Merrill's Quinlan: Market's 'heck of a ride' will keep going 'up and to the right'
Joe Quinlan, head of market strategy for Merrill Lynch and Bank of America Private Bank, says that the U.S. consumer higher-income households "are in great shape heading into 2026," and so long as the Boomers continue spending, the economy and stock market can roll along. Quinlan says that the economy can avoid a recession if the Federal Reserve can avoid policy mistakes, if the U.S. stays out of a difficult trade war and if the extraneous factors mostly stay at bay. Given what the market has weathered in 2025, Quinlan says there is reason to believe the rally can continue, even if results are muted a bit compared to the equity returns of the last three years. Chris Vermeulen, chief market strategist at The Technical Traders, says that investors should not be fighting current trends, but they should be getting cautious in a market where there's not a lot of upside left this year. He expects January to be a telling month for whether the rally can carry deep into 2026, and says that investors looking for bigger gains can still get in on the gold rally, which Vermeulen says still has 25 to 30 percent upside from current levels. Sandra Block, contributing editor at Kiplinger talks about what she learned about dental care for retirees as she made her own transition toward retirement earlier this year, and the choices consumers face as they weigh Medicare options. And Mark Hamrick discusses a recent BankRate.com survey which found that about half of working American adults expect to be reliant on Social Security benefits to handle necessary expenses when they retire, but more than three-quarters of that working population worries that their promised benefits won't be paid when they reach retirement age.
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59:26
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59:26
BlackRock's Chaudhuri: It's not a market downturn, just 'a regular cleaning period'
Gargi Chaudhuri, chief investment and portfolio strategist for the Americas at BlackRock, says the market's recent action represents "a fairly healthy pullback," the kind of periodic "cleansing" that markets go through, and that the recent action is less based on whether earnings can continue to drive valuations higher than it is on nervousness over the Federal Reserve's next move. Chaudhuri says that the current focus on whether the Fed will cut rates again in December is misplaced, because continued earnings growth, gross domestic product numbers and the fundamentals of the stock and bond markets will do more to determine how long the bull market lasts. That long view also coincides with BlackRock's latest "People and Money Survey," which Chaudhuri noted showed that staying invested long-term and riding out markets rewards investors more than trying to time markets. David Trainer, founder/president at New Constructs, says that agentive artificial intelligence has advanced to where it can provide investors with a real edge when it comes to choosing superior stocks and funds, and he warns that people who don't adopt AI for at least a part of their portfolio will be dooming themselves to below-average returns. He also explains how these forms of AI are different from the ones that are known for giving bad answers to personal-finance questions, which Chuck discussed on the show last week with Robert Farrington of The College Investor. Plus, Peter Krull, director of sustainable investing at Earth Equity Advisors, returns to the show after his recent appearance in the Market Call to discuss his new book, "The Sustainable Investor: Responsible, Impactful, and Values-Driven Investing Strategies and Practices for Financial Professionals." Krull discusses past, current and future forms of "responsible investing."
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1:02:24
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1:02:24
Chase Investment's Klintworth sees small correction/buying opp ahead
Buck Klintworth, senior vice president and portfolio manager at Chase Investment Counsel, says the market isn't looking like it will make dramatic moves before the end of the year, but he does expect a "small correction." Because he believes that the underpinnings for the economy are solid and forces like the artificial intelligence boom are backstopping the market, he expects that correction to be a buying opportunity for investors. Tani Fukui, senior director for global economic and market strategy for MetLife Investment Management, says she expects the Federal Reserve to follow through with rate cuts — even as the market seemed to waver in its confidence in cuts on Thursday — and that the move and the coming rate-cut cycle will help the U.S. economy avoid a recession. Josh Duitz, global head of income for Aberdeen — manager of the Aberdeen Total Dynamic Dividend Fund — talks about where he is finding success in generating elevated income at a time when rate cuts are making it harder for investors to earn easy yields. Duitz discusses international investing and whether the rally overseas can continue in the face of reduced currency impacts, where high-flyers like the Magnificent Seven stocks fit in with his portfolio (or don't), and which sectors he is finding most attractive right now. Beth Pinsker, financial planning columnist at MarketWatch, discusses her recent piece on what the release of new tax brackets for 2026 means for investors who are considering Roth IRA conversions. Pinsker notes that the bracket changes will change the math, especially for people who were on the fence about whether a conversion could be worthwhile.
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59:18
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59:18
Google AI gets about 40% of personal finance questions wrong
Robert Farrington, founder of The College Investor, posed 100 personal finance questions to Google AI and came away with 37 "misleading or inaccurate" answers, and while that sounds horrible, it actually represents an improvement of six percentage points over the results Farrington got making the same queries a year ago. Farrington notes that the outcomes are only as good as the inputs, meaning that consumers who don't know the right questions to ask will be more poorly served by artificial intelligence than those who know enough to ask solid questions. Catherine Collinson, president of the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, discusses "Retirement Throughout the Ages: The American Middle Class," which showed that U.S. adults earning between $50,000 and $199,999 annually are struggling to stay afloat and get ahead when it comes to retirement planning. Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, looks to mid-cap stocks with momentum as he makes an offering from Invesco his ETF of the Week. Plus, Chuck tackles the subject of 50-year mortgages and how the real problem with the idea may be more on how it addresses housing affordability — or not — rather than the massive amounts of extra interest paid over the life of the ultra-long loans.
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58:35
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58:35
Robinhood's Guild: 'Things are fully discounted at the S&P level'
Stephanie Guild, chief investment officer at Robinhood, says that the stock market has ridden earnings growth to the record highs it has set this year, but she is worried that with valuations at high levels, earnings growth can't sustain higher price-earnings multiple to push the market up further. Guild notes that Robinhood's customers have changed some of their investment habits as market conditions have evolved in the post-Covid market; they're still buying dips, but more on a single-name basis rather than buying broad markets and riding indexes. Further, Guild says she will be watching investor buying behavior during dips to see if there is a fatigue point where their nerves about possible downturns make it that each decline no longer appears to clients like a buying opportunity. Chip Lupo discusses WalletHub's 2025 Household Debt Survey, which showed that high inflation is contributing to rising debt levels in nearly 60% of American households, where more than two in five respondents expect household debt levels to increase in the next 12 months. Plus, Mike Dickson, head of research and quantitative strategies at Horizon Investments, brings his stock-evaluation system to the Market Call.
Money Life with Chuck Jaffe is leading the way in business and financial radio. The Money Life Podcast is a daily personal finance talk show, Monday through Friday sorting through the financial clutter every day to bring you the information you need to lead the MoneyLife.
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