Vishal Khanduja, Head of the Broad Markets Fixed Income team at Morgan Stanley, says with inflation trending downward, labor data will be what the Federal Reserve is most focused on, and as those numbers move the central bank may take a choppy path toward rate reductions. While that may keep the market on edge, Khanduja notes that corporate and con…

FinCon '24 continues from Atlanta, and the conference has a heavy emphasis on financial coaching this year, which comes through in a few of today's conversations from the annual meeting of bloggers, podcasters, content creators, coaches and more. Chuck's guests include KeyAnder Early of How Money Works, who focuses on financial literacy and teachin…

Gwen Merz Joiner, who runs the Fiery Millennials blog, says that living a radical financial life trying to amass a nestegg to quit working left her exhausted and unfulfilled, but as she loosens the purse strings today, she notes that she is in her 30s and has amassed a nest egg sufficient to get her through retirement without ever setting another d…

For all of the complaints consumers have about inflation, George Milling-Stanley, chief gold strategist at State Street Global Advisors says that the precious metal needs "sustained high inflation" — which he defines as at least two years with inflation above 5 percent — and those conditions were not met, so gold didn't respond to rising prices. Me…

Jack Janasiewicz, Portfolio Strategist at Natixis Investment Managers, says the economy can keep supporting earnings growth, and as long as earnings are marching higher, it should pull the equity market up further. While warning that investors may have to adjust expectations after two big years that make an encore unlikely, Janasiewicz says that he…

Lisa Wilcox joined Mark and Nicole to talk about her starring role in Nightmare on Elm Street 4 and 5. She clears up rumors of her being considered for Nightmare 3 and Halloween 4, describes what it is like to have fight scenes with Robert Englund especially in a giant kaleidoscope and MC Escher inspired stairs, dispels rumors of hanky panky on the…

David Ellison, Portfolio Manager and Financial Services Specialist at the Hennessy Funds, says that the banking industry is coming out of "a two-to five year period of darkness," heading for "sunny days ahead," though he notes that banks do not want interest rates to fall too far but he thinks earnings can grow even if the Federal Reserve cuts rate…

Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, says that the start of a rate-cutting cycle is a time when investors will want low-cost active management — rather than an index fund — in the fixed-income space. To that end, he picks a T. Rowe Price fund that uses a quantitative management style as his ETF of the Week, noting it can do the job for inv…

For about a decade, Chuck has offered the kids in his neighborhood a chance to pick cash or candy, to decide between a trade or a treat. It's part of his belief that even young kids are able to understand and make basic financial decisions, deciding if they would rather have candy or if the financial prize is worth more to them because it's differe…

Jeff Krumpelman, chief investment strategist at Mariner Wealth Advisors, expects the Standard & Poor's 500 should hit 6,000 by mid-2025, but he acknowledges that those gains might surprise him by coming early, turning 2024 potentially into a "super year," which would turn 2025 into a less-stellar environment. Either way, he expects the market to ta…

Sheraz Mian, director of research at Zacks Investment Research, says that the cumulative effect of the Federal Reserve's rate cycle starts showing up, it will goose the economy and the stock market, and with the worst of the post-Covid struggles behind us, the "soft landing" most experts forecast is actually what we're experiencing now, and that be…

Since Terrifier 3 is a smash hit and massacred even Joker 2 in the box office this week it seems like the perfect time to revisit the show where Art the Clown himself, David Howard Thornton visited the lighter side of the dark side in this classic Dark Mark Show from 2021 David Howard Thornton the man who plays Art The Clown in Terrifier and the up…

Victoria Fernandez, chief market strategist at Crossmark Global Investments, says investors will have to pay the piper for the market's last two years of out-sized gains, and she thinks the music will start playing early in 2025. While she thinks the market will avoid a big recession and/or market crash — and in fact thinks the market will rebound …

Nick Sargen, senior economic advisor at Fort Washington Investment Advisors, doesn't see a recession as imminent but he says a lot of the good news has already been priced into the stock market, which will lead to slower gains or sideways performance moving forward. Sargen says that market observers expecting a soft landing were thinking that situa…

Dominic Ceci, chief investment officer at Johnson Financial Group, says that investors can't expect the stock market — after 20-plus percent gains in 2023 and this year — to roll along at that pace indefinitely, noting that record highs have stocks trading well above their normal range relative to earnings. If earnings normalize and growth slows a …

Matt Fox, president of Ithaca Wealth Management, says that while it is always bullish to have the stock market in record-high range, the 20-plus percent gains of 2023 and again this year are setting up a long period of digestion/sideways movement that may last for much of 2025. He sees the stock market with room to keep running for now, noting that…

Tocqueville's Petrides: John Petrides, portfolio manager for Tocqueville Asset Management, says that while the market has gotten to all-time highs riding large-cap growth stocks for roughly seven years, there are undercurrents changing beneath the surface that will make diversification pay off in 2025. He notes that the market can go through a soft…

Paul Gruenwald, chief economist at S&P Global Ratings, discusses his 2024 fourth-quarter economic outlook, which suggests that the recent rally can continue especially as the economy transitions into what he expects will be its first soft landing in more than three decades. Gruenwald says the economy has been "super-resilient," and he expects that …