Gold demand was up 2 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, setting a record in value terms. Including over-the-counter (OTC) selling, gold demand came in at 1,231 tonnes.

Ironically, the story I want to discuss today involves two companies we do not own and never have owned. Though they are household names, and this transaction is one of the most significant acquisitions in business history.

Artificial intelligence unknowns are creating stress in the market, and we don’t see that ending any time soon. For long-term investors, these stressors can create opportunities.

In this month’s Allocation Views, the Middle East conflict and its impact on the global economy in 2026 continue to be the chief concern for asset allocation, as inflationary pressures challenge central bank policy.

The U.S. labor market demonstrated remarkable endurance in April, with job gains outpacing expectations and private sector expansion reaching its strongest point in over a year. As the Federal Reserve maintains a steady interest rate policy, the focus now turns to upcoming inflation and retail data to gauge the sustainability of this momentum.

Emerging markets have grown more resilient, according to the Templeton Global Macro team, and the Iran-driven oil shock is a fresh test. Impacts will likely diverge between oil importers and exporters and vary widely within each group.

Though the U.S. drills far more oil than in the past and relies less on supplies from the war-torn Persian Gulf, U.S. consumers see there's no escaping global price realities.

With the war in Iran dragging past the original ceasefire deadline, how might the situation impact global energy markets—and other sectors—from here? To cut through the noise, we asked Luke Pryor, Security of the Future Portfolio Manager and Co-Portfolio Manager of Strategic Equities, to share his oil and gas industry expertise.

What to do? Does one capitulate and chase the bubble at the highest valuations in history? Does one wring their hands at the prospect of a bubble that might only go higher and higher forever without end? My hope is that this month’s comment will offer both perspective and confidence that it is not necessary to chase current extremes, nor to be anxious even about the possibility of steeper ones.

As market volatility lingers, the latest S&P Persistence Scorecard reveals a sobering reality for active managers.

After years of U.S. equity dominance, conditions were shifting coming into 2026. Earnings growth outside the U.S. had begun to converge, wide valuation gaps narrowed modestly, and investor interest in international equities was rebuilding. While the Iran war injected uncertainty and temporarily dampened enthusiasm for non‑U.S. stocks, the underlying setup remains intact.

The April FOMC meeting’s four dissents and resistance to maintaining an easing bias signal a higher bar for rate cuts under incoming Chair Warsh, suggesting investors may favor Treasury floating-rate strategies to navigate a prolonged “higher-for-longer” environment.

Last week was the busiest week of Q1 earnings season, as close to half of the S&P 500 reported quarterly results including Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, and Apple. Alphabet stock jumped 10 percent on the back of strong results from Google Cloud and Gemini.

Dividends have historically been the dominant method by which companies returned capital to shareholders. Share repurchases have only recently surpassed cash dividends as the primary form of corporate payout in the United States. Investor interest in buyback strategies has grown rapidly as a result.

In this video, Chuck Carnevale explains why valuation is critical when investing in growth stocks and why investors must balance growth potential with the price they pay.

Claiming Social Security is one of the most critical financial decisions you will make, serving as a significant factor in determining your financial success in retirement. You must consider several variables: Does it make sense to claim benefits early to improve current cash flow and avoid tapping into other accounts?

Something unusual is happening with U.S. inflation data. While the core Consumer Price Index (CPI) has looked relatively cool recently, core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) inflation has risen sharply.

The movement of silver out of the U.S. has helped ease market tightness, but an ongoing structural supply deficit makes the metal vulnerable to future squeezes.

Advisor clients have myriad goals and needs for their portfolios — but this year, delivering on them has gotten more complicated. Events in the Middle East will likely spur inflation for the rest of 2026.

Research Affiliates explains how a fundamental growth strategy can outperform traditional market-cap-weighted growth indices.

TCW's concentrated strategy targets power grid constraints over clean tech, riding demand from AI and manufacturing reshoring.

Retirement is a challenge for countless investors and their advisors. A new report from Goldman Sachs has more.

As equity markets transition into 2026, large cap equity portfolio managers share a surprisingly consistent framework — paired with sharp disagreements on where risk and opportunity sit. A survey of large growth, value, and blend managers reveals a market shifting away from simple narratives toward selectivity, fundamentals, and manager skill.

S&P 500 first quarter 2026 earnings are tracking at nearly 28% year-over-year, with rising profit margins suggesting the strong run could persist.

Global equity markets entered 2025 with a familiar narrative. U.S. leadership remained firm, supported by strong earnings, AI-driven optimism, and a market structure increasingly dominated by a narrow group of large-cap companies. For many investors, the path forward seemed clear: stay anchored to what worked.

While the Middle East war takes on the lion’s share of headlines, and rightfully so, there has been another development in bond-land that has gone relatively unnoticed. Indeed, one concern that crops up in the U.S. Treasury (UST) market is the potential for higher budget deficits from the already lofty current reading.

By remaining on the US Federal Reserve board of governors after the end of his term as chair, Jerome Powell can keep the focus on his widely celebrated role as the “defender of the Fed.” But if that allows him to sideline substantive criticism of Fed policy during his tenure, the institution may suffer for it.

The generational divide is a part of the human condition – and the investor condition. It’s not just that one group has more experience than the other, or that one is more eager to make its own way, but that both groups can learn totally different lessons from the same event.

ClearBridge Investments suggests investors could use volatility as an opportunity to deploy capital, while modestly favoring the stronger earnings revisions and more reasonable valuations available in non-US equities.

It’s Shareholder Meeting Month on Wall Street. With the bulk of the Q1 earnings season now in the rearview mirror, investors turn their attention to Annual General Meetings (AGMs) held by some of the most important multinational corporations.

In a recent Market Outlook Symposium we hosted at VettaFi, we learned that 2026 has marked the return of fixed income as a strong contributor to an investor’s total return. We also learned that the biggest theme in fixed income investing this year is dispersion. Where you are putting your money to work matters.

With shares of Amazon (AMZN) up 28% over the past month, it’s safe to say investors are at peace with the company’s massive artificial intelligence (AI) spending plans.

The S&P 500 hit a fresh record high last week. The median stock in the index is sitting 13% below its 52-week peak. That divergence is not a footnote or a curiosity.

Utilizing a portfolio of individual bonds can provide benefits that are difficult to reproduce via other fixed income investment vehicles. The portfolio can be completely customized to the specifications of an investor, providing a solution that aligns long-term financial goals with personal preferences. Product choice, issuer selection, cash flow, maturity, tax considerations, and credit quality, can all be customized.

LPL Research examines overlooked tech growth, assessing strong earnings, AI skepticism, and valuation opportunities for investors.

Deglobalization supports diversification: Reversing global trade reduces economic productivity, but the resulting decoupling of international markets increases the protective value of geographic diversification.

Despite continued geopolitical gridlock that has kept the Strait of Hormuz largely closed—and pushed West Texas Intermediate crude oil above $100 last week for the first time since the April 8 ceasefire announcement—U.S. equities continued to climb.

Thus far 2026 has been a roller coaster year for fixed income markets. The 10-year Treasury, the benchmark rate for the bond market, saw its yield trade as low as 3.94% and as high as 4.43%.

A persistent oil shock implies higher inflation and weaker growth, but risk assets appear unfazed, with equities and credit spread performance diverging from the caution implied by government bonds.

For many investors, wealth is about more than financial outcomes. It represents values, aspirations, family priorities, and a desire for a meaningful future. Aligning your investments with personal purpose means that your financial strategy reflects not only what you want to achieve financially but also the priorities that guide your life and legacy.

The performance reflects a shift toward gaming infrastructure over content, with the technology sector contributing 10.39% to the index’s return while consumer discretionary holdings subtracted 0.80%, according to VettaFi index data for April.

Advisors are rethinking strategy in 2026, as geopolitics, AI adoption, and downside risk reshape market expectations and investment decisions.

Momentum and growth dominated in April 2026, driving the S&P 500 to a massive 10.5% return. Discover the data behind this risk-on shift.

Despite lingering geopolitical tensions, higher oil prices, and renewed inflation concerns, equities moved higher in April, supported by a strong start to the Q1 earnings season and resilient economic growth.

Investors are questioning the staying power of medical technology (medtech) stocks, which have fallen from grace since the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet we think innovation continues to create exciting opportunities in companies that march to a different beat than the rest of the healthcare sector.

While oil prices are likely to remain elevated in the near term, we do not view the current disruption as a lasting supply shock. A diplomatic resolution, or even progress toward one, should help bring prices lower by year-end. Although higher oil prices are a headwind, we believe both the economy and equity markets can absorb the impact with limited damage, as underlying fundamentals remain strong.

The complication is that the ceasefires stopped the escalation without resolving the underlying disruption. The Strait of Hormuz, which carries roughly 20% of global oil supply, remains effectively closed. Oil prices fell sharply on the ceasefire announcements (including the largest single-day decline since 2020), then climbed back above $100 per barrel.

Last week’s data was a good reminder that we are likely in a “resilient but uncertain” phase of the cycle.

Get ready each week with high-conviction insights that go beyond media headlines.

Students of game theory often start with a lesson in the prisoner’s dilemma: two agents would gain a better collective outcome by cooperating, but each has an individual incentive to take action that is at their partner’s expense.