Bank lending rarely commands the attention that payrolls, inflation, or consumer spending do. But it helps determine how much momentum the economy can sustain. Commercial and industrial (C&I) loans, the workhorse of corporate finance, pay for eve

Every time rates jump, the headlines follow the same script: bonds got hit. On a statement, they did. But that framing confuses two very different activities. Trading bonds is about where prices go next. Investing in bonds is about building a portfol

The U.S. economy is handing investors a muddled picture. Housing is stuck, hiring is lopsided, and households feel worse than the jobs data suggest. Add a string of geopolitical shocks and a Federal Reserve (Fed) under new leadership still establishi

On the surface, the numbers appear exceptional. U.S. venture-backed companies raised more than $400 billion during the first half of 2026, more than all of 2025, and SpaceX's IPO helped produce the largest venture exit quarter on record. However,

There’s been no shortage of Treasury market headlines lately. Higher oil prices, geopolitical uncertainty, weak Treasury auctions, and monetary policy changes and expectations have all played a part in driving yields to multi-decade highs (espe

Broadly speaking, the directional drivers for stocks in September could be boiled down to the oil market, the bond market, and central banks. And not surprisingly, all three can influence each other. As the Iran conflict stretched through a seventh m

With the days growing shorter and the third quarter coming to a close, investors are turning their attention to the opportunities and risks that could shape markets through December. But volatility isn’t likely to dissipate as the year ends. Ma

On September 9, leading up to the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) much-anticipated rate hike, we wrote about how stocks historically performed after the start of rate-hiking cycles. In short, stocks tended to struggle over the first four months followi

Stocks continue to climb a wall of worry, a wall that has gotten a bit taller as fall begins. The conflict in the Middle East, higher interest rates, and questions surrounding the enormous artificial intelligence (AI) capital spending boom all presen

The S&P 500 has remained remarkably resilient in the face of mounting macro headwinds. Despite oil prices topping $100 per barrel, 10-year Treasury yields climbing above 5%, and a renewed shift toward tighter monetary policy, the index continues