Markets in a Minute Archives

Tuesday, August 12, 2025 

For over a century, the Federal Reserve has played a central role in shaping the U.S. economy, balancing its dual mandate of promoting maximum employment and maintaining stable prices. Yet, it remains one of the most scrutinized—and misunderstood—institutions in the country. This week’s Markets in a Minute breaks down the Fed’s history, its evolving responsibilities, and common misconceptions about what it can and can’t control, such as mortgage rates.

Tuesday, July 15, 2025 

The start of summer often feels like a reset — a time to shed jackets, settle into longer days and look forward to family vacations. This year, the market gave us another reason to feel sunnier in the second quarter, staging a remarkable comeback after a rough start to the year. In this week’s Markets in a Minute, we recap some key themes from the quarter, including pockets of outperformance and opportunity that should provide a tailwind for investors with broadly diversified portfolios. 

Tuesday, June 3, 2025 

Despite recent weakness, the U.S. dollar retains key structural strengths—such as deep capital markets, global trade dominance, and institutional trust—that continue to support its role as the world’s reserve currency .In this week’s Markets in a Minute, we look at shifting global growth dynamics, trade policy changes, and narrowing rate differentials—all of which have raised concerns about the dollar's trajectory. Despite these headwinds, its long-term position remains resilient. Over time, the strategic advantages of the dollar tend to outweigh temporary fluctuations.

Tuesday, May 13, 2025 

Tariff impacts are beginning to show up in the data—from disrupted shipping routes to shifting central bank rhetoric and newly negotiated trade deals. After hearing early concerns on earnings calls, we’re now seeing how businesses, policymakers, and global partners are responding in real time. This week’s Markets in Minute breaks down the latest developments, what they suggest about the road ahead, and why clarity around tariff policy matters for markets.

Tuesday, April 29, 2025 

Earnings season is off to a solid start, but investors can’t get too comfortable. While strong consumer spending and positive earnings surprises have helped lift results early on, looming risks from tariffs and shifting policies could weigh on future growth. Companies are already signaling that recent strength may reflect pulled-forward demand rather than lasting momentum. In an environment marked by uncertainty, staying diversified and digging deeper into earnings trends will be more important than ever. Read this week’s Markets in a Minute to learn more.

Tuesday, April 22, 2025 

International markets are off to a strong start in 2025—but the case for global diversification runs deeper than recent outperformance. This week’s Markets in a Minute explores the timeless theory behind diversification and why it remains essential for resilient portfolios, especially as U.S. market valuations remain elevated and policy uncertainty rises. With cracks appearing in U.S. equity dominance, it may be time to revisit the broader global opportunity set. The silver lining? Diversification still works.

Tuesday, February 25, 2025 

Performance of the Magnificent 7 stocks over the last 10 years has many investors convinced that the next decade is set up for a similar experience. In this week’s Markets in a Minute, we explore the risks of letting recent stock market performance shape future expectations, and advocate for core asset allocation principles such as diversification, talk a little baseball along the way.

Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Tariff talks topped headlines this week, as Donald Trump implemented this economic policy tool at Canada, Mexico, and China. The status of these policies seems to change by the hour with the range of outcomes varying but the result is still wide and adds uncertainty. We establish context around the risk to inflation and economic growth that tariffs bring, as well as reinforce our long-term focus. Read more in this week’s Markets in a Minute.

Tuesday, December 10, 2024 

As the 2024 The unexpected fall of the Assad regime in Syria has sent shockwaves across the Middle East, reshaping regional alliances and global markets. We examine the winners, losers, and uncertainties in the wake of Assad’s departure, from shifts in energy prices to the strategic implications for countries like Iran, Israel, and Russia. For investors, understanding these geopolitical ripple effects is crucial as the region navigates an uncertain future. Dive into the key insights and what they mean for the global economic and political landscape. Read more in this week’s Markets in a Minute.

Tuesday, December 3, 2024 

Despite the U.S. economy's resilience, the manufacturing sector has faced a troubling two-year contraction, raising questions about its future. In this week’s Markets in a Minute, we explore why manufacturing has struggled, from lingering supply chain issues to rising costs, and how new tariffs under the incoming administration could reshape the landscape.Dive in to discover why this critical sector still holds political weight, economic significance, and potential for innovation.

Tuesday, November 12, 2024 

The 2024 election season was one for the books, but despite a dramatic campaign and geopolitical uncertainties, markets showed surprising resilience. Following the decisive outcome, stocks surged, led by financials, crypto, and small-cap stocks, as investors shifted their focus from politics to policies. The “pre-election trade” sparked sector gains and influenced bond yields, hinting at potential inflationary pressures. Now, with political uncertainty behind us, the market's attention is set on key issues such as deficit levels, interest rate decisions by the Federal Reserve, and possible tax policy changes. Dive into our analysis to see how these factors could shape the financial landscape ahead. Read more in this week’s Markets in a Minute.

Tuesday, October 29, 2024 

This week marks one of the busiest periods of the year for markets, with major economic data releases, the final days of the presidential campaign, and a wave of corporate earnings reports from nearly half of the S&P 500. Key players like Google, Microsoft, and Apple are set to reveal their Q3 results, potentially shaping the market’s direction. Here’s what we’ve seen so far in earnings season and what to keep an eye on in the days ahead. Read more in this week’s Markets in a Minute.

Tuesday, October 1, 2024 

As the 2024 presidential election heats up, investors are eager to understand how the candidates' policies might impact the economy. With Vice President Harris now running against former President Trump, this race has seen plenty of political debate but fewer concrete policy details. In this week’s Markets in a Minute, we break down where they stand on critical issues like taxes, tariffs, and the national deficit, offering insights into the similarities and differences that could shape the economic landscape.

Tuesday, July 9, 2024 

In Q2, the S&P 500 continued its strong performance, gaining 5% for the quarter and 15% year-to-date, driven largely by the technology sector. While emerging and developed market equities outside the US also saw gains, the bond market struggled due to persistent inflation and delayed interest rate cuts. Economic indicators were mixed; job growth remained solid, but the unemployment rate rose, and consumer spending showed signs of strain. Looking ahead, inflation and labor market conditions will be crucial, with potential interest rate cuts and political uncertainty adding to market volatility. Read more in this week’s Markets in a Minute.  

Tuesday, June 25, 2024

Investors have understandably been fixated on the trajectory of inflation, interest rates and other headline-grabbing economic issues. Over time, though, the economy and markets are at least as impacted by demographic shifts. In this week’s Markets in a Minute, we examine the so-called silver tsunami, a global demographic trend with implications for investors and policymakers alike.

Tuesday, June 11, 2024

Infrastructure is something we take for granted and is also the kind of thing we hardly notice until it breaks down, leaving us stuck on a road, in an airport or on an internet connection that wasn’t built to handle so much traffic. In this week’s Markets in a Minute, we look at the global race to expand and upgrade infrastructure and implications for investors. 

Tuesday, May 14, 2024

While a party or individual in office can shade economic perceptions, they rarely define the direction of the overall market once a new president is in place. A defining feature of the American political system is the strength of its institutions, which have provided enviable stability for nearly two hundred and fifty years. While politics and our candidates are incredibly important for certain policies, the impact that any one individual can have on the overall market is limited. We discuss the election years broadly and what’s happened so far this year in this week’s Markets in a Minute.

Tuesday, May 01, 2024

If you’ve bought a house in the past four years, then you know how difficult it has been to navigate the housing market. In 2021, houses in certain parts of the country were sometimes selling for 20-30% over asking price. While the average price for a home has retreated from its peak, prices remain well above pre-pandemic levels and interest rates are at multi-decade highs, making the cost of owning a home more expensive than ever. Over the last two weeks, recent data releases suggest some reprieve, yet challenges still abound. Find out what’s happening in this week’s Markets in a Minute.

Tuesday, April 16, 2024

The US economy continued to show resilience despite elevated inflation and high interest rates, dampening expectations of interest rate cuts. The broad stock market gained more than 10%, its best start to the year since 2019. All but one S&P 500 sector saw positive returns, a sign of healthier levels of market breadth than in 2023. We discuss this and more in this week’s Markets in a Minute.

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Last week, the Federal Reserve announced no change to interest rates and threw water on any hopes for a rate cut at its next meeting in May. This more-tempered outlook for interest rates stands in contrast to market expectations in late 2023. In November of last year, after nearly two years of sharply rising interest rates, Fed officials first spoke of rate cuts. In celebration, markets rallied in what became known as the “pivot party.” So why the newfound caution? Find out in this week’s Markets in a Minute.

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

For most of the last 30 years, prices in Japan have grown at a rate below 2%. Then, like many countries around the world, Japan experienced an acceleration in inflation along with Covid-related economic policies. Beginning in 2020, Japan’s core consumer price index, less food and energy prices, began climbing and peaked at 4% in late 2022. Since then, price increases have abated and the latest reading showed 2%, in line with the BoJ’s target.

Wednesday, March 06, 2024

Beginning in the early days of Covid, supply chains around the world became snarled, making it difficult to find everything from couches to computer chips for automobiles. While inventory levels of most manufactured goods have since returned to normal levels, some supply chains are threatened anew by geopolitical and environmental stress in key shipping channels such as the Red Sea and the Panama Canal. As the Fed continues to wrestle with inflation, how much impact could these shipping disruptions have on inflation and the global economy? Learn more in this week’s Markets in a Minute.

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Over the course of 2023, seven of the largest stocks in the United States collectively doubled in value, earning the moniker, “The Magnificent 7.” After such impressive performance, what comes next? Read more in this week’s Markets in a Minute.

Read more in this week’s Markets in a Minute. 

Wednesday, February 01, 2024

One month into the new year, and one thing’s for certain: The presidential election will continue to grab headlines and grip the nation’s attention for the better part of 2024. How might this impact investors in terms of perceptions and actual market performance? We explore these questions, in the context of historical data, in this week’s Markets in a Minute.

Read more in this week’s Markets in a Minute. 

Wednesday, November 30, 2023

The recent bankruptcy filing of office-sharing company WeWork provided a stark example of the toll higher interest rates have taken on real estate, one of the most rate-sensitive sectors of the economy. Yet not all areas of this critical sector have performed the same way. Read on for a look at how residential and commercial real estate are faring in today’s higher-rate environment in this week’s Markets in a Minute.

Read more in this week’s Markets in a Minute. 

Wednesday, November 9, 2023

Over a year and a half ago, the Federal Reserve began raising the fed funds rate in an effort to slow inflation, which had reached rates not seen in decades. Since then, inflation has subsided substantially, yet interest rates have continued rising. Learn what’s driving those rate increases and possible implications for consumers, businesses, and investors in this week’s

Read more in this week’s Markets in a Minute. 

Wednesday, October 25, 2023

In contrast with Q2, Q3 performance was lackluster across a variety of asset classes. Read this week’s Markets in a Minute for a performance overview in the equity and fixed income markets and areas of potential opportunity in the months to come. 

Read more in this week’s Markets in a Minute. 

Wednesday, October 11, 2023

On Saturday, October 7, 2023, the world witnessed a dramatic turn of events as the militant group Hamas launched a coordinated attack on Israel by air, land, and sea. As of Monday, the toll of this conflict is already devastating, with more than 1,500 lives lost from both sides, and more than 2,200 people being injured, according to health authorities. Our hearts go out to those directly and indirectly affected by this conflict.

Read more in this week’s Markets in a Minute.

Wednesday, October 4, 2023

With the federally mandated pause on student loan repayments expiring this month, borrowers are now responsible for resuming payments on an astonishing $1.7 trillion in outstanding debt. Although one may assume these repayments will negatively affect the economy, several factors could help limit the impact.

Read more in this week’s Markets in a Minute.