Money Life with Chuck Jaffe

Steve Laipply, global co-head of iShares Fixed Income ETFs for Blackrock, says that with fixed-income yields staying high and with evolving tools in new funds, investors have a generational opportunity to generate solid real returns and, more importantly, a solid income stream. BlackRock today released a new paper on current fixed-income opportunities, and Laipply discusses laddering bond ETFs with different maturities versus holding more general short-, intermediate and long-term funds, as well as the benefits of adding different types of fixed-income funds, including private credit and more.
Russell Rhoads,  professor of financial management at Indiana University and co-host of Academic Market Insights, says in the "Talking Technicals" segment that he's "a beat-up bear," but he cautions that volatility remains elevated and that when the VIX volatility index is elevated when the stock market is going strong, "That usually doesn't end very well." He says that stocks are about six months into an over-valuation cycle, with the Cape Shiller PE Index hitting its highest levels in decades; "When it reaches a higher level like that," Rhoads says, "we have typically gotten a correction in the next year or two."
Plus, Chuck — who wrote two different books on choosing and working with financial advisers — answers a question from a listener whose financial adviser is retiring, who now has to decide if they accept that adviser's recommended replacement, go with an adviser with whom there are family ties or starts over with someone new.

While much of the focus on artificial intelligence has been on how it will improve productivity, economist Benjamin Shiller, author of "AI Economics: How Technology Transforms Jobs, Markets, Life and Our Culture," says that many impacts that are just starting to be seen will be at least as revolutionary. Shiller says, for example, tha expects an end or near end to pop-up ads and Internet advertising, expects books to be free and much more. He also discusses the continuing challenges of AI integration and whether investors have seen the true financial winners yet. 
After a week in which Nvidia and Intel powered the stock market back to near record levels, Vijay Marolia, the chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, discusses why the rally in one of those stocks feels temporary while the other can roll on. He also compares and contrasts those stocks with Apple and Netflix, suggests that investors should slice technology stocks into thin industry groups to get a better understanding of valuations and talk about his expectations for inflation, all in "The Week That Is."
 
Plus, Kyle Guske, investment analyst at New Constructs, puts a mid-cap fund that is off to a hot start this year into The Danger Zone, noting that it is loaded with unattractive stocks far beyond the level of a cheaper mid-cap index fund that projects to be a better long-term holding for the future. He discusses why a fund getting solid ratings from Morningstar could look so ugly to him.

Kevin Steuer, managing partner at StockTA, says the stock market's rally after the initial peace talks over the War in Iran got a bit ahead of itself, and he's now expecting the market to hover — without facing much downside pressure — awaiting more resolution and clarity. He's heavily in cash at this point — the most cash he has held by percentage since the Covid crisis — and is looking at defensive, inflation-oriented plays while he waits for a signal that the rally is back on.
David Gutierrez, vice president at Liberty Street Advisors — which runs the Private Shares Fund — says that private markets are similar enough to public markets that one of the big sweet spots now is artificial intelligence, though he is focused mostly on A.I. infrastructure noting, for example, that the shift from copper-based to optical-based networking in servers is an investable trend that does not depend on how well the AI works but instead is based entirely on the demand for more technology support. He also discusses shifting trends in how long private companies are waiting before going public, and how geopolitics could be impacting private firms.
Plus, Noland Langford, chief executive officer at Left Brain Capital Management, brings his strategy of buying proven winners while they are still on the rise back to the Money Life Market Call.

John Silvia, chief executive officer at Dynamic Economic Strategy, says he expects the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates steady, leaving mortgage rates stuck at 6%-plus and in an environment with the 10-year Treasury rising slightly. Silvia points out that the central bank is not going to be frantic about 3% inflation and reducing it to the 2% target level, but he says that investors and retirees will suffer from that higher inflation, creating more of a retirement-savings struggle.
Courtney Werning, principal at Meyer Wilson Werning and the 2027 president-elect for the Public Investors Advocate Bar Association, discusses how and why smart consumers and investors get caught up in scams and how artificial intelligence has raised fraud risks, particularly for seniors.
Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi , turns to Japan for his ETF of the Week, suggesting that it might be worth a portfolio tilt for someone looking to add foreign exposure to a portfolio. In the process, he discusses whether investors looking that way want to hedge the currency risk or play it straight.

Lance Cannon, portfolio manager at Hood River Capital Management, says in the Market Call that he is looking for transformational small companies that can benefit from changing trends in key industries, which has included artificial-intelligence stocks heavily as his funds produced stellar results in recent years. But Cannon says that looking for those companies means finding businesses that will not wind up on the wrong end of AI developments themselves, where a current flash will turn into a future crash.
Allison Hadley, an analyst at Digital Third Coast, discusses research she did for Howdy.com looking at how consumers use — and whether they trust — artificial intelligence. Following up on David Trainer's Monday appearance in The Danger Zone — where he put all AI users in the Danger Zone because the quality of information they are using is questionable — Hadley noted that consumers are split, with a large cohort having a healthy distrust of the accuracy of the new technology, while another large group is willing to trust its answers blindly.
Ray Shefska, co-founder of CarEdge, goes "Off The News," discussing the big expansion plans announced recently for the Amazon Autos program and how it will change — and potentially improve — the car-buying experience for consumers. While Amazon has been selling cars in a pilot program since 2024, the recent news marks an expansion into many more car brands now being available through the retailer.