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Financial markets often move in cycles where enthusiasm drives prices higher, sometimes far beyond what fundamentals justify.

Whether you want to buy or rent, finding an affordable, comfortable home can be extremely difficult, if not impossible.

Investment themes are highly dynamic, shouldn’t your investment process be too? Learn about a systematic framework to help with identifying and investing across the themes driving markets.

Five of Franklin Templeton’s specialist investment managers provide their annual outlooks for the global economy and key asset classes, including global equities; global fixed income; global infrastructure; the macro fixed income environment; municipal bond market; high yield bond market; small cap equities; U.S. dollar; U.S. economy; and U.S. equities.

Our Cash Indicator methodology acts as a plan in case of an emergency. This is analogous to the multiple safety systems in a modern automobile, which includes an airbag. Importantly, each of these systems work together to potentially help smooth the ride.

How to unlock value in a complex market landscape.

With year-end looming, consider taking action now to determine if annual gifts make sense. Our Bill Cass shares useful strategies to consider for estate planning.

The bond market is caught between the Federal Reserve's plans to cut interest rates and the risk of higher inflation and federal debt levels.

The explosive growth of the ETF industry has attracted a full range of new entrants this year — from smaller individuals to the largest hedge funds in the world. More and more fund managers are making their foray into the world of ETFs.

While the economy helped President Trump win a second term, it also created expectations that could prove difficult to meet.

Assets in money market funds reached an all-time high of $7 trillion this past month. Now that rates are moving lower, money market yields may not be as attractive to many investors and assets may gradually leave money funds.

A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about how the deficit had come back into focus for the U.S. financial markets.

While politics garner headlines, fundamentals drive the market over the long term.

The Fed could be ‘slower to lower,' while the Trend continues to rise, with an overly optimistic Crowd due to seasonality and post-election trends.

The 2024 wild ride has proven to be a continuation of last year’s.

International markets are expected to clear the hurdles of uncertain trade policy, tighter fiscal policy and slower than average economic growth to support solid overall returns.

As a result of the election and rate cuts, the stock market indices surged to new highs in anticipation of lower taxes & looser regulations.

Expectations for solid corporate earnings drove our U.S. and Japanese equity overweights this year. They have delivered, showing that fundamentals are key. Earnings strength could matter more to equity investors in 2025 over valuations.

The question on “everyone’s” mind, whether the back or the front, is where will the stock market be in two, three, six years?

Wholesale elimination of tax exemption isn’t likely, but certain types of muni bonds could be targets.

The U.S. economy faces growing risks, from a surging Federal deficit to geopolitical uncertainty. Investors must assess how these factors could ignite market instability and take proactive steps to safeguard their portfolios.

Some post-election stock market excitement has receded, but the story of strong breadth—which predated the election—has not changed and continues to support the market for now.

Following President Trump’s re-election, the S&P 500 has seen an impressive surge, climbing past 6,000 and sparking significant optimism in the financial markets. Unsurprisingly, the rush by perma-bulls to make long-term predictions is remarkable.

Take a moment to understand a few recent breakthroughs in medicine and explore a few ways to get actionable exposure to them with ETFs.

With the re-election of President Donald Trump, the worries about tariffs and pro-business policies sparked concerns of “Trumpflation.” Inflation has been a top concern for policymakers, businesses, and everyday consumers, especially following the sharp price increases experienced over the past few years.

Treasury inflation-protected securities can help buffer a portfolio against inflation. However, it's important to understand their unique characteristics and complex nature.

It is important for savers to understand guaranteed and non-guaranteed options when looking at retirement solutions offered within a 401(k) plan. Our Mike Dullaghan shares the highlights and talks about the need for personalized strategies.

Actively managed ETFs are among the fastest-growing products in the broader ETF space.

Rick Raczkowski, PM, Relative Return Team, Loomis, Sayles & Company, discussed how the team views fixed income investing looking ahead.

Sticky underlying price pressures could prevent a faster return to neutral monetary policy.

Many of the myths and controversies surrounding the equity risk premium (ERP) are rooted in semantics: The same term is used for multiple purposes.

Why the equity market rally following the U.S. presidential election could continue into year-end.

To judge by the action in some foreign markets, Donald Trump’s election is pricing in economic winter.

In Europe, the ECB stimulates a sluggish economy while in the UK, the problem is inflation. In contrast, the US responds to stronger growth.

The inverse correlation between bonds and stocks has returned, broadening potential for risk-adjusted returns in multi-asset portfolios.

The 2024 Global Survey of Financial Advisors from Natixis revealed the ongoing hesitance of investors to move out of cash and into bonds.

Chief Investment Officer Sean Taylor considers the implications of a second Trump administration for emerging markets.

We seek to capitalize on today’s attractive yields while staying mindful of economic and market uncertainties.

The Treasury yield curve has shifted appreciably all year long. In particular, the last few months have realized substantial rate changes. The shift in the Treasury curve is not isolated. The corporate curve is also changing.

Paul Tudor Jones recently voiced concerns that rising U.S. deficits and debt and increasing interest rates could lead to a fiscal crisis. His perspective reflects the long-standing fear that sustained borrowing will trigger inflation, raise interest rates, and eventually overwhelm the government’s ability to manage its debt obligations.

Market reactions to a potential trade war may be less extreme than anticipated by investors, although volatility is likely during trade negotiations.

Wait, what? The Fed cut interest rates and bond yields went up, not down. Yes, you read that right.

The current global expansion has been characterized as one of US exceptionalism. Despite many developed market economies outperforming low expectations, the robustness of the US expansion has stood out. We believe this can continue based on differences between the US and European economies.

Change is the sum of fundamental trends, the gradual elimination of accumulated extremes, and the random arrival of new shocks.

The period from the 1960s to the 1990s defined by record-setting inflation and big swings in GDP bears a striking resemblance to the current environment.

The Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman seems to be happy with the market’s new wisdom regarding the path of interest rates going forward.

The Northern Trust Economics team shares its outlook for U.S. growth, employment, inflation and interest rates.

Declining inflation has been a theme for the economy since mid-2022, but we still believe the road may have some curves.

U.S. rate cuts of up to 200bps are anticipated by the end of 2025 but with significant further downside if recession risks materialize.

As a major corn and soybean consumer, China is keeping prices in limbo. A potential trade war could add additional intrigue.