Money Life with Chuck Jaffe

Barry Ritholtz, chairman and chief investment officer at Ritholtz Wealth Management, says that while the stock market has blown past multiple red flags and warning signs, investors should not be acting as if indicators like an inverted yield curve, events like war or tariffs, or a simple market winning streak are leading to some sort of fast market shift. Rather than getting caught up in the next news story, Ritholtz says to focus on diversification and common-sense long-term investing strategies, and he notes that for all of the reasons investors are nervous, he would focus on earnings, noting that if he had only one variable to look at to forecast the market's potential, it would be earnings. So long as that trend continues — and he expects it to — the market should keep gaining ground.
Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, looks to emerging markets with his ETF of the Week, picking a classic, low-cost, long-term fund that he says can be a core holding for investors looking to increase foreign exposure.
Plus, Chuck discusses comments by Elon Musk suggesting that Americans really don't need to save for retirement any more. As ridiculous as that might sound, the principal Musk is relying on is called "universal high income," and it suggests that retirement savings won't be necessary because the abundance created by productivity gains created by artificial intelligence will make it so that all future material needs are easily met. While that outcome is possible, Chuck explains why you might still want to fund your Roth IRA for a while.

Jeff Weniger, head of equity strategy at WisdomTree Asset Management, worries that there may be "an upside CPI surprise" coming in the second half of the year, but he also says there is "the risk of upside economic surprises" now, evidenced in the market action, where he sees basic materials, energy and "things that come out of the ground" like commodities and oil leading the way. Those are assets that normally lead late in the economic cycle, and he expects them to stay strong through 2026. Weniger also discusses why President Trump's recent nomination of Kevin Warsh as the next Federal Reserve chairman has Wall Street scrambling with changing expectations and outlooks.
Chuck goes off the news with Bob Powell, retirement columnist at TheStreet.com, to discuss his recent piece on why "focusing on the break-even point" leads many Americans to make the wrong Social Security decision. Powell notes that break-even analysis is mostly used to formulate a bet on longevity, rather than focusing on the income and inflation-protection elements that Social Security is built to provide. 
In the Book Interview, Becky Robison, author of "My Parents Are Dead: What Now? A Panic-Free Guide to the Practicalities of Death," discusses the challenges facing most people as they face, unprepared, the mortality of their parents. Robison discusses her own experience after the death of her parents which, she notes, was way different than what she was prepared for by years of watching tv and movies that had her expecting a neat, tidy and orderly process.

Emily Roland, co-chief investment officer at Manulife John Hancock Investments, says that she may be forced to believe her eyes and is whispering to investors "This time is different," which are famously described as the most dangerous words in investing. With leading economic indicators negative for 38 months, the long time when the yield curve was inverted, three months of negative job growth and more; all of those are supposed indicators of trouble and recession, but the difference has been that the market has overcome those concerns. Roland is encouraging investors to resist the urge to trade on political headlines, or to get caught up in "fear of missing out" and jumping into parts of the market that are moving more on sentiment than fundamentals. She says it is a back-to-basics market, where investors might want to look more toward bonds as a backstop to high valuations and headline-induced nervousness.
Brad Lamensdorf, portfolio manager of the Ranger Equity Bear ETF, says investors should be more nervous than they seem right now, because classic signs of trouble are building. Those factors include low money-market balances but high balances on margin accounts, suggesting that investors "are extremely aggressive and very, very off-balance here." Lamensdorf says that the market's current dividend yields and high prices make it the market "very, very expensive," at levels where some investors may feel they're not being rewarded for taking risk, a condition that is usually happening at times when bull markets are ending.
In the Market Call, Brian Huckstep, chief investment officer at Advyzon Investment Management, discusses ETFs and mutual funds, which structure he prefers and which parts of the market stand out to him now.

Mo Haghbin, managing director for strategic ETFs at ProShares says it's not unusual to have a strong equity market when there's accommodative central bank policy, and he's expecting that to continue even with the Fed under direction of new chairman nominee Kevin Warsh. Haghbin says "It's a little bit of a Goldilocks situation right now," with the next year being an environment that seems "just right," and therefore is not particularly vulnerable to a bear market or recession.
In "The Week That Is," Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, discusses spiking volatility that saw precious metals reach new highs before backing away from them, looks at mixed earnings results for four Big Tech names, and discusses the merger that Elon Musk is proposing for himself — combining SpaceX with xAI — and why the seemingly strange deal isn't actually weird.
David Trainer, president at New Constructs, looks at a boutique mutual fund that on the surface looks decent but which he says holds too many dangerous stocks, which he thinks will turn three years of super-hot performance back into a long-term record of feast-or-famine results.
Plus, Chuck looks at the recently announced retirement of Will Danoff, manager of Fidelity's Contrafund since 1990, and how investors should evaluate their next response, a next move Chuck himself is considering as a shareholder in Danoff's hugely successful fund.

Rob Williams, chief investment strategist at Sage Advisory Services, says that 2025 was a great year for the market, but that has the market priced to where investors should expect to capture earnings growth and interest income. "If earnings come in 10 to 15 percent and you get that but nothing else, that's still pretty good," Williams says. "If you get 4.5 to 5 percent on bonds — without much help from the Fed — that's not so bad either." It's about preparing for "less," rather than preparing for some sort of market nightmare, Williams says.
In The NAVigator segment, Nick Robinson, deputy head of global emerging market equities at Aberdeen Investments, discusses how the artificial intelligence wave that has pushed domestic stock markets to record highs is readily apparent around the world — including in countries that are not necessarily synonymous with technology — and that the capital expenditure wave should continue to power emerging markets, especially if foreign companies can monetize the potential gains created by AI. He also discusses how markets are weathering geopolitical events and why they can continue to overcome worrisome headlines.
In the Market Call, Brian Mulberry, portfolio manager at Zacks Investment Management — manager of the Zacks Earnings Consistent Portfolio, among other ETfs — talks about the shifts he is seeing now in the markets, but how a focus on persistent earnings can smooth out the ride of a nervous, high-growth market.