With big tech earnings season kicking off in earnest this week, investors will split their attention between analyzing the latest signals on artificial intelligence (AI) spending plans and the seemingly never-ending peace negotiations with Iran (along with the still closed Strait of Hormuz). While LPL Research will be doing the same attention splitting exercise, we also wanted to take a step back and review two somewhat longer-term performance trends that we find instructive. First, we review the oft-debated asset allocation decision of U.S. versus international equities (and further between developed international equities and emerging marke

With the proverbial ceasefire negotiation can kicked down the road for the second time in a week, the U.S. and Iran remain in a stalemate over the Strait of Hormuz. While equity markets have bounced back this month, seemingly moving on to the more upbeat fundamental and macro backdrop, and crude oil futures have dropped off their March highs, the physical supply squeeze for oil may be somewhat underappreciated by investors. Entering 2026, crude oil over supply was expected to be a headwind for energy prices, but damage to the energy infrastructure and production cuts in the Middle East have accelerated uncertainty around the supply crunch spa

The “American Industrial Renaissance” is an investment theme investors and allocators alike have probably been pitched several times, or at the very least heard about. Supply chains for manufactured goods have evolved to become more complex, while U.S. manufacturing employment as a share of total employment has steadily declined, leaving policy makers to grapple with the ramifications of a shrinking manufacturing base. Facing effects ranging from structural employment shifts to fragile supply chains to national security, over the last decade, Washington has been both vocal and active about bringing manufacturing back stateside.&nb

With several high-profile initial public offerings (IPOs) expected in 2026, many investors may be wondering whether buying a stock on its first day of trading is a smart move. Historically, stock performance in the first year post-IPO has been a mixed bag of volatility, with a large minority delivering excess returns in their first year of trading, while a slight majority deliver negative returns. In today’s blog, we analyze data on 30 years of selected IPOs and highlight some recent changes that will likely impact some of the coming year’s largest expected new issues.

Starting with the data, we pulled IPOs from the l