make it easy for the Federal Reserve to cut rates and he expects three rate cuts before year end, a response to what he called 'stuckflation' combined with modest economic growth. Also on the show, Peter Lang and Cory Bittner of HighTower Advisors discuss value investing and whe...

Jim Welsh, macro strategist for Smart Portfolios and author of the Weekly Technical Review newsletter said that the market's various benchmarks are diverging, so that while the public attention has been on recent highs for the Standard and Poor's 500, they have been ignoring the mixed and dangerous signals coming from things like the Dow Transports. He expects the market to enjoy its current highs...

Sam McBride, investment analyst at New Constructs, said that misleading operating lease discount rates -- a statistic that is now more widely available and which is a big red flag for many companies, especially retailers -- are masking real trouble at J.C. Penney, making the struggling retailer's problems worse than most people surmise. As a result, McBride thinks the company is likely headed to b...

Adam Grimes of Talon Advisors, say that with the market having reached new highs, it's now getting more complex. He's still bullish, but he does see potential troubles down the line, making this a time when investors can be 'rewarded handsomely' for being aggressively long on stocks. John Sarson of the Sarson Funds explains in the Big Interview why 'The Internet and cryptocurrency go together like...

Doug Roberts of Channel Capital Research -- author of 'Follow the Fed to Investment Success' -- said the central bank's announcement Wednesday that it did not expect to cut rates in 2019 but does expect to drop them next year was the start of trying to create a perfect landing, a situation he suggested will not be easy given the countervailing forces affecting the market and the economy. Also on t...

Regis Dale, chief executive officer at Harvest Global International -- the largest institutional asset manager in China -- said investors should worry about the impact of trade and tariff skirmishes between China and the United States, but noted that investors who are willing to be patient for the next several years should find that current headlines are mostly creating buying opportunities. Also...

Tracie McMillion, head of global investment strategy for the Wells Fargo Investment Institute, said her firm remains neutral on stocks overall -- but favorable on emerging markets and domestic mid-caps -- due to heightened risk factors, but she noted that with no recession on the horizon for the rest of the year, investors should be looking to buy on dips and take advantage of opportunities create...

Barry James, chief investment officer at the James Advantage Funds, said the market is not functioning properly because companies with no earnings have been up by 20 percent this year, while, by comparison, companies with real earnings are down, a situation that creates the potential for a big downturn when the broad market wakes up to what is happening. James has been slowly raising cash and beco...

Frank Holmes, chief executive at U.S. Global Investors, said he sees the market currently in a good place, helped by the changing tide of interest rates, but he noted that investors should be looking to diversify into gold and fixed-income to take advantage of that shift as it occurs during a time of slowing economic growth that will make for tougher sledding for stocks. Also, Danielle Shay of Sim...