Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s Jackson Hole speech reinforced our Global Head of Research, Strategy & Insights Ben Jones’ view that rates are likely to stay on hold for the rest of the year. His other takeaways in our weekly market commentary:
▪️ Less forward guidance from the Fed may widen the range of possible outcomes, and has the potential to increase the term premium and push longer-term bond yields higher.
▪️Earnings season ended with positive surprises in many markets, one of the better beat-to-miss ratios the S&P 500 has produced in decades, and double-digit growth in both Europe and Japan.
Read our latest weekly market commentary. https://t.co/96X9X9tluP
$40 trillion sounds scary. But context matters. Yes, US debt has doubled from about $20 trillion to $40 trillion. But over roughly the same period, US household net worth rose by nearly $95 trillion — more than twice the increase in federal debt.
That doesn’t make the debt issue disappear. But Brian Levitt, our chief global market strategist, suggests that investors be careful not to confuse alarming headlines with the full picture.
For now, his position is that earnings generally continued to surprise to the upside, credit spreads seemed calm, and markets have absorbed higher rates reasonably well. He’ll get more concerned if earnings meaningfully disappoint and credit spreads widen.
Until then, earnings matter more to him.
Read our latest weekly market commentary. https://t.co/uL4NHgPUHj
Brian Levitt, our chief global market strategist, feels bad for the bears. Not the Chicago Bears — the market bears. One by one, he believes the market has knocked down their arguments around AI demand, valuations, earnings, market breadth, and inflation.
The next concern of some market bears may be an earnings bubble driven by AI infrastructure spending. But in Brian’s view, if demand for AI agents keeps expanding, today’s investment boom may look less excessive in hindsight — and more like the early stages of a much larger compute cycle.
At some point, to him, fighting every advance can look less like discipline and more like stubbornness.
Read our latest weekly market commentary. https://t.co/gj0Qf7CK38
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Shadowing an Associated Press photographer once during a college football game helped Brian Levitt, our Chief Global Market Strategist, learn something about perspective. It stayed with him on the job watching stock markets. Rather than running towards an injured player, the photographer chose to remain in position for the next play. To Brian, that feels relevant for today’s markets. There are plenty of “injuries” making headlines — oil price hikes, inflation concerns, Fed uncertainty, tech consolidation, and the Japanese yen. But the bigger story may still be intact:
▪️ Economic growth has continued.
▪️ Earnings have held up.
▪️ Markets have largely absorbed policy shifts without obvious stress.
Brian’s view: Don’t lose sight of the field.
Read his latest weekly market commentary. https://t.co/72mc9FSPjb
Many investors are concerned that artificial intelligence spending is too high and that the Federal Reserve is behind the curve in fighting inflation. Chief Global Market Strategist Brian Levitt explains why he takes a different view of both questions.
https://t.co/T6QUVTaFJ1
Bull markets don’t end simply because someone observes that they will. They’ve typically ended when the conditions that supported them began to deteriorate. That doesn’t seem to be happening today, according to our Chief Global Market Strategist Brian Levitt:
▪️ Inflation appeared to be cooling.
▪️ The Federal Reserve sounded less inclined to tighten.
▪️ Earnings growth has remained healthy.
▪️ Market leadership has broadened.
No bull market lasts forever. But the ingredients that typically ended bull markets — significant earnings misses, falling earnings revisions, tightening liquidity, and restrictive monetary policy — don’t appear to be in place today.
Read his latest weekly market commentary. https://t.co/MQ3SabPcLz
Investing can feel much the same as the Siren’s songs in the Odyssey to our Global Head of Research, Ben Jones. Odysseus survived the songs because he understood the danger of distraction. Knowing which “Siren song” — like a central bank statement, an oil price move, a geopolitical escalation, an AI headline, or a tariff story — to listen to and which to ignore can help keep investors from the rocks. His key takeaways in this week’s market commentary:
▪️ US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes offered the first fuller glimpse of the Federal Reserve (Fed) policy debate under Chair Kevin Warsh.
▪️ AI isn’t just a technology theme. It’s an infrastructure cycle that can be inflationary before becoming productivity-enhancing.
▪️ Issues in the Strait of Hormuz may still impact energy prices, trade, inflation expectations, and risk appetite.
Read his latest weekly market commentary. https://t.co/zyoSaBWvcd
It’s tempting to draw parallels between today’s market and the late 1990s, especially with Alan Greenspan’s passing and the recent selloff in tech stocks. But Brian Levitt, our Chief Global Market Strategist, doesn’t think the comparison holds up. To him, today’s environment looks healthier and more balanced than the one before the dotcom bust:
▪️ Leadership within technology stocks has shifted to companies benefiting from AI-related investment. To him, that’s a rotation, not a breakdown.
▪️ The rotation isn’t limited to technology. Most companies in the S&P 500 Index have been positive in June and up more than 14% year to date.
▪️ Oil prices have fallen, inflation expectations have declined, and breakevens point to moderation rather than acceleration.
Read his latest weekly market commentary. https://t.co/vVmiv73MUh
As a lifelong Knicks fan, years of disappointment conditioned our Chief Global Market Strategist Brian Levitt and other New York fans to anticipate collapse, even as greatness was right in front of them. In hindsight, he realized how good the team was. To him, that feels a lot like the market’s relationship with AI.
▪️ The underlying AI story didn’t change much. What changed was investors’ interpretation of it. For a while, the market viewed AI too narrowly. But the opportunity may be broader with infrastructure, agentic AI, and persistent intelligence becoming part of the economic fabric.
▪️ In addition, simultaneous peaks in oil prices, inflation expectations, and interest rates could create a good macro backdrop for markets.
Get more insight in his latest #AbovetheNoise. https://t.co/zVdqDDuY6i
The SpaceX IPO was the story investors were watching. The feared “market disruption” didn’t materialize, according to our Chief Global Market Strategist Brian Levitt. The float was too small to meaningfully distort liquidity or sentiment. Whether the valuation makes sense is a stock-specific debate — not a macro signal. The real story, in his view, is still policy:
▪️ Don’t fight the Fed. Volatility is often created by policy uncertainty, and the first rule of central banking is “do no harm.”
▪️ Inflation expectations were relatively contained. Oil prices have been easing. Tightening policy into a strained consumer could risk turning a temporary shock into a policy mistake.
That’s why he believes the path of least resistance could still look upward.
Read his latest weekly market commentary. https://t.co/uGdLKsesDP
The first half of the year was marked by immense disruption. However, we believe resilience has endured — and provides a favorable investment environment.
Our 2026 Midyear Investment Outlook outlines our expectations for a global economic reacceleration, the path of central bank policy, the impact of artificial intelligence, and much more.
Read the full outlook here: https://t.co/gl40WuXONJ
The narratives on last week’s stock market downturn seem to be driven by perception, according to our Chief Global Market Strategist Brian Levitt. He doesn’t see the pullback as a sign of structural weakness but more of a reality check: The bar for AI and tech got too high. When expectations soar, even great results can disappoint.
Read the latest weekly market commentary. https://t.co/5aWufA1OUZ
The market advance is too good to be true. Lately, that’s what our Chief Global Market Strategist Brian Levitt has been hearing. His thought: It’s not too good to be true. Here’s his take on the current market:
• Strong earnings growth alongside a Federal Reserve that’s on hold can be a constructive combination for markets.
• This market cycle will end. It always does. But it typically hasn’t ended with credit spreads tightening and inflation expectations falling.
Read his latest weekly market commentary. https://t.co/S5eGJ4McB7
Rising Treasury yields have revived concerns about the bond market. But our Chief Global Market Strategist Brian Levitt believes this still doesn’t look like the “big one.” Here’s why:
▪️ Higher Treasury yields appeared to reflect a recalibration driven by growth and term premium, not a rupture in confidence in US debt.
▪️ Long-term inflation expectations remained relatively contained despite higher energy prices, suggesting to me that many investors still believe inflation can be managed.
▪️ Markets haven’t shown broad signs of stress, so far. Treasury auctions, the US dollar, credit spreads, and stocks suggest markets have generally absorbed higher rates without a broad disruption.
Read the weekly market commentary. https://t.co/x7IiVFK4pS
Why can markets move higher even when headlines feel alarming? Our Global Head of Research Benjamin Jones, CFA makes the case that disruption doesn’t automatically mean decline, and looking past scary headlines doesn’t mean markets are irrational.
Read the weekly market commentary. https://t.co/6utyBmfoHt
Why have markets moved higher despite ongoing risks? Chief Global Market Strategist Brian Levitt discusses three factors that have helped contribute to a strong fundamental backdrop:
1. Meaningful amount of fiscal support currently in the global system
2. Recent strong corporate earnings
3. US economy continued to show resilience
Read the weekly market commentary. https://t.co/9uOOxrujlt
Despite the uncertainty surrounding the Iran war, the S&P 500 Index rose 10.49% in April. Chief Global Market Strategist Brian Levitt explains why and discusses what it could mean most for market returns over the long run.
Read the weekly market commentary. https://t.co/4epfFUcK2f
Last week’s Congressional testimony from Federal Reserve Chair nominee Kevin Warsh was important. Our Global Market Strategist, Brian Levitt, highlights three key takeaways from it — a combination he believes could be supportive of stocks:
▪️ The importance of Fed independence
▪️ A more nuanced interpretation of inflation
▪️ An interest in reducing the size of the Fed’s balance sheet
Read the weekly market commentary. https://t.co/U1KuMwym32
As the conflict in the Middle East continues to evolve, some investors may be tempted to try to time the markets in response to good days and bad days. But jumping in and out of the market can erode long-term growth. Chief Global Market Strategist Brian Levitt discusses the cognitive dissonance of long-term investing and the important distinction between markets that are forward-looking and probabilistic rather than reactive and emotional.
Read the weekly market commentary.
https://t.co/eU4qrBPRxK