Money Life with Chuck Jaffe

Economist Dave Rosenberg, president of Rosenberg Research , says that his preferred indicators on economic growth are showing a slowing economy, where "the recession may already be starting." He acknowledges that the stock market "hasn't figured this out," but he says — based on the way Treasuries are trading — that the bond market has already figured it out. Rosenberg says that the market has "be...

Steve Cucchiaro, chief investment officer at 3 EDGE Asset Management , says we're in a "market melt-up," the last phase of a rally or bubble that creates a buying climax, but that typically ends with trouble. Cucchiaro says valuations are in one of the three greatest periods of overvaluation they have seen in the last century, making them more dangerous than investors expect. As a result, he is ho...

Andy Wells, chief investment officer at Sanjac Alpha , says the market is in uncharted territory, but that's not just about record highs, but also because the Federal Reserve is in a position where it will be cutting rates with the market at highs and with the underlying conditions suggesting that a cut isn't warranted or necessary. Making cuts will appease the market, but it may lead to a steeper...

Economist and University of Chicago professor Alex Imas discusses " The Winner's Curse: Behavioral Economics Anomalies, Then and Now, " which he co-authored with Nobel Prize winning economist Richard Thaler, and talks about the common curses impacting consumers and investors. Imas covers loss aversion and how it drives investors to make bad decisions, how the "endowment effect" explains our clutte...

James Cordier , chief executive officer at Alternative Options , discusses how the worst drought in Brazil in the last century has coffee stockpiles at their lowest levels in over a decade, driving up costs for every consumer who needs their caffeine fix before they start work in the morning. Cordier, a long-time commodity trader, says that supply-and-demand imbalances are impacting a number of co...

Steven Grey, chief investment officer at Grey Value Management , says that inflated valuations have him making cash his favorite investment choice right now, noting that they can gain interest income while avoiding significant market risk while waiting for stock prices to blow off. The cash, Grey notes, not only will increase an investor's sleep factor, but it gives them the option to be buying wh...

Long-time financial journalist and markets observer Herb Greenberg , editor of Herb Greenberg's Red Flag Alerts, says that investor expectations have changed, based on markets where rapid gains seem easy. While he suggests that this mindset is not new — and notes that Wall Street always feeds the quacking ducks by giving them new ideas for how to capitalize on current events and trends — he says i...

Michael Green , chief strategist at Simplify Asset Management , says the stock market is inflating a bubble, but that it's really "a bubble on top of a bubble" in the artificial intelligence arena, where the stocks in the industry — but also those adjacent to the technology  are booming even though many have yet to prove a real ability to generate profits. Green is worried about slowing economic c...

Kathy Bostjancic, chief economist at Nationwide and the chair of the Outlook Survey for the National Association for Business Economics , says the latest survey, released Monday, showed higher expectations for economic growth for the rest of the year and into 2026, with GDP growth -- which had been pegged at roughly 1.3% -- now expected to grow by 1.8%. Bostjancic cautioned that the improved growt...

Meb Faber, chief investment officer at the Cambria Funds , says that "extremely high valuations are a weight that's hard to overcome," and that the United States is currently "the most expensive country across the board." He notes that when a country ends the year with a price/earnings ratio above 40, the average future 10-year returns are zero. As a result, Faber is suggesting that investors dive...

Eddie Ghabour, chief executive officer at Key Advisors Wealth Management , says "the worst is behind us from the economic slowdown," and he expects growth to accelerate at the end of the year and into the first quarter. Combined with rate cuts, it will add fuel to a market that he says is clearly inflating a bubble, with that performance boosted as well by the longer a government shutdown rolls. H...

Rob Spivey, director of research at Valens Securities , says many investors believe the current stock market run to record levels has been about price momentum, but he says that earnings momentum has shown growth that is strong enough that it should calm the nerves of investors who think the artificial intelligence business is inflating a market bubble. Valens' research revolves around "uniform ac...

Cheryl Smith, economist and portfolio manager at Trillium Asset Management , says the equity market is "very excited, very ecstatic and continuing to move up," but she warns that stock valuations are extended and she says the market is setting up a fall. Smith says two phrases -- "The Emperor is wearing no clothes" and "The band played on" -- tell the story of this market, but she expects that whe...

Jeremy Schwartz, global chief investment officer at WisdomTree , says he "would like the Fed to be lower," and says that rate cuts from the central bank will help to spur small-cap stocks starting to participate more in the rally. Schwartz likes the looks of international stocks, but particularly Japan, which has reached record highs and finally recaptured peaks first experienced decades ago, but...

Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM , says the economy is reasonably healthy and has been resilient amid difficult headlines, which make it likely to accelerate as rate cuts, tax cuts and deregulation kick in and provide a spending boost. At the same time, Brusuelas says he thinks the market is building "bubbles and period of over-speculation where there's a concentration of risk in one area...

Dan Zanger, chief technical officer at ChartPattern.com , says "the market wants higher" and is filled with cup-and-saucer patterns that "are waiting for handles to form," which is typically a bullish sign for individual names. Zanger says the broad market is showing some technical signs of resistance, but says investors should stick with what has been working. He did note, however, that for all o...

Ed Campbell, the founder of Red Hook Phoenix Investment Partners, says that key shifts in the economy triggered by advancements in artificial intelligence and automation, changes to the financial situation, shifting geopolitics and more will make it so that markets and economies don't get so far off-kilter that they create boom and bust patterns. He says recessions and downturns will continue, but...

Jeff Blazek, co-chief investment officer of multi-asset strategies for Neuberger Berman says that "valuation becomes less important when you have high conviction in sustained growth of earnings, economic growth and high return on equity," which is why he's focused on the earnings portion of price/earnings and is plowing forward with stocks even with the markets near record highs. Blazek acknowledg...

Kristina Hooper, chief market strategist at Man Group , says that investors need to "keep on dancing" while the music is playing, but she says the tunes are about to change or stop, with valuations setting the market up for a decline of up to 20 percent that could might take a while to get here but which could show up this year if the market has a bad reaction to the Federal Reserve cooling on rat...

With a potential shutdown of the federal government loming on Tuesday — which would result in hundreds of thousands of workers being furloughed — the stock market enters this week on edge. Dominic Pappalardo, chief multi-asset strategist at Morningstar Wealth , has examined how the market has responded to past shutdowns, and notes that the impacts typically are short-lived, though the longer any c...

Jim Besaw, chief investment officer at GenTrust, says that the market is pricing everything as if all artificial intelligence ideas are going to come through and deliver revolutionary change and profits, and that investors are ignoring the risks that come with the technology. That could be setting them up for a fall, although Besaw is neutral on the market rather than negative, and is also neutral...

Nate Thooft, chief investment officer and senior portfolio manager at Manulife Investment Management , says that he's still leaning into equities despite stock valuations being stretched, noting that the fundamentals support modest gains and aren't signalling a bubble or crisis. Thooft does worry that the market may run out of momentum and may lack a catalyst for further gains by the time 2026 rol...

Mark Fleming, chief economist at First American , says rate cuts are not a panacea for the housing market, especially because Americans got used to nearly 50 years of declining mortgage rates until they moved from the 3% level up to their 6% range over the last few years. Now — with consumers feeling like they have golden handcuffs in older, low-rate mortgages — Fleming says gains will be slow, be...

Phillip Wool, chief research officer and lead portfolio manager, Rayliant Global Advisors , says "there are places where valuations are so stretched I find it hard to explain," but he notes that is more in certain sectors and certain themes, but he says the global economy is in a good place, which makes him optimistic about the future for stocks, just cautious about how much investors should set e...

Dec Mullarkey, head of investment strategy at  SLC Investments , says that the market's earnings power is enough to keep pushing it forward, overcoming obstacles like increased tariff impacts and sticky inflation and leading to an optimistic outlook for next year  while acknowledging the headline risks that have investors' attention, Mullarkey said that earnings growth could extend to small caps —...