Money Life with Chuck Jaffe

Chun Wang, senior analyst and portfolio manager at the Leuthold Group, says that the economy should perform well in 2026, with the mid-term election feeling more like a presidential election because fiscal and monetary policy should be aligned to prove something to voters, rather than the typical mid-term doldrums. Still, Wang believes that the wealth effect that has kept the economy out of a recession would be threatened by a market downturn, which means that a bear market would likely cause a recession. Wang says the near-term biggest macro risk is outside the U.S., most notably rising bond yields in Japan that, if they keep rising, "would cause a major disruption in this global risk rally."
 Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, looks to small-caps this week, picking a Fidelity fund that takes a strategic, computer-driven, broadly diversified approach to the sector, providing moderately active management rather than the "significantly aggressive active management" that comes with a bottoms-up gunslinger picking stocks.
In the Market Call, Jonathan Smucker, portfolio manager at Marietta Investment Partners, discusses his approach to stock picking, melding top-down macro analysis with thematic investing before finishing with a bottoms-up analysis to confirm his direction.

Scott Ladner, chief investment officer at Horizon Investments, says the market entered the year "with some pretty nice tailwinds all hitting at the same time," which has the economy set up for growth that he thinks will push the stock market to its fourth straight year of double-digit gains. Ladner recognizes that the market is enjoying current conditions, but he doesn't see major risks as being high-probability events this year, and instead finds his discomfort and nervousness in riding along with the consensus that conditions are so good.
In the Book Interview, Danny Funt discusses "Everybody Loses: The Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Gambling, which looks at the evolution of the gaming industry to the detriment of most people attracted to it, and the worrisome methods that the industry's power players are using to bleed sports gamblers dry.
Jaime Seale discusses the Millennial Home Buyer Report for 2026 out from Clever Real Estate, which found that 40% of millennial home buyers say they 're desperate to buy a home this year, so much so that a high percentage of them would spend half or more of their monthly income on a home. That's bad financial math, which shows why so many feel the American Dream of home ownership is slipping away.

Brian Levitt, global market strategist at Invesco, says he is watching but not worried about geopolitics, the interest rate environment and more because the current business cycle is strong enough to continue through the year. Levitt entered the year with a mindset of rebalancing and diversifying to take advantage of areas like international investments and small-caps that have been underweighted in portfolios, and he says foreign stocks should benefit all year from weaker dollar conditions. Dollar strength is one of four key market signals — corporate bond spreads, transportation stocks and inflation expectations are the others — that he is watching right now as gauges of continued market and economic strength.
Brian Moody, executive editor at Kelley Blue Book, discusses price trends among new cars — elevated, but stable — used cars and what consumers can do in an effort to get better prices no matter what they are buying. He also discusses Chuck's recent search for and purchase of a new car, and talks briefly about what he drives and why.
Lester Jones, chief economist for the National Beer Wholesalers Association, discusses how the January 2026 Beer Purchasers Index doesn't show an end to the "beer recession," he was seeing in the numbers last fall, but it does show that sales have started to pick up from levels that had gotten ugly. That resurgence — a forward- looking indicator since it measures the sale of beer that will be available to the public in several months — could be a sign that economic consumption could be up in 2026, a phenomenon not just limited to beer.

Talley Leger, chief market strategist at The Wealth Consulting Group, says the market is facing seven different headwinds, but that it has 10 tailwinds, all blowing to overcome potential troubles to where he expects the Standard & Poor's 500 to  reach 8,500 this year. That would make 2026 the fourth consecutive year with double-digit market gains, but Leger is confident in his pick, noting that easing financial conditions — including a few more rate cuts from the Federal Reserve — should support economic re-acceleration to let the rally roll on.
Leger is not the only one who is optimistic, as the latest Business Conditions Survey, released today by the National Association for Business Conditions, showed that the nation's economists have mostly factored recession out of the picture for this year. While the economists do see potential overhangs from tariffs and other policies impacting business, they say that spending plans in their companies — but more broadly for the economy at large — should fuel continued growth.
Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, is also optimistic for the future, coming off of the World Economic Summit at Davos — where he says the lesson was to keep watching geopolitics without over-reacting to them by overhauling your portfolio. Further, in "The Week That Is," he discusses how the market is reacting to feelings rather than fundamentals in the current earnings season, and how it's still not too late for investors to reconsider their commodities holdings, even after gold and silver popped again last week, with silver reaching fresh highs above $100.
David Trainer, founder and president at New Constructs, puts five different technology stocks — including Magnificent Seven member Meta Platforms and tech giant Oracle — in "The Danger Zone," noting that they have troubling balance sheets that have created significantly misleading stock valuations, which he says will not hold up once the market recognizes the potential for trouble.

Ted Benna, the father of the 401(k) -- who first recognized the potential in Section 401(k) of the tax code to boost retirement savings and who developed the first plan -- ax code, he recognized its potential and developed the first plan -- says that the Trump Administration's proposed plan to allow 401(k) savers to put some of their monies toward home down payments is a positive change that is overdue. He is not worried that the change will somehow endanger savers or widen the retirement crisis and notes that the change would make rules consistent across various types of tax-advantaged retirement accounts. Benna also discusses the Radish Plan, his new vision for how 401k plans can be used by employers to create incentives that boost employee-retention and productivity.
John Cole Scott, president of CEF Advisors, reviews the key takeaways from his firm's fourth-quarter review of action in the closed-end fund industry, focusing on fund consolidation trends that have occurred in the middle of booming asset growth for the industry, as well as discount levels and whether narrowing discounts set up 2026 for more muted results. 
A day after joining Chuck to discuss his new book "Your Perfect Portfolio: The Ultimate Guide to Using the World's Most Powerful Investment Strategies," Cullen Roche of the Discipline Funds puts his personal disciplines and preferred investment strategies to work talking ETFs in the Market Call.