Money Life with Chuck Jaffe

Latest Episodes:

Travel hacks will make your money -- and you -- go farther Aug 21, 2024

Show notes

Elliot Rosenberg, founder of Hack My Honeymoon, talks about strategies consumers can take to use miles, points and more to get free trips, accommodations and more, and while the savings is real, some of the advice -- involving opening multiple credit-card accounts to capture bonuses -- is not standard for consumers. Marci Stewart, director of client education for Schwab Workplace Financial Services discusses the firm's annual 401(k) Participant Study, which showed that more than 40 percent of workers say they are very likely to achieve their retirement savings goals, up dramatically from a year ago, and a surprise given consumers' concerns over inflation and high interest rates. Plus, Chuck answers a listener's question about a perceived dislike of cryptocurrency, and we revisit a recent conversation with Jeanette Garretty, chief economist at Robertson Stephens Wealth Management.

PineBridge's Kelly: Odds of a hard landing are now 'a coin toss' Aug 20, 2024

Show notes

Michael Kelly, global head of multi-asset at PineBridge Investments, says that the stock market had priced in a soft landing before the recent, temporary spike in volatility, but that action made investors realize that the potential for a hard landing is on the rise, even with Federal Reserve rate cuts on the way. Either way, Kelly says the long-term trend for the market will be positive, but he cautions that where markets go up during soft landings, investors get punished by hard landings until the bottom is reached, so he suggested caution while watching the Fed try to pull off a perfect landing. Also cautious -- but based on the market's technicals, was Lawrence McMillan, president of McMillan Analysis, who said the early August blip was nothing more than a temporary move, what will ultimately be a forgettable day and he thinks the market is more likely to test resistance at roughly 5,700 on the Standard & Poor's 500 before it tests support, which he figures is roughly 5,380. Jonathan Lansner, financial columnist for the Orange County Register turns to the ways that Wall Street resolved and evolved after the ruling that allowed discount brokers as a possible guide for how real estate firms will adapt to rule changes aimed at re-shaping the landscape and process for home sales.

U.S. Bank's Haworth: Recession odds are low for the next 18 months Aug 19, 2024

Show notes

Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist at U.S. Bank Asset Management, says the economic data has lined up so that the economy "can cruise through this soft landing, and not land." In the Big Interview, Haworth says that recessions have been held off for longer than expected up to now, but while he could see heightened volatility for the market for the rest of the year or beyond, the glass-half-full economy means that recession is not likely in the next year and a half. Economists -- as measured by the August 2024 Economic Policy Survey released today by the National Association for Business Economics -- seem to agree, though Lester Jones, chief economist, National Wholesale Beer Association and a member of NABE's survey committee, notes that the imbalance between loose fiscal policy and tight monetary policy has economists worried about how things might turn after the election. David Trainer, president of New Constructs, puts Lyft back into The Danger Zone -- for the fourth time since 2019 -- noting that the stock still isn't worth $1 per share despite currently trading for more than 10 times that amount. Plus Steve Nicastro, managing editor at Clever Real Estate, discusses how changes in rules governing real estate commissions -- which went into effect over the weekend -- will play out for consumers.

Wellington's Khurana: Broad election results will impact bond yields for years Aug 16, 2024

Show notes

Brij Khurana, fixed income portfolio manager at Wellington Management, says that if either political party sweeps the election in November -- winning the presidency and control of Congress and the Senate -- the result will be higher bond yields, because the market will price in greater financing of deficits, but he notes that a divided government, the market will price in a bigger fiscal contraction regardless of who the president is, bringing yields down. Khurana says the Federal Reserve should already have been cutting interest rates but will start next month, although he is expecting a slow, methodical cutting process rather than knee-jerk cuts in response to any data changes. On the stock side of the investment world, Matt Harris, chief investment officer at The Hausberg Group says that the volatility that surfaced early in August hasn't given him any reason to distrust the trend, which remains intact on a long-term basis and which he does not think will be broken despite heightened volatility between now and election day. Aaron Filbeck, managing director of the CAIA Association, discusses interval funds, their fee structure and potential and responds to a recent Wall Street Journal article on how their fees "will leave you high and dry." Plus, in the Market Call, Conrad Doenges, chief investment officer at Ranger Investment Management discusses small- and micro-cap investing.

Bankrate's Rossman on the bad news of rising credit-card balances Aug 15, 2024

Show notes

Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at Bankrate.com, digs into the site's latest credit-card debt survey, which says that half of American credit cardholders are now carrying debt month-to-month, up six percentage points from the start of the year and the higher level since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. 50% carry debt month to month. This figure is up 6 percentage points from January and is the highest figure seen since March 2020. Rossman discusses the current numbers for credit-card debt nationally, noting that while candidates have focused on the total of more than $1.4 trillion, the way the Federal Reserve calculates credit-card debt clearly includes a lot of consumers who are not financially challenged. With the likelihood of interest rate cuts coming as soon as next month, Todd Rosenbluth, the head of research at VettaFi, turns to the municipal bond space to pick his ETF of the Week; Burns McKinney, senior portfolio manager at NFJ Investment Group, brings his style of "modern value investing" to the Market Call, and Chuck answers two questions from a listener who is primarily interested in how to take advantage of the start of the rate-cut cycle and recent declines in the price of most Magnificent Seven stocks.

NDR's Hayes: We're still in 'a favorable, soft-landing environment" Aug 14, 2024

Show notes

Tim Hayes, chief global investment strategist at Ned Davis Research, says the Federal Reserve has gotten inflation under control and is ready to start cutting, which will create an environment that favors stocks. That should make last week's sudden spike in volatility and nervousness a blip, likely forgotten quickly. Hayes talks about how the shift from rate hiking to rate cutting will impact investment strategy, noting that the improved environment for stocks should help broaden out the number of securities driving things higher. Susan Fahy, executive vice president at VantageScore discusses the firm's most recent CreditGauge, which shows the country is "reaching a potential turning point in consumer credit health." Plus, Glenn Tompkins, senior global market strategist at VectorVest talks in the market call about finding safe, undervalued stocks that are rising in price in a rising market.

Economist Garretty: The Fed waited too long, making this 'a delicate time' Aug 13, 2024

Show notes

Jeanette Garretty, chief economist at Robertson Stephens Wealth Management, says that the economic fundamentals haven't changed despite recent headlines and heightened market volatility, but she says the time has come for the Federal Reserve to acknowledge that the economy has slowed but that inflation will remain above the 2 percent target for a while. She notes that whoever wins the presidential election likely will be presiding over an economy in recession, though she expects it to be mild, but she does point out that there are potential issues that could make the troubles worse. Gregory Harmon, president of Dragonfly Capital Management, says the market's recent volatility spike was just a summer non-event, and that the real move was the expanded breadth the market saw in July; he expects that to return, potentially bringing the market back to new highs, as the market regains its footing. Sarah Foster discusses a recent Bankrate.com survey in which more than one-third of U.S. workers say they're living paycheck to paycheck, with little to no money left for savings after paying their monthly expenses. Plus, Ron Lieber, money columnist at The New York Times, discusses his recent piece on why — despite all of the technology updates around money and payments — paper checks just won't go away.

Morgan Stanley's Dunn sees value thriving amid sticky inflation, high rates Aug 12, 2024

Show notes

Aaron Dunn, co-head of the value equity team at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, says that growth stocks are unlikely to beat value in a higher inflationary environment with higher rates, creating a nice tailwind for value, particularly because he expects inflation and high interest rates to remain sticky. He expects a synchronized rate-easing cycle across the globe, which makes him interested in taking a longer-term look at cyclical areas like energy and industrials. Christine Kieffer, senior director of investor education at FINRA discusses the agency's recent alert warning investors of support-center scams, where investors looking for help from their brokerage or mutual fund company do a search for the firm's help desk and wind up being directed to fake sites where their money and/or data is ripped off. David Trainer of New Constructs puts BILL Holdings back in the Danger Zone, reaffirming the company's status as a zombie stock and a Danger Zone pick, noting that investors should not be fooled by revenue growth that still hasn't generated profits, and Mark Travis, president of Intrepid Capital Management, talks about companies that make beer, shoes and underwear — and sell at reasonable valuations — in the Money Life Market Call.

Nationwide's Bostjancic: The economy is now set up for 'a softer soft landing' Aug 09, 2024

Show notes

Kathy Bostjancic, chief economist at Nationwide, says that despite the recent fears over economic numbers that sent the stock market scrambling last year, the economy is now set up for "a softer soft landing," especially if the federal Reserve cuts rates by at least 0.75 percent by the end of the year. Phillip Carlsson-Szlezak, global chief economist at BCG, says there is "nothing in the numbers today that is consistent with recession," and he notes that the big sell-off at the start of the week did not signal any sort of change in the fundamentals; that's part of a broader discussion of his new book, "Shocks, Crises, and False Alarms: How to Assess True Macroeconomic Risk," in which he says that current fears look most like a false alarm. Jim Welsh, author of "Macro Tides" and the "Weekly Technical Review," expects the market to rally for one more new peak before trouble arrives; he notes that 2024 is part of a 17-year cycle of trouble that dates back to 1939, which he says is setting up a recession for 2025. Plus, in the NAVigator segment, Kimberly Flynn, managing director of alternative investments at XA Investments, discusses the state of interval funds and responds to a recent Wall Street Journal article critical of interval funds and their fee structure.

Seafarer's Foster: Short-term volatility is masking emerging markets' opportunities Aug 08, 2024

Show notes

Andrew Foster, chief investment officer at Seafarer Capital Partners, is seeing a recovery in earnings and fundamentals in emerging markets, and that means that current events are creating froth and noise but that emerging markets should deliver over the intermediate to long-term. Foster says that investors looking to make quick trades will get burned in emerging markets, but says that the earnings recovery is broad-based by both country and by sector, which is encouraging. Foster also gives his take on China, on whether international diversification will pay off better during times of great volatility and more. Juan Leon, senior investment strategist at Bitwise Asset Management, checks in on how crypto currency — which was off more than 20 percent as the market was heading into Monday's 3 percent drawdown — has responded, and how investors should consider the volatility of crypto, particularly as they see it traded over the weekends, when most other assets are static. The market's big moves wiped out a few strong weeks for small-cap stocks, but that is one reason why Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, pickseda small-cap fund as his ETF of the Week. And in the Market Call, Nancy Prial, co-chief executive officer at Essex Investment Management — manager of the 1290 Essex Small Cap Growth fund — goes into further detail on the current opportunities in small-company stocks.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Money Life with Chuck Jaffe

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected