The S&P 500 has been stuck in a range for the better part of four months, and investors are paying up to protect against the possibility that the next big move is down. To a growing number of strategists, that pessimism is cause to expect the opposite.
Almost 1,000 active ETFs launched in 2025, but did their performance substantiate the demand? Across the universe of funds, active managers for ETFs and mutual funds found that outperformance was elusive compared to their passive peers based on the latest Morningstar US Active/Passive Barometer report.
Despite early volatility driven by global bond market stress, tariff-related tensions, renewed inflation concerns, and uncertainty surrounding Federal Reserve leadership, equities finished January higher, with the S&P 500 reaching new all-time highs.
Matt Markiewicz, Head of Product and Capital Markets at Tradr ETFs, highlights the company’s leveraged single-stock ETF lineup and innovative monthly and quarterly reset products, while offering insight into the growing sophistication of retail investors navigating leveraged and inverse ETFs. Christian Magoon, Founder and CEO of Amplify ETFs, discusses Amplify’s rapid ascent past $20 billion in assets, driven by strong demand for its YieldSmart ETFs and thematic offerings.
2026 may already be more than a month in, but advisors and investors are still quite keen to navigate the complex geopolitical market in order to find the most opportune investment opportunities.
In a notable shift for the start of 2026, the S&P 500 is experiencing a divergence in factor performance. Typically, high beta (aggressive, high-risk) and low volatility (defensive, safe-haven) factors sit on opposite sides of the seesaw. When one goes up, the other usually comes down.
The threat to software-backed businesses from artificial intelligence should prompt investors to shift focus from technology to companies that toil in the physical world, like miners, power producers and industrial firms, according to Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi, global head of equities and chief investment officer for the Americas at UBS Wealth Management.
The playing field presents broad opportunities for income investors today, with income and growth potential across asset classes. But an effective defense is also critical in capturing that potential. When it comes to the tools of the trade, we think broader is better.
Gold’s sharp swings and a new Federal Reserve chair are not separate stories. In a recent episode of the Money Metals podcast, Mike Maharrey sat down with Axel Merk, President and Chief Investment Officer of Merk Investments, to connect the dots between market turbulence and what may be a structural shift at the Fed.
Stripped to its essentials, finance is a race against time. What lies ahead of us is unknown, and the vast industry of banking and finance has developed to manage the risks that come with making commitments now that depend on an uncertain future.
As the hunt for yield and stability remains a cornerstone of portfolios in 2026, a group of iShares short-term bond ETFs have made a strategic move to the Big Board today.
Corporate bonds are exposed to abrupt downside as liquidity providers are increasingly replaced by liquidity takers.
According to the UN World Tourism Organization, an estimated 1.52 billion international tourists traveled the world in 2025. That’s nearly 60 million more than the year before, representing 4% growth, and it marks a return to the steady, pre-pandemic growth trend of 5% annually that the industry enjoyed between 2009 and 2019.
The captains of artificial intelligence are an impatient lot. There’s good reason for the existence of the Silicon Valley cliché “move fast and break things.” They are certainly moving fast on the buildout of AI infrastructure, rolling out eye-popping spending budgets to buy computer chips and construct data centers to house them.
The global energy transition is accelerating, and 2026 is shaping up to be an active year for renewable energy development. As we see it, private credit’s central role in financing the power build-out and its ability to structure flexible solutions for borrowers is likely to generate attractive return opportunities for investors.
In this episode of "ETF of the Week," host Chuck Jaffe and Todd Rosenbluth, Head of Research at VettaFi, dive deep into the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP). While the traditional S&P 500 is market-cap weighted—meaning the biggest companies have the most influence—the RSP gives all 500 companies an equal 0.20% stake. We discuss why this "mid-cap value" tilt is currently outperforming the broader market, how it provides better exposure to sectors like industrials and utilities, and how you can pair it with your existing core holdings to reduce risk.
Given the divergence between the calm market surface and the volatility of its underlying stocks' returns, let's get a better grip on the market’s undercurrent and decipher what it may be trying to tell us.
One underused alternative sits quietly in the options market: the short box spread. When used correctly, it allows advisors to treat borrowing as a fixed, collateralized financing decision, rather than an improvised margin advance.
Income rather than price is the primary driver of FRN returns. As policy rates and SOFR move, FRN coupons adjust accordingly, allowing income to rise in higher-rate environments and decline when rates fall.
The central theme of 2025 was the disconnect between market sentiment and economic reality. The year began with widespread apprehension regarding aggressive tariffs and forecasts of a recession.
“China is dumping US Treasuries to get out of the dollar.” This claim has been circulating the mainstream feeds lately, with the narrative that the “end of the dollar is near,” or “the US will lose its funding base,” and “bond yields will surge.” But are those claims valid? Such is what we will explore in more detail.
The U.S. economy sent conflicting signals last week as a sharp deceleration in growth collided with unexpectedly stubborn inflation.
Many software stocks have been under pressure in recent months, as investors have started to perceive them as vulnerable to emerging artificial intelligence technology. As highlighted in the “6-Month Price History of the S&P Software and Service Index” chart, software stocks have declined roughly 27% from their September 2025 high.
Roundhill Financial, GraniteShares, and Bitwise have filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for prediction market ETFs. These funds would let investors bet directly on election outcomes. That would be a departure from traditional political theme funds that hold baskets of stocks expected to benefit from certain party victories.
Income ETFs have become a key part of the ETF landscape in recent years. With their ability to use tools like call options and FLEX options, as well as dividend-focused stocks, income ETFs can help investors meet their goals.
It’s a short week for traders and portfolio managers, but a long one for those dissecting macro data points. FOMC Minutes hits before a slew of mid-tier economic updates on Thursday. Friday morning could be the big reveal, with growth and inflation numbers followed by bellwether business and consumer surveys.
The rising dispersion in returns and relatively low correlation among S&P 500 stocks has become increasingly apparent on the CBOE S&P 500 Dispersion Index and the CBOE Three-Month Implied Correlation Index.
Not long ago, CLO ETFs were niche vehicles only talked about at credit conferences and in sophisticated bond manager circles. But fast forward to 2026, and they’ve entered the mainstream – drawing meaningful interest from both institutions and retail investors.
California, like a careless heir who squanders a fortune, keeps menacing its top taxpayers. Unless lawmakers start showing some restraint, the state’s many economic strengths are likely to further erode.
Craig Ebeling, Head of ETF Strategists at Fidelity Investments, delivers an ETF “State of the Union,” outlining the key trends and themes shaping the industry today. Roxanna Islam, Head of Sector & Industry Research at VettaFi, examines the record surge in international equity ETF inflows, analyzes the drivers behind the category’s performance, and highlights standout funds beyond the ETF leaderboard’s biggest names.
A new class of digital money is reshaping how Americans move and store dollars — and Wall Street is racing to get a piece of it.
US equities rose Wednesday as a batch of reports confirming the strength of the American economy and a number of developments at the Big Tech giants reignited Wall Street’s excitement for the group.
To love a bubble but hate a crash is to misunderstand the market. A bubble is a crash on its way to becoming. A crash is a bull market on its way to becoming. All we can do is to accept, and as difficult as it may be – embrace – whatever form we have in the present moment, so we can do our best with each of them.
All three major stock indices finished in the red last week as AI disruption fears continued to grow. The S&P 500, an index of large US companies, returned -1.3 percent for the week, making the index flat year to date.
Thematic ETFs have maintained their impressive momentum in early 2026, building on a resurgent 2025. After gathering $23 billion last year, the category added another $4 billion in January alone.
Emerging market ETFs are back in focus. Two of the ten largest U.S.-listed ETF inflow winners year-to-date are broad EM funds. As expected, low-cost passive strategies continue to dominate flows, although they don’t always lead on returns.
Join JoAnne Bianco, CFA® of BondBloxx as she explores how targeting credit rating strategies may enhance portfolio income. From BBB rated investment grade to CCC rated high yield, now investors can optimize fixed income allocations in today's market environment with the diversification, transparency, and cost efficiency of ETFs.
AI is evolving too quickly for static governance. Most firms today are still in a reactive posture. The goal is to move toward proactive management and ultimately predictive governance. The firms that learn to govern shadow AI will be the ones who turn today’s risk into tomorrow’s advantage.
The article from the Wall Street Journal titled “Why My Generation Is Turning to Financial Nihilism” by Kyla Scanlon argues that Gen Z is embracing high-risk financial behavior out of despair and detachment, but the data shows something very different.
Years after Cathie Wood became the face of pandemic-era investing euphoria, her flagship fund is marking a difficult milestone.
Four months ago, digital assets underwent what I believe was the most consequential liquidation event in their history. On October 10, 2025, over $19 billion in leveraged positions were wiped out within hours. Bitcoin plummeted from roughly $122,000 to $105,000. More than 1.6 million trader accounts were liquidated.
Artificial intelligence is a genuinely useful technology, but its impact will be uneven, gradual and impossible to predict. That’s the boring truth, however unlikely it is to go viral.
Gold has always been one of the go-to assets when stomach-churning volatility forces queasy investors into safe havens. However, recent volatility has been challenging that safe haven narrative, and one of the drivers has been speculative trading activity in China ETFs.
The performance of digital assets in recent months, especially bitcoin, has been testing investor conviction in both the category’s near-term growth potential as well as bitcoin’s standing as a gold-like store of value and a key character in the debasement trade story.
Since the beginning of the year, we have discussed the “reflation trade” and its impact on specific market sectors. This past weekend’s newsletter also showed some of these more extreme returns in various market sectors since the beginning of the yea
Investors are avoiding beaten-down software stocks, warning that the brutal selloff triggered by fears of displacement by artificial intelligence is likely only just beginning.
Treasuries rose on Tuesday as investors bet on the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates at least twice this year and jitters over global technology shares boosted demand for safer assets.
Thrive Capital, the venture capital firm founded by Josh Kushner, has raised more than $10 billion — its largest fund ever, giving the firm an expanded war chest to invest in areas ranging from artificial intelligence applications and infrastructure to space, robotics and life sciences.
As of February 10, 2026, Victory Capital managed $20 billion in ETF assets, with an impressive $9 billion of new money flowing in during the past 12 months.
Diversification seeks to help manage risk, smooth portfolio outcomes, and improve the likelihood that clients stay invested and on track toward their long-term goals.
