Tuesday, 3 November 2026
Independent coverage of global markets, trade and finance
The big rally in small caps has the Russell 2000 easily outpacing the S&P 500 this year. While large-cap tech titans dominate the headlines, small companies have been quietly making noise with investors who have already…
Trade tariffs and related uncertainty contributed to strong fluctuations in economic activity during the first half of 2025, with frontloading of activity, especially in Ireland. The unwinding of these factors in the se…
China's economy grew at a faster-than-expected rate in the second quarter, keeping the country on track to meet its full-year target of 5% and easing some pressure on policymakers to step up stimulus to underpin growth.
In our view, the second quarter was defined by strong but uneven US equity performance. The S&P 500 delivered a solid rebound in April, posting its best monthly gain since November 2020 and moving to fresh record highs …
The 2026 war with Iran has created an array of geopolitical consequences — some of which have directly impacted investor portfolios. Foremost among these is weakening growth expectations, which have proved to be particu…
Even with the Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) acquisition out of its hair — leaving Paramount Skydance (PSKY) to hold the bag — Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) is struggling this year.
API Report: US Crude Oil Inventories Fall by 8.33 Million Barrels, Missing Market Forecasts
The once obscure CLO ETF market has officially broken out of its niche shell and entered a new phase of growth. Heading into 2026, total global assets quickly topped $35 billion and have now surged past the $50 billion …
Inflation affects everything from grocery bills to rent, making the Consumer Price Index one of the most closely watched economic indicators. What does inflation mean at the micro level — specifically to your household?
Financial markets are once again being driven by the same dominant theme: inflation and what it means for Federal Reserve policy. The latest twist in that story comes once again from crude oil, where dramatic price swin…
Fixed income ETFs now command trillions in assets and trade with equity-like immediacy. These wrappers let investors move in and out of diversified bond exposure in a single click, at a visible price, throughout the day…
When it comes to space stocks, Elon Musk’s SpaceX (SPCX) is clearly the big kahuna. After all, the company just completed the largest initial public offering (IPO) in history, rapidly joining the $1 trillion-plus market…
These were last week’s top performing leveraged and inverse ETFs. Note that because of leverage, these kinds of funds can move quickly. Always do your homework.
Bitcoin’s latest bullish sentiment is being shaped by a powerful macro question: is inflation pressure finally cooling enough to support risk assets again? After a difficult period marked by sticky prices, high interest…
Specifically, Chair Warsh said that “financial markets perform best when they react to incoming data. I think the financial markets work less efficiently when they ask a question. How will the Federal Reserve react to t…
There are a lot of interesting statistics to consider about small-cap stocks today, most of them bullish. Frequently mentioned: Smaller stocks are coming off their best first half of any year since 1991. The ALPS O’Shar…
Reliable distribution growth remains one of the most important tailwinds for midstream MLPs. After all, investors often allocate to this space primarily for its attractive yield and consistent income. Learn more below a…
Small-cap stocks remain the cheapest corner of the U.S. market. That’s true even after posting their best first-half performance in more than three decades, according to Morningstar’s Q3 2026 stock market outlook. Key T…
With oil and gas prices spiking, despite a pledge from Donald Trump to protect tankers making their way through the crucial strait of Hormuz shipping chokepoint, central bankers and economists have warned that a prolong…
The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services (BOP basis) widened to $78.3 billion in July from a slightly downwardly revised $59.1 billion in June (previously -$60.2 billion), according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This w…
On this episode of the “ETF of the Week” podcast, VettaFi’s Head of Research, Todd Rosenbluth, discussed the Vanguard US High-Yield Corporate BD Index ETF (VCHY) with Chuck Jaffe of Money Life. The pair discussed severa…
Big Pharma has a $300 billion problem, and biotech developers with promising drugs are becoming the fix. Major drugmakers are spending at a pace not seen since 2019 to replace medicines that will soon lose patent protec…
Our global markets watchlist tracks nine prominent indexes from economies around the world. The list includes the S&P 500 from the United States, TSX from Canada, the FTSE 100 from England, the DAXK from Germany, the CA…
A relative period of calm in the oil market may well be over, following last week’s goings on in the Middle East. Most notably, the U.S. renewed military strikes against Iran, with President Trump potentially unnerving …