What Has Separated Winning Stocks From Losing Stocks in Recent Periods?

In a word, risk. High-risk stocks have been in favor with investors in recent periods. One way to measure risk is with market beta, a statistic that indicates how volatile an investment is compared to a market index. In theory, a stock with a beta of 1.5 would have 50% more risk than the market index. Stocks with high betas would be expected to outperform the equity market when the equity market is rising and underperform when the equity market is declining. The last six months have mirrored the last three years, with U.S. equity indexes advancing and the h

The equity market has shown remarkable resilience over the past two weeks despite rising U.S.-China trade tensions, a spike in equity market volatility, and growing credit concerns tied to business development company (BDC) and regional bank lending losses. While these factors have pulled the S&P 500 back from record highs, technical damage at the index level has been rather minimal. The more notable developments have arguably occurred in the money markets.

Last Thursday, for instance, the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) Standing Repo Facility (SRF) was tapped for $8 billion. It was then tapped again for $2 billion on Monday. T

While markets have been focused on the expected trajectory of short-term interest rates through Federal Reserve (Fed) rate cut expectations, the Fed’s balance sheet has recently come into focus as well. In his speech last week, Fed Chair Jerome Powell signaled the central bank may stop shrinking its balance sheet in the coming months to preserve liquidity in overnight funding markets.

The Fed has been reducing its balance sheet by allowing bonds to mature without replacement in an effort to drain excess liquidity from the economy (colloquially called quantitative tightening, or QT). The Fed has shrunk its balance sheet by o

With the third quarter (Q3) behind us, we decided to conduct a deep dive into the key factors that shaped Q3 performance. Below, we’ve highlighted what we believe to be 10 of the key takeaways.

• Source: LPL Research, FactSet, 09/30/25
• Disclosures: All indexes are unmanaged and cannot be invested into directly. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

10 Takeaways from Q3:

1. Dow, S&P, and Nasdaq Hit Record Highs: The Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow), the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq Composite each hit all-time highs in Q3, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq risin