Money Life with Chuck Jaffe

Greg Harmon, founder and president at Dragonfly Capital Management, says the market's bounce this week is a potential sign that the market's next move higher could be starting now. Harmon says the market is broadening out, and has come through "a great earnings season," creating "a strong market, fundamentally and technically." Harmon sees some potential problems, but he says that the market's ability to shrug off bad news will get helped out as some of those worrisome events get solved and fall by the wayside; that leaves him looking at a strong finish to the year for the market, and a good start to 2027 barring "an unexpected crisis."
Rob Shaker, portfolio manager at Shaker Financial Services — which uses a discount-capture strategy with closed-end funds — says that he's seen a lot of "good widenings" of discounts as the market returned to peak levels. A good widening is one where a fund's net asset value goes up more than the price of the closed-end fund itself. It happens when markets get volatile and indexes pull up faster than closed-end funds can move, creating attractive buying opportunities. 
In the Other Interview on today's show, James Barra, head of content and research at BrokerListings.com, discusses "Financial Literacy in the TikTok Era: Who Should You Trust," a research paper the site published that took a scientific approach to looking at the financial information on TikTok. Barra says that there's a wide range of content, but an alarming amount of it is "potentially problematic, high risk and largely untrustworthy." Over 70 percent of creators on TikTok have no clear background in financial services and no relevant qualifications and about two-thirds of the content failed to disclose downsides to the advice, conflicts of interest the creator has and more.

Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist at U.S. Bank Asset Management, entered the year saying that the stock market could "4-peat," by posting its fourth consecutive year of double-digit gains. While he says now that the market and economy have legitimate concerns to overcome, they also have fundamentals in place to do just that, setting up the potential for a 5-peat in 2027. Haworth does suggest that investors diversify further to help get them through the trouble spots, but he suggests putting more focus on domestic markets than international, being certain not to get too overloaded in the hot sectors and looking into parts of the fixed-income market where higher yields have been mostly overlooked.
Ron Mastrogiovanni, chief executive officer at HealthView Services, discusses the firm's recent research, titled "Social Security Solvency & Retirement Planning: Calculating Lost Benefits and Income Solutions," which examines the financial impact of potential Social Security benefits reductions on future retirees. The report shows that, without steps to fully fund the program, a 54-year-old couple retiring in eight years receiving average Social Security benefits could lose more than $160,000 over their lifetime, with high-income families losing as much as $500,000. Even if changes are made to extend solvency, Mastrogiovanni suggests everyone — even younger workers — should consider the possibility of lower Social Security benefits as they make retirement plans.
With small-cap stocks staging a strong rally this year — the small-cap index is up more than 20 percent year-to-date — Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi turns to an Avantis fund as his ETF of the Week, noting that the fund brings active management to stock selection, but does less trading than the small-cap index funds that regularly re-constitue as the benchmark changes.

Anthony Caruso, head of ETFs and product strategy at Nomura Asset Management International, says that while artificial intelligence is driving the market, it is also creating opportunities through its struggles, whether that is by punishing companies in industries like software, or forcing capital expenditures and more. He notes that there are strategies in playing the tight supply chains, particularly if investors are willing to consider emerging markets investments. Atthe same time, Caruso — who does not have recession in his outlook for the next year — says that with interest rates higher for longer, investors should take advantage of fixed-income to balance out a portfolio and help them ride out the volatility story.
Paula Fleming, chief marketing officer for the Better Business Bureau of Eastern Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island and Vermont, discusses savings strategies and the importance of knowing the rules for special days, weeks and weekends when states rescind their sales tax. There's one of those this coming weekend in Massachusetts — but Fleming notes that about half of all states have had some sort of tax-relief day in the last few years and 20 are holding them in 2026 — and Chuck discusses his shopping strategy and planned purchase to capture the discount on a big expense.
In the Market Call, Daniel Dusina, chief investment officer at Blue Chip Partners discusses "unappreciated quality stocks" and how even some big names that have run up still qualify.

Dean Christians, lead market strategist at Turning Point Market Research, sees a market that stays in a range-bound no-man's land — the way it has been for a few months now — until late in the year, when there's a strong chance of a year-end rally. Christians says there is a lot of sector rotation happening beneath the surface, with new areas picking up momentum while others, like technology, are losing steam. As a result, he says, "the best course of action is really not to do a whole lot," while waiting for the Federal Reserve to decide its course, which will have the biggest influence on what the market does entering the new year.
Meredith Mangan, managing editor at Credible, discusses the site's survey which found that nearly two-thirds of American homeowners underestimated the true cost of homeownership, and the result, on average, amounts to nearly $5,000 per year in unexpected ownership costs.
In the Market Call, David Snowball, publisher and chief analyst at MutualFundObserver.com, discusses the future of traditional mutual funds, the evolution of ETFs and how new funds today are different from classic offerings before getting down to some funds he likes and dislikes.

Jeff Klingelhofer, portfolio manager at Aristotle Pacific Capital, says that new Federal Reserve chairman Kevin Warsh is learning on the job, but he appears unafraid to tackle the inflation problem and take the tough medicine of raising interest rates, which is likely to create a recession. The good news out of that trouble, however, is that any downturn is likely to be short-lived, with a rip-snorting bull market emerging from a corrected economy and market. 
David Trainer, president at New Constructs, revisits Netflix, a long-time Danger Zone pick that he says has moved out of trouble. While it hasn't gone all the way to the "attractive" level, Trainer says there is a much stronger path toward bigger profits and a better balance sheet.
In "The Week That Is," Vijay Marolia,  chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, discusses a little-known hedge fund that collapsed last week, and nearly took the stock market with it. While the fund was bailed out by another hedge fund, Marolia worries that there are other potential market-shockers out there, far more than even savvy investors recognize, and that there may not be any buffers to step in and save the day the next time it happens. In addition, he discusses how earnings expectations have gotten so high that long-term investors need to grit their teeth and ride out extra volatility, and he talks about how artificial intelligence is teaching investors to want everything now, shortening time horizons, promoting excessive risk-taking and creating unrealistic ideas of what real investing can deliver.