Money Life with Chuck Jaffe

Christian Chan, chief investment officer at AssetMark, says that the overall macroeconomic environment is okay — growing above trend but not at exciting levels — but inflation is worrisome, which should have investors looking elsewhere for diversification and protection. The protection side is because he feels fixed-income investments are not as effective at diversifying risk in an inflationary environment. As a result, he is looking at adding precious metals to portfolios, but he also says increasing international exposure and moving from technology and moving toward energy and consumer-driven sectors should smooth out the ride in a volatile market. In the Talking Technicals segment, Jason Brown of The Brown Report, says he remains bullish in the long-term, but he is bearish for the short term because he wonders "What remains that can take us higher?" Brown, who hosts the "Money, Markets and Mindset" podcast says while there are some positive signs keeping the market stable, "We might be due for a re-set." Factoring in inflation, oil prices, a divided Fed on rate policy and other economic danger signs, he expects the stock market to be trapped in a range, and potentially rolling over. Scott Caraher, head of senior loans at Nuveen, says that the higher-for-longer interest rate environment has created "one of the most interesting and dynamic times" he has seen for senior loans in his 25-year career. Caraher, who manages Nuveen Floating Rate Income in both its closed-end and open-end forms, says that because senior loans don't face interest-rate risk, they are a powerful play in a market where Federal Reserve policy on rate direction is uncertain, noting that it's possible to create strong portfolios yielding about 7 percent, which he called "incredibly attractive ... on both an absolute and relative basis."

Economist Rebecca Homkes, a lecturer at Duke University and London Business School whose consulting practice focuses on the things that influence the thinking of chief executives, says that the valuations of A.I. companies are sky high because investors believe in the transformational technology, but that when that transformation shows up — and investors worry that an industry like software could get pinched in the transformation — investors tend to panic. She sees concerns that the A.I. funding cycle has become so circular that any troubles could unwind the market quickly, so while she is not expecting a recession or a bubble quickly, she does suggest danger signs are visible now. Carter Braxton Worth, chief executive officer at Worth Charting — known by many as "the Chart Master" on CNBC — brings technical analysis to the Market Call, noting that he doesn't study companies, he studies shares. Worth notes that he currently favors small-cap financials, utilities and energy companies, and he warns of the "bifurcation of technology," where one area of the sector does very well while another one does very poorly, which he considers a sign of potential trouble ahead. This bifurcation is similar -- but with a technical analysis bent -- to Homkes' explanation of the wild market responses to AI stocks. Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, brings the proverbial hammer of THOR to the ETF of the Week, bestowing the weekly title to a new income-focused stock fund  from Thornburg that carries that mythic ticker symbol.

David Ellison, portfolio manager for the Hennessy Funds, says that investor expectations have gotten far enough out of line that the positive conditions and long-term market uptrend just don't seem like they are enough to deliver satisfaction. While unsustainable expectations by themselves won't create a downturn, Ellison — who runs two funds focused on financial-services companies — worries that the sector and the broad market will face more volatility as steady but unspectacular gains are seen as disappointments. He notes that markets can struggle when everyone lacks patience and "thinks they have learned the lesson without reading the book." Research analyst Matt Zajechowski discusses a survey conducted by Lemon Law Experts which found that the typical American with car buying regrets believes they overspent by nearly $5,000 on their most recent car. It also found that car buyers often regret everything from the technology they wish their latest car had to the color they picked, and that any and all regrets have them thinking they will sell their car sooner than they expected when they purchased it. In the Market Call, Garvin Jabusch, chief investment officer at Green Alpha Advisors, is talking stocks, and discussing "strategic resilience" as an investment thesis and factor that helps to identify companies with long-term stability amid fast-changing industries. 

Economist Lawrence Kotlikoff, a professor at Boston University and the founder of Maxifi, says that "irrational exuberance" is something that routinely returns to the market, which is why so many crises over history get labeled with the word "panic," and while he does not see current conditions leading to that yet, he does think the market and economy have significantly more downside risk than upside potential right now. Kotlikoff, a prolific author on the markets and economy, says investors should be taking advantage of high real returns on inflation-protected bonds and less interested in a stock market that feels like it is building a bubble. He also discusses the future of Social Security, which he has researched extensively, and says it needs a complete overhaul, because the math on short-term fixes gets ugly for individual Americans fast. In an extended Money Life Market Call, Tom Plumb, portfolio manager for The Plumb Funds — Plumb Equity and Plumb Balanced — discusses finding "disruptive growth companies," and notes that while everyone wants to assume that all artificial-intelligence related stocks are "disruptive," the reality of who will be the ultimate winners and losers amid the new technology is less clear than the market currently makes it out to be.

David Trainer, founder and president of New Constructs, puts some big-name soon-to-IPO artificial-intelligence companies in The Danger Zone this week, saying he has concerns about what they are paying for inputs compared to foreign competitors, and noting that cost disadvantages will multiply and worsen the more A.I. becomes a commodity that everyone uses. He says this is part of every industrial revolution cycle, and often becomes a big determinant in which early players survive and thrive. In "The Week That Is," Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, discusses today's launch of single-stock futures by the CME Group, noting that they are more a gamble than an investment and saying he never would have used them for ordinary consumers during his days as a financial planner. Where the herd is moving towards these instruments and being scared out of some A.I. companies based on the market's capital-spending concerns, Marolia says most of those market fears have been overblown, and that a careful long-term investor will find buying opportunities amid the near daily wreckage. Plus, he discusses how high electric bills — jacked up by a heat wave that has caused high usage but also by energy concerns — are the extra cost consumers are not talking about while they are busy complaining about gas prices.  Charles Rotblut, vice president for the American Association of Individual Investors, discusses their latest sentiment survey results, which showed a striking drop in optimism, with bullish sentiment levels dropping by more than 15 percentage points last week as the war in Iran started heating up again. Bullish sentiment was well below its historical averages for the third time in the last four weeks, while bearish sentiment reached levels Rotblut characterized as "unusually high." Bearish sentiment has been above its historical averages for nearly 6 months straight. Martha Moore discusses the latest Business Conditions Survey out today from the National Association for Business Economics, which showed that confidence in the economy has improved but the caution level remains high. Moore, the chief economist for the American Chemistry Council, noted that for the fifth time in the last six quarters, the number of economists predicting lower forward profits was bigger than those expecting higher earnings, but she also said that more than one third of the economists are expecting higher capital expenditures over the next quarter, spending that will boost the economy in the face of mixed results on profitability.

Scott Helfstein, head of investment strategy at Global X ETFs, says that while the Iran War got the headlines, trade negotiations will be the story that carries the market forward for the rest of the year, provided there are no policy stumbles. He says the market has calmed down around Fed policy and while midterm elections tend to make for tough markets, there have been strongly positive results after midterms when a unified power structure — the President, Senate and Congress all being on one side of the political aisle — transitions to a divided leadership. Helfstein has plenty of reasons for optimism, noting all of the ways the market and economy have powered through trouble, and says that he expects slower earnings growth but better profitability from the market moving into next year, and he notes that better profitability leads to higher multiples, a healthy economy and higher level for the stock market. John Cole Scott, president of CEF Advisors, dug into data from his firm's quarterly outlook presentation to show that while business-development companies faced a lot of headline and interest-rate risk and were beaten up in the market recently, they are poised to rebound sharply in the second half of the year, particularly as the Federal Reserve provides more clarity on what's next for interest rates. Scott, the chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance, noted that closed-end funds had a strong quarter b ut that the gains came more from rising prices than from narrowing discounts, a sign that good things could be ahead if market sentiment gets stronger. Allison Hadley discusses PartnerCentric's 2026 Buy Now, Pay Later survey, which showed that payment programs are a big way that consumers are dealing with higher inflation and lower affordability. The survey showed that use of BNPL programs is up 20% year over year, but the typical buy now, pay later transaction amount has gotten smaller, which Hadley says is a sign that people are increasingly turning to payment programs for ordinary, everyday purchases.

Chris Retzler, portfolio manager for the Needham Funds, says that the stock market is benefitting from an artificial-intelligence powered industrial revolution "that we haven't seen the likes of in a very long time," but he says that this will not end the way the Internet bubble did because the players have strong balance sheets and prospects. Retzler thinks there is a strong fundamental story that can lead the market higher from here, and that the small-cap rally that has powered recent gains is a long-term shift that should bring smaller companies back to their traditional role of providing a higher-risk, higher-reward investment option. He worries about the potential impact of inflation and the timing and magnitude of any interest rate hikes, but he says the base case is for current conditions to remain in place and largely unchanged for several months. Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, makes JPMorgan Core Plus Bond his ETF of the Week, noting that the fund has seen strong inflows to match its recent strong performance, citing low fees for active management and a yield of roughly 5% as other key factors to consider. Plus, Stanford University professor Tina Seelig discusses her book "What I Wish I Knew About Luck: A Crash Course on Turning Aspirations into Achievements," noting the significant difference between having good fortune and true good luck, and how individuals can make their own luck, often through small habits that amount to little more than common courtesy and good manners.

Credit expert Gerri Detweiler discusses a trend where card issuers have been re-assessing risk and reducing the credit limits for consumers — even those with good credit scores — and why those moves are a symptom of the economy and the appetite for risk, rather than a reflection of you and your financial habits. Detweiler — who recently wrote about this issue for CardRates.com — says that limit cuts don't just reduce financing options, but it can impact credit scores and drop them, even if the consumer is not considered high-risk. Consumers get notices about limit cuts, but Detweiler says they are often missed; she discusses the moves consumers can make to avoid, forestall or minimize the issue, and how best to handle the situation. Carrie Joy Grimes, founder of WorkMoney, discusses her new book, "The Joy of Money: How to Do More With and Feel Better About Your Money - No Matter How Much You Have," and how people confuse the math of money and the number they need to reach, rather than recognizing that it's how they feel about the money, choices and financial security that determine if they feel truly wealthy. She notes that most people struggle to get out of their own way when it comes to finances, blocking their own path to happiness because they are judging it on the scale of neighbors or riches, rather than on the quality of life and the control they have over their choices. Plus, Chuck talks about his long-time habit of writing down the reasons why he is buying an investment before making a purchase, and what he was thinking when he reviewed some of that paperwork during a recent clean-out of some files. It's a reminder that investments can do their job but that doesn't always make them right when your needs and time horizons change, and then how you decide whether to stay the course or change things up.

Personal finance journalist Brian O'Connor discusses his recent New York Times article "You're About to Retire. What Are You Doing for the Next 20 or 30 Years?" and explores how retirement planning is pivoting from a focus on the numbers to an emphasis on the lifestyle you want, noting that too many people miss out by putting the math first. O'Connor discusses how and why financial planning has changed, noting that previous generations were so focused on taking over responsibility for their retirement savings as pensions were phased out that they didn't consider what retirement meant beyond having no active paycheck. Allison Hadley, an analyst at Digital Third Coast, discusses a survey she did for American Home Shield looking at cost-of-living concerns for homeowners, which found that nearly half are primarily "enjoying their mortgage" this summer, cutting back on travel and socializing to deal with rising costs for gas, groceries and electricity. More than half of the homeowners surveyed worry that inflation is ruining their summer. Plus, in The Book Interview, Jack Schwager discusses his recent addition to his long-running "Market Wizards" series, discussing "Market Wizards: The Next Generation: The World's Top Young Traders Reveal How They Beat The Market."

Mark Hamrick, chief economic analyst at The Hamrick Brief, says that the current affordability crisis has the potential to trigger a recession, if it gets to where there's a slowdown in spending that spills over to impact employment levels. That said, Hamrick says current conditions aren't yet deserving of the label of "economic crisis," even if it feels that way for some individuals and households, effectively the bottom portion of the k-shaped recovery. Still, Hamrick says the remarkable facet of the U.S. economy is that it has been able to avoid recession for this long. Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, says "Mr. Market is a manic depressive," and is showing those tendencies by getting so excited by positive guidance and potential that the reaction to strong earnings reports has been horrible stock action. He expects that to potentially continue this week, when the focus of earnings season shifts to A.I.-driven companies like Alphabet, Intel and Tesla. Marolia says the market's earnings swings have contributed to an ongoing downturn for tech stocks, though he believes it's more of a buying opportunity than the start of a correction. Plus, with June's inflation reading being partly positive (better than May) mixed with negative (worse than when conflict started with Iran), "Captain Inflation" gives his take on how to best read and cope with the numbers. David Trainer, founder and president at New Constructs, says that while fans may believe Jersey Mike's is "a sub above," the company's initial public offering is a deal from below. While the IPO's launch date hasn't been determined, Trainer says the expected $12 billion valuation is at least double what he thinks the numbers justify, and that the deal — particularly at that level — mostly benefits the private-equity firm that took control of Jersey Mike's in 2025.

Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist for Annex Wealth Management, says there are signs of a broad-based economic expansion, which gives him a "fairly constructive outlook for the economy over the next six to 12 months," though he is concerned about policy shocks that could unsettle things. Jacobsen warns that investors should not be too excited about situations where the general feeling is "It could have been worse," such as recent inflation numbers or the impact of the war in Iran, but they should take some positivity from the Federal Reserve and its new chairman Kevin Warsh, who Jacobsen says doesn't really want "to pump the brakes on this economy" any time soon. Scott Brown, chief strategist at Brown Technical Insights, says that the stock market just lived through the best second quarter ever for a midterm election year, which is a bullish sign for the rest of the year and getting through the standard troubles that come in midterm years. Brown says there is upside potential "but you want to be careful about where you are looking for it," warning that semiconductor names are correcting and that there is more downside risk there. Instead, he is looking at industrials, health care and financials as areas with positive potential. In The NAVigator, Ray DiBernardo, portfolio manager for the XAI Madison Equity Premium Income fund, says the stock market's high valuation levels have increased downside risk, making it that nervous investors should consider covered-call strategies, which trade some of the market's potential upside for downside protection. For nervous investors, DiBernardo says the options strategy acts like portfolio insurance, but that it is particularly attractive in the closed-end fund wrapper where covered-call funds generally are at a discount with the market near highs; that discount helps to make up for the upside potential investors surrender when choosing the strategy. In the Market Call, Brian Frank, manager of the Frank Value Fund, talks about absolute-value investing, noting that "nothing in the tech sector really is cheap" on an absolute basis, which has him looking more towards consumer staples and other areas that he says are trading at a discount. he also discusses the important of not just buying stocks on the cheap but having a potential catalyst to unlock that value.

Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research says investors should "be prepared for some additional volatility" at least until and through the midterm elections, but he thinks it represents "a reason to buy, not to bail." Stovall says that he's looking for solid double-digit earnings growth into 2027, and he makes the case that the technology sector has been driving the market higher but remains trading at a relative discount in price/earnings ratio. Traditional summer market doldrums, therefore, set up chances to profit from a rally he expects once the voting is done. Further, he points to the market's expanded breadth which, when combined with a positive first half of the year, historically is a sign that the market will rise over the rest of the year. Stovall's big worry for the economy and market involves the Federal Reserve and the potential for higher rates to lead to stagflation and other condition changes, but he's not expecting the Fed to move rates this year, so he thinks those worries are further into the future. Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, has focused a lot of his recent ETF of the Week picks on actively managed funds, but today he goes with a hot fund based on a technology-heavy index as something that would work well for investors who expect the market's uptrend to continue.  In the Market Call, Manny Weintraub, principal at Cannell & Spears, talks about how he finds "super great stocks that are not going to kill you" and whether stocks in the hottest sectors are being set up to murder investors when market conditions and sentiments change.  

Jay Woods, chief market strategist at Freedom Capital Markets, says that the market has a "Janet Jackson - What Have You Done for Me Lately" attitude, which has made earnings cycles particularly volatile, and he thinks that will be amplified with the earnings on tap right now powering market moves, especially around market misses. While he believes earnings will be strong, he warns in the Market Call that "prices may not follow them," particularly as the market enters its slowest time of the year around a mid-term election cycle. Woods says that the stock market has seen a healthy rotation, but he expects a pullback before a year-end rally; in the meantime, he warns against chasing rallies. Adam Mead of Mead Capital Management and Watchlist Investing — author of "The Complete Financial History of Berkshire Hathaway" — talks about the evolution of legendary investors Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, how the company they ran is changing with Buffett's retirement and the legacy they will; have in the decades ahead. The new edition of the book was inspired after Mead saw Buffett at Berkshire's annual meeting after the nonagenarian announced his retirement. Plus, Chuck answers a listener's question about hiring a financial adviser and whether working with the brand-name firm that has renewed its nationwide advertising blitz on television would be all that it's cracked up to be. (Spoiler alert: Not exactly.)

Jeffrey Bierman, chief market technician at TheoTrade — where he runs the Genesis Cog and Burn Signal platforms — says the stock market remains "ridiculously strong," but that won't allow it to sidestep a summer slowdown and a difficult fall, before picking back up with a tremendous rally near the end of the year. He makes it clear that current conditions are not looking like a bear market or a bubble, and while the market has gotten a bit ahead of itself, he's thinking it's mostly choppy with maybe a small setback before it starts the next leg up. David Leiter, who runs The Ultimate Investor website, discusses his new book, "Stop Making Stupid Investments," and gives his take on everything from initial public offerings — and pre-IPO investments — to cryptocurrency and more, and focuses on the emotional control that helps investors avoid the key blunders that can bring a portfolio crashing down. In the Market Call, Max Wasserman, co-founder and senior portfolio manager at Miramar Capital, talks about how everyone is jumping so hard into technology stocks that it's "hard to find a great company at a good price." He discusses where he is finding the right valuations for his dividend-driven investment style, and what kinds of companies fit his long-term buying perspective now.

Andy Stewart, co-chief executive officer at Argosy Real Estate Partners, says that housing affordability issues that have made headlines are real and persistent, but there are some solutions over time, coming from building smaller homes, changes in interest rates and in public policies like the new affordability legislation that became law on Friday. It also means there are big opportunities in the single-family build-to-rent market and more, and those opportunities should be persistent and long-term. Stewart also talks about issues in data center construction — and whether the opportunity is moving too fast — and the continuing evolution of commercial real estate, where he sees "a generational buying opportunity" for patient, long-term investors. Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, says the record domestic IPO for SK Hynix last week and ASML Holdings on Wednesday, should remind investors to balance big numbers with appropriate caution, because the profit potential comes with white-hot volatility. He also looks at how financial and banking stocks could be in for a rough earnings cycle when they start reporting results this week, with their numbers reflecting how right or wrong they were in anticipating how the Federal Reserve and new chairman Kevin Warsh would respond to economic conditions. Plus, he also looks at housing affordability and how new legislation may impact the picture. David Trainer, founder and president at New Constructs, looks at current earnings trends and sees some ugly misses coming during the second quarter, not because companies are sandbagging earnings expectations, but because they're not as solid as the Street believes. He says a number of those stocks — and he singled out Fidelity National Information Services — are headed for trouble when the street figures things out after seeing an earnings miss.

Zach Jonson, chief investment officer at Stack Financial Management, says the stock market is  building towards "one of the biggest or largest bear markets of our generation," but he says that decline will impact passive, broad-index investors the most. "We see a true long-term, 12- to 18-month, 45 to 50 downturn, and that's in the S&P; if you look at the Nasdaq, you could really see some losses that are in excess of 70 percent," Jonson said. He's worried about a "bear market waterfall" — where every decline is not met with a quick return back to new highs — that makes it emotionally difficult for investors to buy into dips, but he does say that being patient and strategic should allow investors to find pockets of opportunity amid the decline, positioning them to profit when the pendulum swings back to the upside. Axel Merk, president and chief investment officer at Merk Investments, discusses Saba Capital's activist campaign that recently saw him booted as portfolio manager for ASA Gold and Precious Metals Ltd., a closed-end fund that was up nearly 200% last year and that was at the top of its peer group since Merk took it over in 2016. Still, the activist shareholders labeled it a poor performer, and are working now to capture the fund's discount. Meanwhile, Saba has installed new leadership which Merk says has no experience running a gold fund. He filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and made other efforts to save the fund, but acknowledges that a change in status is unlikely. Merk also discusses his outlook for gold in the interview. Adam Gebler, head of wealth for the Americas at FTSE Russell, discusses the firm's 2026 U.S. Wealth Pulse Survey, which showed that private markets — both equity and credit — are continuing to move into the mainstream with affluent investors, driven largely by financial advisers pushing for their adoption and acceptance in portfolios.

Kristen VanGelder, co-chief investment officer at Evanston Capital — a firm that manages hedge funds built out of hedge funds — says that sophisticated money managers have very different sentiments about current market conditions than Main Street investors, noting that where average investors are showing lousy sentiment numbers, sharpies are leaning into the market's increasing "dispersion" and the ability to play one thing against the next to turn volatility into profits. She says that global macro investors "have the glimmer in their eye," because the pressure of war and a complicated global inflationary picture are creating opportunities beyond what investors can fund sticking with fundamental investing domestically. Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, goes away from his long-running trend of focusing on actively managed ETFs and turns to a new Vanguard high-yield corporate bond index fund as his "ETF of the Week," noting that the ultra-low fees on the fund and the outperformance of the index make it something to consider now.  In the Market Call, Tom Martin, senior portfolio manager for Globalt Investments, discusses his earnings-driven investment style and what to make of the volatile market reactions around perceived "sand-bagging," where companies meet profit projections but the Street doesn't think expectations were set high enough.

Matt Freund, co-chief investment officer at Calamos Investments, says a resilient economy is producing "shocking numbers for a mid-cycle economy," powering through problems in a way that puts the Federal Reserve on hold, avoiding interest rate hikes this year and returning to a bias towards cutting in 2027. Freund thinks that it's "back to the future" for the Fed, with new chairman Kevin Warsh bringing the central bank to where less information and guidance makes for more policy flexibility, even if it results in some additional volatility since the policy path will be less well-defined. Freund says the chances of recession in the next year are low, but that investors have to remain cognizant that "every mountain has two sides and, at some point, the string of good years can't go on forever." Meb Faber, chief executive and chief investment officer at Cambria Investments, returns to the show a day after his Big Interview appearance to discuss his new book, "Investing in America: The Rise of a 250-Year Bull Market." He discusses what he expects the future to look like and why the bull market can continue almost indefinitely but why investors may not want to focus entirely on domestic investments in the future. Plus, Chuck answers a listener's question about the cheap, small-dollar life-insurance policies advertised regularly on television and whether seniors are better off going for the convenience of those policies or looking for other ways to protect their families.

Meb Faber, chief executive and chief investment officer at Cambria Investments, says that large-cap domestic stocks have done so well that it has masked the rise of the rest of the investment ecosystem, but now that he expects recent good times to be balanced out by tougher stretches ahead for the Standard & Poor's 500, investors will want to take advantage of small-cap stocks, foreign stocks and more. That's good preparation for bear markets, and Faber makes it clear that downturns are a feature of the market, something that will come around again. Faber — who will return to Wednesday's show to discuss his new book, "Investing in America: The Rise of a 250-Year Bull Market" — says the trend remains "all signs green" for the market currently, but he says investors should be watching for change. Willie Delwiche, investment strategist at Hi Mount Research, says that the best environment for the stock market isn't falling rates, but rather rates that aren't moving. That positions the stock market to be in a "boring" and "quiet" environment where it can keep riding technicals which Delwiche describes as being "in pretty good shape" right now, with all 11 sectors of the S&P 500 above their long-term moving averages and more stocks making new highs than are making new lows. Those patterns are creating "strength beneath the surface" that he says can power the market higher. David Miller, co-founder of Catalyst Mutual Funds talks about insider buying as an indicator of corporate strength, monopoly and oligopoly positions as a way to play developing technologies and more in a wide-ranging Money Life Market Call.

Paul Gruenwald, chief economist at S&P Global Ratings, he expects that the Federal Reserve's next move on interest rates will be a cut, but says it won't happen until 2027, which he described as a one-year delay for the central bank to get back to more neutral levels. Gruenwald says it's a "hawkish hold," with the Fed being prepared to raise rates but hoping to hold off. Gruenwald says that effort is helped by the economy's resilience, driven by business investment and the wealth effect created by the market's return to record levels, which have put a floor on economic growth, allowing the economy to overcome a handful of economic and policy shocks — including the Iran War — in recent years. That's why he recently cut his expectations on recession, cutting the chance of an economic downturn from 33% down to 20%. Vijay Marolia spent the holiday weekend celebrating the holiday and more, and while he says his invitation to the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce wedding extravaganza was lost in the mail, he isn't losing the chance to look at the wild spending on the party and to equate it to what more ordinary folks should do, namely learning how to size their spending so they can live well, while limiting financial regrets. Marolia, the chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, also digs into Amazon and Tesla stock in "The Week That Is," noting that each company had something to celebrate that — when viewed under his five-lens approach to stock selection — will make investors want to have a party in their portfolio. Plus, Chuck answers a recent spate of questions about how the show itself works, and gives a behind-the-scenes look at guest selection, interview editing and more.

Steven Dover, chief market strategist at Franklin Templeton, says there is still more upside to the market, based on earnings growth, noting that the economy and stock market have been resilient due to the "phenomenal" profits companies have been generating. Dover notes that the market is fully valued, but not expensive; "We think earnings this next year could be [up] 15 to 20 percent, so the market could follow that without being more expensive." Dover, who is also the head of the Franklin Templeton Institute, notes that the earnings growth has been greatest among small caps, which is why he is leaning in that direction, and he advocates for fixed income as ballast for portfolios now; ;he had previously lightened up on the Magnificent Seven and other market leaders, and he says that the market has relaxed on those stocks, which may create targeted buying opportunities. Kevin Dreyer, co-chief investment officer for value at Gabelli Asset Management — part of the team running Gabelli Equity Trust and other closed-end funds — discusses how he is finding value looking for names that are "differentiated and not highly correlated" to the stocks that have been leading the market's return to record levels. Specifically, Dreyer says he is looking for businesses that are "A.I. resilient" and able to withstand and/or benefit from the development of artificial intelligence. One area he cited as particularly attractive is sports and entertainment, because " You can't have an algorithm or chatbot replicate the New York Knicks … but you and I can go out and buy MSGS, which owns the Knicks."  Plus, Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, turns to a trending part of the market and makes an actively managed Fidelity small- and mid-cap fund his pick for "ETF of the Week."

Tom Stringfellow, chief investment strategist at Argent Trust, says the stock market is going through a shift where small-cap companies are coming to the fore, businesses that are adjacent to artificial intelligence or that will benefit from using it are starting to get an A.I. boost and the warning signs feel mostly like distant storm clouds. Stringfellow says he doesn't see signs of recession, worries slightly about a market overheating if interest rates rise, but he thinks signs that more and more companies are showing earnings growth reducing a lot of potential downward pressure on the market. Ben Carlson, director of institutional asset management at Ritholtz Wealth Management, discusses his new book, "Risk and Reward: How to handle market volatility and build long-term wealth," and how he thinks investors can't simply tune everything out -- even if that might be the best long-term results -- because they have a "firehose of information" in their pockets. He discusses how to best filter that information to make it useful without becoming overwhelming. Meredith Mangan, senior editor at Credible, discusses the site's survey on prediction markets, which showed that 1 in 4 Americans already have made a wager on a prediction-market site. In a wide-ranging study looking at investor habits, she noted that more than 60% of Americans see prediction markets as betting, while just under 30% see them as a viable financial tool.

Sameer Samana, head of equities and real assets at the Wells Fargo Investment Institute, says that as long as the market keeps making higher highs and lows, investors should use technical indicators as a North Star to stay in the game and ride the market higher. Samana says the market's move to record levels says that broader economy is strong enough to keep the market rolling with a "turbo-boost" from artificial intelligence on top of it providing faster growth, though he does worry about the economy overheating and needing to step back. He says the most likely scenario is for the market to "take a breather" between now and midterm elections, but "starting in November, you'll start the next leg of the bull market and it would not surprise me if that one runs well into end of next year." Kevin Roth, managing director of research for the CFB Board of Standards, discusses the group's recent survey on Americans and financial fraud which found that most people have faced some rip-off attempts, but almost no one discusses it with families or reports it to authorities. Some 55% of Americans expect fraudsters to target them or someone close to them in the next 12 months, but less than 40% are confident they would catch every type of fraud they might face and avoid being ripped off. Plus, Josh Stevens, chief investment officer at CresAlta Investment Management — which in May launched CresAlta Global Dividend and CresAlta Small and Mid-Cap, ETFs based around high-conviction growth strategies — talks stock investing now in the Market Call.

Daniel Morris, chief investment strategist at BNP Paribas Asset Management, says that his primary concern right now is the risk that the economy could overheat, thanks to above-trend growth and inflation that could prompt the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in an effort to slow things down. If that fails to cool inflation, the economy could then struggle and the market could step far away from its current uptrend. Morris' base case, however, is for continued earnings growth that can power the market into 2028, noting that while growth will slow down, there is still plenty of room to keep going and not have the economy resemble past bubble times. In The Book Interview, Chad Bown, co-author of "'How to Win a Trade War: An Optimistic Guide to an Anxious Global Economy," discusses how there are reasons and ways for trade-war scenarios to play out well, and the trade-offs today's leaders would have to make for current trade tensions to pass without plunging the global economy into a deep funk. In "The Week That Is," Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, discusses why he will continue to ride with Micro Technology, even as it reports growth numbers that are hard to believe, nt notes that he is giving Nike the boot, especially when he compares it to another popular rival in the public eye during the World Cup, adidas. Plus, he worries about how artificial intelligence may make inflation stickier for longer.

Veteran analyst Dan Zanger, chief technical officer at ChartPattern.com, says the market right now is showing swings and moves that are reminiscent of the Internet bubble days of 2000. While that doesn't mean the market is headed for the same result, he says it creates more challenges for traders and investors, in part because they are trying to read the market off of wild swings and fast reversals. "It's definitely a very bifurcated market," Zanger says in discussing the tech and artificial-intelligence companies compared with everything else. "It needs Prozac, that's for sure." We go Off The News with Robert Farrington, founder of The College Investor, examining the new  student-loan repayment assistance plan and changes in student-loan lending limits, both of which go into effect on July 1. Farrington says these changes will help students and parents with the personal finances around college education, helping them focus on the value of the degree, noting that the loan limits are a "stop sign," where the government is suggesting that when someone takes on more debt, they are running much higher risk of not earning back the money they put into getting their degree. He notes that this is particularly important with master's degrees, where many grad students pay up for a diploma that doesn't repay their investment in the extra training. With private credit being an increasingly popular part of investment strategies these days, John Cole Scott, president of CEF Advisors — the chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance — attended the Private Credit Summit hosted this week in New York City by Dechert LLP, and came away with a sense that private-credit markets have not yet gotten to the overheated levels that could turn investor fears of a blow-up into a financial reality. Scott discusses how big business development companies passed "stress tests" designed to show if they would break under severe market conditions, how insurance companies making investments into private credit are raising underwriting standards and thereby reducing the risk in private credit markets and more.

Fritz Folts, chief investment strategist at 3EDGE Asset Management, says he has pulled back slightly on equity exposure but gone deeper into a diversified approach because the market has been crazy, driven by investors' fear of missing out, sky-high expectations and more, to the point where the key is to participate and not be wrong because you are taking chances on what amounts to a wild guess. If Folts had to guess, he'd expect the stock market to have a bumpy ride in the second half of the year, finishing roughly flat from current levels. Michael Monaghan, founder and portfolio manager of the Founder ETFs makes his debut in the Market Call, talking about his firm's methodology, which focuses on companies where the original founder remains in the driver seat. Research shows that founder-led companies tend to outperform for several reasons, notably that the entrepreneurs behind them have a long-term vision and are not swayed by short-term market noise or pressured to produce a quarterly profit. Monaghan, who runs the Founders 100 ETF, discusses how founder-CEOs influence giants like Nvidia and Meta Platforms and how a portfolio of these stocks can expect more stable long-term performance.  In the ETF of the Week segment, Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, focuses on a value fund from T. Rowe Price that just hit its third anniversary, gaining roughly 30 percent over the last 12 months

Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab & Co., says that "there is so much short-attention-span money driving the market right now ... looking for the shiny new object," that investors want to diversify throughout artificial intelligence businesses, taking profits  and rebalancing especially when specific stocks go parabolic, to capture profits and avoid some of the volatility being created by enormous expectation levels. Sonders says that an "aggregate recession" remains "a ways away," but she notes that there have been rolling recessions, with services weaking currently, coming off a manufacturing decline earlier in the year. As a result, she suggests considering sectors that could be in line for pullbacks rather than expecting a credit crunch or a mistake by regulators to create a broad-based decline. Justin Baer discusses his new book, "House of Fidelity: The Rise of the Johnson Dynasty and the Company That Changed American Investing," and digs into some of the details that turned the notoriously secretive and private company from a firm for Boston elites into a the investing powerhouse whose accounts and funds touch the lives of one in five American adults. Niki Glen, Northwestern Mutual wealth management advisor discusses the latest data from Northwestern Mutual's 2026 Planning & Progress Study, which showed that true financial independence remains beyond the grasp of many Americans. One in five U.S. adults believes they will never achieve financial independence, which is borne out in survey results showing that more than 40 percent of adults — including a surprisingly high percentage of Baby Boomers, who are all at or beyond retirement age — continue to rely on their parents for financial support. More than half of Millennials (who range between 30 and 45 years old) were still dependent on financial help from their family.

George Bory, chief investment strategist for fixed income at Allspring Global Investments, says the market is "overshooting" in expecting considerable rate hikes soon. He thinks the central bank will be patient, and that the Kevin Warsh regime got off to its intended start last week by giving less guidance and accepting more volatility as a result. He suggests that investors should look to capture the current "uncertainty premium" that has been created by a wide dispersion of opinion — with some major players expecting rate hikes while others are calling for renewed cuts — and that will boost intermediate-term yields at least until the rate picture becomes clearer. Tom McClellan, editor of The McClellan Market Report, says that the McClellan Oscillator — the indicator created by the family firm to measure market breadth — "is seeing dead nothing," hovering around the neutral level, suggesting that the market "is in pretty much of a doldrums." He expects to see a seasonal summer decline, especially in a midterm election year, but it's not happening yet, which is why McClellan says there's not likely to be much trend until late October. He sees "a boring market" for the rest of the year but expects 2027 to be strongly positive, barring mistakes from the Federal Reserve. Author Igor Pejic discusses his new book, "Tech Money: A Guide to the New Game of Technology Investing," out today, noting the places where technology investing has changed and how different current times are from the last technology wave, the Internet boom, that drove the market into bubble times.

Julius de Kempenaer, senior technical analyst at StockCharts, says the stock market right now is "technology against the world," and he expects that it will turn and correct, but he's not willing to put his portfolio on the line and move early, because it would put him in the path of a speeding "freight train." de Kempenaer says he can "hear what the bears are saying," and doesn't necessarily disagree with them, but he says he needs to see more signs of weakness -- like the market starting to favor defensive sectors even as it is rising -- to suggest that a downturn is near. Yalena Maleyev, senior economist at KPMG Economics – a member of the Outlook Survey Committee for the National Association for Business Economics – discusses the June 2026 NABE Outlook Survey, released today, which had the economists calling for lower and slower economic growth, higher inflation and a longer time before the Federal Reserve eases interest rates. The median expectation for personal consumption expenditures (PCE), the Fed's preferred inflation measure, rose to 3.6% for the fourth quarter. Despite those worrisome economic numbers, nearly two-thirds of the economists surveyed expect that the U.S. can forestall a recession until 2028 or later. In "The Week That Is," Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, discusses Kevin Warsh's debut as the chairman of the Federal Reserve, which included a hawkish stance, no dot plot or forecasting help, and a terse public statement. He also discusses the news that Charles Schwab Corp. is planning to enter prediction markets, which he says could speed up both public acceptance and regulatory scrutiny of prediction markets, and he gives his take on why the housing affordability problem is worse right now than it generally gets credit for. Plus, David Trainer, founder and president at New Constructs, puts the State Street S&P Kensho Final Frontiers ETF in the Danger Zone, noting that while the fund gets a five-star rating from Morningstar, it is filled with stocks "that are losing money hand over fist, all going after a very trendy topic ... which is hard to quantify," a condition that he says reminds him of the Internet bubble days.

Matthew Miskin, co-chief investment strategist at John Hancock Investment Management, says that the current stock market has been driven to record highs on the back of strong earnings that have overpowered economic concerns, but he notes that the stock market bubble that inflated during the Internet boom of the late 1990s grew on the backs of companies with no real earnings. As a result, with IPOs like SpaceX dominating the headlines, Miskin is preaching caution, noting that these attention-grabbing stocks are coming public without profits. Miskin says that's a rising risk, but that inflation is less of a risk than it was just a few months ago, and he believes there may be pockets of downturn or slowdown, but that should push investors to diversify, rather than to overhaul a portfolio or back away from equities. Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, looks at a free-cash flow factor fund that has a stellar track record and that will celebrate its third birthday next week for his ETF of the Week. The birthday is important because it makes the fund eligible for ratings that will signal its stellar performance even more strongly to investors. Ken Burdon, partner in the registered fund practice at Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett, discusses a recent Supreme Court ruling that's a game-changer for activist investors in closed-end funds.  Critics of activism have long held that professional arbitrageurs used federal courts to pressure closed-end funds into deals that benefit activists' at the expense of the long-term objectives of ordinary shareholders. Burdon says the decision  doesn't stop the activists from pursuing cases but removes a key path that activists took to pursue their actions much more quickly and easily.

Steve Sosnick, chief market strategist at Interactive Brokers, entered the year expecting the stock market to be down in 2026, and while stocks have overcome the gravity he saw weighing it down, he thinks there is trouble on the horizon. "We've become very detached from basic fundamentals and very much focused on ... betting the longshot, that it's going to come in," Sosnick says in today's Big Interview. "Either we reach an extreme level and grow into it ... or we overshoot the target and have to correct a bit and I hope it's nothing worse than a garden-variety correction." Catherine Yoshimoto, director of product management for the Russell U.S. Indexes at FTSE Russell, discusses the 2026 semi-annual Russell U.S. Indexes Reconstitution, which is underway now and concludes on June 26. The process — which resets the index but also defines the size it takes  for a stock to be large-, small- or micro-cap  is-resetting the bar for large-cap investments at roughly $5.7 billion. That's up nearly 25% from a year ago, reflecting huge gains for the Magnificent Seven stocks (up nearly 50% in size from a year ago) but also broad-based growth across market segments. In the Market Call, Kathy Boyle, president of Chapin Hill Advisors, talks about using ETFs to play defense, leaning into precious metals and commodities and other areas to protect against downside risk that she expects will materialize when the market starts to lose its momentum.

Chris Davis, chairman and portfolio manager at Davis Advisors discusses how every technological revolution — dating back to the days of the printing press but extending to the artificial-intelligence boom bow — goes through the cycle of "Amara's Law," in which the effects of a technology are overestimated in the short run but underestimated over the long term. As a result, Davis says investors are putting too much into the hype phase around AI, without looking at the long-term picture. Davis, in The Big Interview, echoes his recent paper on "Investing in the A.I. Age," which suggests that companies will fall into five categories: "emerging winners, enablers, users, insulated businesses and the walking dead," and talks about how investors can navigate the changing market and avoid the pitfalls of the latest technological evolution. Davis is not the only value manager discussing the current market on today's show. In the Market Call, John Dorfman — a long-time classic value manager and the chairman of Dorfman Value Investments — gives his take on how current conditions have created some changes to the investment processes that have defined his career, noting that they are subtle but substantive in delivering better returns than many investors expect the value style to deliver in a growth-dominated market. In today's "Talking Technicals" segment, Matt Fox, president of Ithaca Wealth Management, says that the stock market is poised for more gains and new highs, and that investors should "hold on and ride the trend higher for sure." Fox discusses technical measures based around long-term trends, and he sees the Standard & Poor's 500 suprassing 10,000 and the Nasdaq 100 45,000 in "around two years." While he does see garden-variety corrections occuring in that time frame, Fox set S&P 7,000 as a key support level, noting it is possible there's a setback that low, even as the overall trend is upward.

Kristina Hooper, chief market strategist for Man Group, says the market is entering a "greater discernment phase," where companies have been priced for massive growth and "incredibly high standards," setting up potential disappointment as investors become more picky while the AI revolution plays out. Hooper says this is a natural progression, one that investors saw during the Internet boom, as it started to fade. "I don't consider it a bubble," Hooper says, "but I do think that there is a timer that's ticking. Many investors are expecting to see monetization sooner rather than later; we don't know how much time they will give some of these companies." Hooper says the market's strong start to this year has lowered her expectations for the rest of the year, making her more pessimistic, raising the possibility of a technical recession — two quarters of negative GDP growth — as the economy works through its issues. In "The Week That Is,"  Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, says that the record-breaking initial-public offering of SpaceX didn't change his mind about owning the stock, and in fact raised more issues about whether the hype around the company's "total addressable market" is real. He also discussed whether 2026 — with Anthropic and OpenAI also set for huge stock launches — is the "Year of the IPO," warning it may be more a time when venture capitalists are cashing out. Plus, he examines an alarming statistic about planned capital expenditures as a percentage of incoming revenues for the hyperscalers, a level currently set so high it's reminiscent of the end of the Internet boom. Kyle Guske, investment analyst at New Constructs, revisits Cava Group, which was first in The Danger Zone before its IPO in June of 2023. The stock is up about 100% since last November, but Guske says that just raises the potential for it to crater, again (it lost half of its value late last year), which is why it's back in the Danger Zone now.  

Brent Schutte, chief investment officer at Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co., says that the current economic cycle is in "overtime," a point where the stock market gets narrow. As the cycle ends, however, he expects the market to broaden out, which could carry it higher, just driven by small-cap stocks and other industries. As a result, he says investors should stick to their plans and not let their portfolios get too focused on what has worked lately. "This is where, if you are an individual investor, your job is to get from Point A to Point B to Point C in your life. The way that you do that is that you don't concentrate, which can win magnificently and lose magnificently, and if you lose magnificently, you're not going to get back on track." In the "Talking Technicals" interview, Thomas Samuelson, chief investment officer at Vineyard Global Advisors, says the technical underpinnings of the market are solid — though he also took notice of the narrow bands of strength — and sufficient to avoid deterioration into a bear market while the market focuses on the earnings story. "We're pushing $400 a share for earnings next year for the [Standard & Poor's] 500," Samuelson said. "If it trades at 23 times (earnings), you could get up to 9,000. That's 24% higher from here." John Cole Scott, president of CEF Advisors, says that index discounts in municipal bonds and taxable bonds are wide compared to their three-year history, which is creating good opportunities for investors to find closed-end funds trading at wide discounts but supported by improving fundamentals. Scott, who also is chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance, uses his firm's "trifecta analysis" to select four funds as exemplars of the opportunities available to income investors now.

Bill Stone, chief investment officer at Glenview Trust, says that the stock market "continues to price in that the Iran conflict is going to be over [soon]," which has kept the focus on blockbuster earnings numbers, which have been so strong that they have overcome virtually all economic and stock market concerns. He expects that earnings trend to continue, powering the market through some summer doldrums to where it finishes the year on a positive note. "Stocks don't go up short-term always with earnings but, long-term, earnings are the fuel that sends stocks higher," Stone says; with the earnings trend in place, he says long-term investors should be less concerned about worrisome headlines about inflation, war and more. Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, looks at the Procure Space ETF (ticker: UFO) as his "ETF of the Week," noting how the fund has been a rocket ship this year, and that it will be worth watching as the SpaceX IPO launches this week and markets adjust to having that big-name stock joining the space-race sector. In the Market Call, Hank Smith, head of investment strategy at The Haverford Trust Co., discusses the benefits of companies that pay growing dividends and that have an A-rated balance sheet.

Victoria Fernandez, chief market strategist at Crossmark Global Investments, says that she is expecting the market to suffer some late summer doldrums as seasonal economic impacts end and mid-term elections put their traditional damper on enthusiasm, but that there will be some support for the market near year's end, making for "a positive year, but nothing like we've seen in the last two years." She acknowledges that makes her forecast a bit more sour than many observers, but says she thinks the market is showing signs of rotating and broadening out, and that change will slow down stock gains. Also contributing to that will be continued economic uncertainty; Fernandez does not expect a recession, but noted that stagflation could be hard to avoid if inflation gets higher and stickier and the War in Iran continues past the end of this month. In the Market Call, Chuck Carlson, chief executive officer at Horizon Investment Services — which publishes "The Best Dividend and Income Investments" newsletter — discusses the firm's analytical system, called Quadrix, for sizing up a wide range of factors, and notes that a lot of the stocks that have been leading the way have fundamentals that should allow them to keep going strong from here, regardless of the broad economic storm clouds that are making many investors nervous. Plus, Chuck answers a question from a listener who thinks his strategy of trying to make his baby grandson a millionaire in 65 years is "just showing off," because "Really, how much will a million dollars be worth then?"

Jacob Pozharny, portfolio manager for the Bridgeway Global Opportunities Fund  a market-neutral fund that looks at global macro factors — says that every infrastructure boom in history has led to massive capital expenditures, to the point of over-capacity, then demand destruction and a cycle that leaves users better off but hurts the companies that get caught in the mix. He cites railroads, telecommunications dot-com companies and more as examples and he says that "boring industries " will be the users of AI and the long-term winners, which will benefit small-cap and emerging-market names.  Dryden Pence, chief investment officer at Pence Capital Management, says in the Market Call that he looks for "chokepoints of new technologies," places where consumption is creating demand imbalances that working to the long-term benefit of many of the market's biggest names Matt Zajechowski discusses research published by Lemon Law Experts, which looked at over a million National Highway Traffic Safety Administration consumer complaints filed in the last decade and found six of the 10 worst-rated vehicles overall have been discontinued, but remain widely available on used lots. He says higher car prices are forcing more lower-income consumers to consider cars that the public dislikes. 

Joe Kalish, chief global macro strategist at Ned Davis Research, says 2026 has had surprising narratives but unsurprisingly solid results, and he expects that to continue, without significant recession risk or big trouble ahead. Kalish discusses often overlooked economic numbers, like a financing gap where demands to fund capital expenditures outstrip available capital and the level of real gross value added for non-financial corporations (essentially, GDP for things other than financial companies), to explain how and why this economy looks healthier than the worrywarts think it is. He does outline his concerns, but thinks the economy can overpower most or all of them in fairly short order. David Trainer, founder and president at New Constructs, says that the new wave of huge initial public offerings like SpaceX and Anthropic puts index-fund investors in The Danger Zone, noting that indexes are considering changing rules to quickly accommodate the new stocks, which creates artificial demand that will further drive the prices of the stocks up. That creates potential for index investors to effectively be overpaying to get into the IPOs, and also leaves them vulnerable if the stocks fall off after the initial excitement. While the rules changes are up in the air, Trainer says the pressure to change rules and include fresh IPOs changes the landscape for the future. In "The Week That Is," Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, discusses the market's message to Broadcom, which exceeded earnings expectations but failed to raise future guidance on AI-driven revenues; he says the market is punishing "sandbagging," a practice of understating expectations so that they are easy to beat, but he says the big price drop created a buying opportunity for investors. He also discussed the heightened volatility around the positive jobs report, which he says is based on the fear of a hike in interest rates that he says long-term investors should not be too worried about. Plus, he examines Bitcoin, which has lost about one-quarter of its value in less than two months, which he says is testing traders faith, but which isn't making him nervous as a long-term buy-and-holder. 

Long-time technical analyst Jeff Bishop, head of Bullseye Trades, says the stock market is "priced to perfection, perfection, perfection," and while he isn't saying stocks are overvalued, they are at least fairly valued, which means the stock market here has more downside risk than upside potential. As a result, Bishop says that while he is trying to wring the last of the momentum out of the market, he has been moving into short positions and expects to soon have "the largest short position of my life." Bishop says that the current market move has been parabolic, and while he doesn't think it will end in a catastrophic event, he says the red flags are flashing warning signs that signal a 5 to 10 percent pullback over the summer, potentially getting bigger towards the fall. In the Market Call, Roger Conrad, chief analyst at Conrad's Utility Investor, talks about how concerns over energy markets and high demand for power have created big tailwinds for utility stocks, but that the gains haven't lifted valuations to where stocks are dramatically overpriced. Conrad — who also runs the Dividends Roundtable on Substack — talks about how his methodology allows for a "dream price' and a "profit-taking price" and says that he expects heightened volatility to have him making both moves fairly regularly for the rest of the year. Steve Baffico, executive vice president and head of listed products at Bluerock — which runs the Bluerock Private Real Estate fund — says that investors will be moving out of direct lending and private credit funds in search of HALO investments ("hard assets, low obsolescence), which will bring them to private real estate, helping to drive the sector. Bluerock's fund recently converted from an interval fund to a closed-end fund — and has raised its distribution four times in recent months — and he believes it can will soon hit its target of 8 to 8.5%. He talks about how that kind of yield is being achieved, and the three sectors the fund is focused on.

Joseph S. Moore, author of "How to Get Rich in American History: 300 Years of Financial Advice That Worked (& Didn't)," says that America is dealing with "Big Woe" (as in "Woe is me"), but that examining the past makes it clear that "The American Dream is alive and well." Moore points out that what people think is unique today has all been played out in the past, comparing cryptocurrency to the thousands of self-issued currencies that existed before the start of the Civil War, prediction markets to the "bucket shops" of the 1800s and more, but he also notes that the advice that people think "always works" has not actually proven that if you look throughout financial history. "The dynamic, changing economy we live in is evolving," he says, "so hopefully we can learn something from the past to better understand where we are in the present." Kelley Wright, editor at Investment Quality Trends — now celebrating its 60th year, making it one of the longest-running investment newsletters — brings his dividend-with-value focus to the Market Call. Plus, in the ETF of the Week, Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, examines a unique Treasury-focused fund as a way to ride out current rate swings while goosing yields in the ultra-safe portion of your portfolio.

Craig Callahan, founder and chief executive officer, ICON Advisers — manager of the ICON Equity fund, which is up more than 25% year-to-date — says the market, even at record highs, is right around fair value, meaning he doesn't see over-pricing or investor behavior typical of market peaks. As a result, so long as earnings stay strong — and he describes current earnings as being at levels of "crazy, silly growth" — the market will climb the proverbial wall of worry higher, potentially for the next few years. Mark Boulton, portfolio manager at Pictet Asset Management, says that the standard emerging-markets investment play — heavy on technology stocks and weighted to China, Korea and Taiwan — misses the point of true "emerging markets investing," which is to benefit from rising economies and countries that are seeing expansive GDP growth. Boulton, who runs the new Pictet Emerging Markets Rising Economies ETF, says Brazil, South Africa, Mexico and frontier markets like Vietnam and Kazakhstan have better growth prospects and are likely to outpace developed markets and deliver better long-term results moving forward. Chip Lupo discusses the 2026 Household Debt Survey from WalletHub, which showed that more than half of Americans say their household is struggling with debt, and more than 2 in 5 expecting their household debt to increase in the next 12 months.a

Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist at LPL Financial, says it's "hard to argue" with a stock market that has returned to record high levels on the back of a 9-week winning streak for the Standard and Poor's 500. Turnquist says that kind of streak has only happened 10 times before, with the momentum leading the market higher a median return of 8 percent six months after the streak. Turnquist added a note of near-term caution, saying he will not be surprised to see some summer consolidation, particularly in the technology space, but he made it clear that he expects those temporary declines to be buying opportunities. In The Big Interview, Ron Deutsch, head of portfolio strategy at Magnus Financial Group, discusses why investors who are scurrying for safety, wanting to reduce their fears are pursuing strategies that may come up short under the pressure of today's markets. He discusses how balancing risks may involve moving money to areas that safety-first investors think are high risk — but which the market has shown to be relatively safe — without going too far to the end of the spectrum. Tiana Patillo, financial advisor manager at Vanguard, discusses a recent survey by the firm, which found that more than 70% of women say they are confident about saving money, yet nearly half of them acknowledged that their savings may not be keeping pace with inflation. And speaking of inflation, Chuck answers a listener's question about whether his son's use of "buy now, pay later" programs at the gas pump makes any financial sense at all.

The big story in the week ahead is expected to be the IPO of SpaceX, and Kyle Guske, investment analyst at New Constructs, says this deal is ugly right from the jump, putting the new stock in The Danger Zone before it even goes public. Guske notes that SpaceX has no earnings , a negative economic book value, a share structure that leaves virtually all control with Elon Musk, and that nearly all money raised in the launch will go to pay off prior debts. When the IPO goes through, however, there will be "this massive valuation on a company that, right now, is unprofitable," and that will have to deliver huge amounts of future growth to justify the expected market price. Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, discusses SpaceX too, noting it is part of a broader IPO wave that is less about great investment opportunities and more about venture capitalists cashing out while the getting is good. In "The Week That Is," Marolia also looks at Americans' growing credit-card debt load which — unlike the soft, emotional data of consumer sentiment — shows how consumers are struggling with inflation and explains how that struggle could be the thing that trips up the economy if consumers wake up and cut spending. In The Big Interview, Dominic Ceci, chief investment officer at Johnson Financial Group says that the economic growth story has "captured the hearts and minds" of investors, allowing them to keep climbing the wall of worry to get the stock market back to record highs. He says that growth picture could be changing, as artificial intelligence gets to a "prove it" phase, inflation stays higher for longer, and the impacts of War in Iran move from the potential problem of the fighting's first few days to the undeniable impacts seen only as the conflict moves past the 90-day mark.

Darrell Cronk, chief investment officer at Wells Fargo Wealth & Investment Management, says he expects inflation will top 4% during the summer, which will put pressure on the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates, but that could dramatically increase the potential for recession because rate hikes and oil-driven inflation stocks, historically, have been a recipe for trouble. Cronk, who also serves as president of the Wells Fargo Investment Institute, says that virtually all economic and market outlooks hinge on questions around reopening the Strait of Hormuz, but his outlook remains positive, noting that markets have nearly eclipsed in five months Wells Fargo's forecast for the year, with solid earnings poised to drive things higher from here. In spite of the economic concerns, Cromk is optimistic that it will be "a good year when we put 2026 in the history books." Jim Lee, founder of StratFi, says the technicals show a market that is somewhat overbought, making it due for a minor pullback of about 5 percent "in the next month or so," but says he would buy the dips because the market has the potential to deliver 20 percent gains when 2026 is done. Lee notes that he particularly likes the "HALO stocks," "heavy asset, low obsolescence" plays that tend to be old-economy dividend-payers, which have done well in 2026 and have momentum that he expects to continue, even if it takes longer than expected to resolve the war in Iran. Plus, Gordon Hamilton, senior managing director for Kayne Anderson — portfolio manager for the Kayne Anderson Energy Infrastructure closed-end fund — says 'historic' oil drawdowns are setting up a major call once a peace deal is done for U.S. energy infrastructure companies to meet global demand for propane, butane, crude oil and natural gas. Coupled with an energy "supercycle" driven by artificial-intelligence needs, it has created what should be a persistent long-term opportunity for infrastructure investors.  

Adam Rozencwajg, managing partner at Goehring & Rozencwajg — a firm that focuses on natural resource investing — says that the war in Iran has already created "the most severe shock to energy markets in history," which he says is three times more severe in terms of barrels produced than anything seen in the 1970s, and that the situation will get markedly worse from here. Rozencwajg says that it takes about 90 days from oil to make it from the well to the consumer; it's now been about 80 days since the wells were shut off because oil couldn't be shipped, which means "We should begin to feel the physical crunch in about 10 days time." He says inventory levels have dropped precipitously, could evaporate if tensions continue and that could lead to oil priced at $150 to $200 per barrel for months, and even after the Strait or Hormuz reopens; while he thinks the economy can avoid recession in those conditions, he acknowledges it would dramatically raise recession risk. Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, takies a very different take on energy and power markets, picking a classic utilities sector fund as his "ETF of the Week." Allison Hadley discusses a study done for American Home Shield, which showed that homeowners spent an average of $3,737 on repairs in 2025, but that nearly one in five of those homeowners had to take on debt to pay for those fixes. Moreover, the survey found that 57% of the homeowners who made repairs were blindsided, meaning the cost came out of nowhere. Plus, Chuck answers a listener's question about indexed universal life insurance policies, a popular product among social media influencers that sounds too good to be true, and that probably is for most consumers.

Long-time personal-finance commentator Paul Merriman, founder of the Merriman Financial Education Foundation says that investors haven't taken inflation into consideration the way they have investment returns, and that has the potential to leave them "at risk of being disappointed." Merriman says that investors should "Take 2 percent off of the return for the purposes of thinking about the future, and add 2 percent to what you are thinking in terms of inflation and that would be a more realistic view of the future." Deana Healy, vice president of financial planning and advice at Ameriprise Financial discusses the firm's recent survey report, "Flying Solo: Navigating Financial Autonomy," which found that 85 percent of financially solo adults feel confident managing their money, but the same number worry about aging alone and navigating the long-term financial decisions that come with it. Plus Chuck answers two questions from listeners, one about whether people are hiding their spending and their financial health in order to fit in with friends and neighbors — possibly explaining the disconnect between sentiment numbers and spending statistics — and the other from an investors whose portfolio has remain unchanged for decades, and whether staying put with it continues to make sense.

Charles Rotblut, vice president for the American Association of Individual Investors — overseer of the AAII Sentiment Survey — discusses the dramatic drop in bullish sentiment last week and how the big spread between bullish and bearish investors increased so dramatically that it teeters on the edge of becoming a contrary indicator. The sentiment survey has a history of showing that when emotions swing too far in one direction, the market responds by moving in the opposite direction. Still, Rotblut notes that bearish sentiment is "unusually high" and has been above its historical averages for 15 consecutive weeks. Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, looks at the wild swings in bond-market sentiment and expectations, whether consumers will keep spending in the face of flagging sentiment and higher costs and introduces us to his alter ego, "Captain Inflation," whose superhero sidekick could be Kevin "The Hawk" Warsh, the new Federal Reserve chairman who will get his first shot at addressing inflation on Thursday. Plus, Tom Bernard discusses his new book, "The Index of America: How the S&P500 Works and Why You Should Invest In It," and how the leading market indicator will keep up and remain the flagship benchmark for long-term investors. He addresses issues like concentration, diversification, globalization and more.

Eric Stein, chief investment officer at Voya Investment Management, says that  investors can expect interest rates — particularly on longer-term bonds — will keep rising, but those higher reates "will lead to lower rates because you will see a response on the demand side whether it's through the consumer or through the [capital expenditures] cycle." Stein says that if "demand destruction" doesn't slow the economy too much, recession remains avoidable, particularly in the muted economic cycles that the U.S. has been going through in recent years. In The NAVigator segment,  Bryce Doty, senior portfolio manager at Sit Investment Associates, also says that rates will be coming down, with his estimation being that it happens by the fall because "the worst is over as far as yields going up." Doty says that if oil prices stay below $110 per barrel, it's viewed as inflationary; above that level, "We have a problem, and so does the rest of the world." He says central banks will solve that problem by cutting rates to "save economies from disaster," and likes two-year TIPS, municipal bonds and high-yield corporate bonds to ride out the storm. Plus, Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst and Washington bureau chief at BankRate.com — who recently launched The Hamrick Brief on Substack to give his take on current financial events — discusses mortgage rates and inflation both reaching recent highs, the historical context of those numbers and how, why and when conditions may ease and change.

Brendan Ahern, chief investment officer at KraneShares — which manages a number of funds tied to China — says that President Trump's recent trip to China was viewed very differently overseas than it was in America. In China, the trip was viewed very positively for establishing trade boards, improving communications and laying a foundation for future negotiations.  Domestically, however, the view of China has been that a tepid consumer is making the economy struggle, and that's before inflation kicks up globally based on oil prices. Ahearn, who also is the author of China Last Night, says China is prepared for oil and gas shortages, but it is looking at domestic consumption stimulus to help rev up consumers to help drive economic growth and improvement. "It's not all rainbows and unicorns over there, economically," he says, "but it's certainly not the apocalypse you would expect either." One statement in Ahern's Big Interview is that "There's no such thing as China-ex investing," meaning it's hard to buy any funds or ETFs where the holdings truly exclude businesses from China, but Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, actually makes the point that in rare-earth metals, investors may want to take steps to avoid exposure to China. He makes the month-old Sprott Rare Earths Ex-China fund his "ETF of the Week," noting that rare-earth metals are a thematic play akin to buying gold miners, and that the new ETF, by avoiding China, follows a very different path than its longer-established competition. Plus, Chantel Bonneau Stewart, Wealth Management Advisor at WiseFit Wealth Management and Insurance Solutions at Northwestern Mutual discusses the launch of Northwestern Mutual's Personal Prosperity Index, which in its initial reading found that Americans feel good about the health of their relationships, body, mind and money, but they're not feeling nearly so good about the economy and politics.

Andrew Almeida, director of investments at XYPN, says that investors shouldn't be too active in responding to the news, but he says that geopolitics is a real threat to portfolios, especially as current tensions linger and change the inflation landscape. Almeida — co-host of XYPN's new Balanced PM podcast, which launches today — notes that the risks you take in reacting to the news are at least as big as the risks you accept when you leave your current portfolio in place and ride it out; he discusses the discipline investors need to pursue their goals while not reacting to the proverbial elephant in the room. Brendan McCann, research analyst at Morningstar discusses the firm's annual U.S. Fund Fee Study, released Tuesday, which showed that reduced fees saved investors $6.8 billion in fund expenses. He says, however, that while the long-term trend in expenses has been down, the industry may be reaching a point where -- thanks to the creation of new types of funds -- future cost reductions become increasingly difficult. Plus, John Barr, portfolio manager for the Needham Growth and Aggressive Growth funds — featured on yesterday's show for an investment process that earned him the title of "Stock Market Maestro" by author and researcher Lee Freeman-Shor — returns to the show to highlight that methodology talking growth stocks in the Market Call.

John Blank, chief investment strategist and chief economist at Zacks Investment Research, says that global central banks — including the Federal Reserve — have shifted to a rate-hiking mode. While some will wait to see when the Strait of Hormuz opens and how long higher oil prices impact inflation, he thinks the lingering tensions will force their hand. Further, he worries that the market's current levels "don't make sense," saying "multiple compression in the stock market should be [investors'] primary concern." Still, Blank says investors want to be fully invested, but possibly building a cash stash to get through some rougher times that he sees ahead. Vincent Randazzo, chief market strategist at ViewRight Advisors — co-manager of the recently launched Defender Risk Adaptive 500 ETF — says the market is in a "recovery mode" from a decline it went through just as the war in Iran broke out, and because it's still in the early stages, the recovery is "lumpy," and led by the biggest names. Randazzo, who focuses his research on market breadth, expects this market to broaden out and include more smaller names as the recovery continues to build. John Barr, portfolio manager for the Needham Funds — selected as a "Stock Market Maestro" by author and researcher Lee Freeman-Shor — discusses having market discipline and what it takes to deliver superior investment results through long-term, patient stock-picking. He also discusses how his methods are different from all of the other maestros Freeman-Shor identified in his book (discussed on the March 26th show), highlighting how there is no one right way to profit in the market.