Channel Capital's Roberts: Markets will stay happy with even a hint at rate cuts

Northwestern Mutual's Schutte: 'We're in economic cycle overtime'

Brent Schutte [https://northwesternmutual.com/life-and-money/market-commentary/weekly-market-commentary/], chief investment officer at Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. [https://northwesternmutual.com], says that the current economic cycle is in "overtime," a point where the stock market gets narrow. As the cycle ends, however, he expects the market to broaden out, which could carry it higher, just driven by small-cap stocks and other industries. As a result, he says investors should stick to their plans and not let their portfolios get too focused on what has worked lately. "This is where, if you are an individual investor, your job is to get from Point A to Point B to Point C in your life. The way that you do that is that you don't concentrate, which can win magnificently and lose magnificently, and if you lose magnificently, you're not going to get back on track." In the "Talking Technicals" interview, Thomas Samuelson, chief investment officer at Vineyard Global Advisors [https://vineyardglobaladvisors.com], says the technical underpinnings of the market are solid — though he also took notice of the narrow bands of strength — and sufficient to avoid deterioration into a bear market while the market focuses on the earnings story. "We're pushing $400 a share for earnings next year for the [Standard & Poor's] 500," Samuelson said. "If it trades at 23 times (earnings), you could get up to 9,000. That's 24% higher from here." John Cole Scott, president of CEF Advisors, [https://cefadvisors.com] says that index discounts in municipal bonds and taxable bonds are wide compared to their three-year history, which is creating good opportunities for investors to find closed-end funds trading at wide discounts but supported by improving fundamentals. Scott, who also is chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance [https://aicalliance.org], uses his firm's "trifecta analysis" to select four funds as exemplars of the opportunities available to income investors now.

Glenview's Stone: 'Earnings are the fuel that sends stocks higher'

Bill Stone, chief investment officer at Glenview Trust [https://glenviewtrust.com], says that the stock market "continues to price in that the Iran conflict is going to be over [soon]," which has kept the focus on blockbuster earnings numbers, which have been so strong that they have overcome virtually all economic and stock market concerns. He expects that earnings trend to continue, powering the market through some summer doldrums to where it finishes the year on a positive note. "Stocks don't go up short-term always with earnings but, long-term, earnings are the fuel that sends stocks higher," Stone says; with the earnings trend in place, he says long-term investors should be less concerned about worrisome headlines about inflation, war and more. Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi [https://vettafi.com], looks at the Procure Space ETF (ticker: UFO) as his "ETF of the Week," noting how the fund has been a rocket ship this year, and that it will be worth watching as the SpaceX IPO launches this week and markets adjust to having that big-name stock joining the space-race sector. In the Market Call, Hank Smith [https://haverfordquality.com/about/our-team/henry-smith/], head of investment strategy at The Haverford Trust Co. [https://haverfordquality.com], discusses the benefits of companies that pay growing dividends and that have an A-rated balance sheet.

Crossmark's Fernandez: Market needs a pause, but can regroup by year end

Victoria Fernandez, chief market strategist at Crossmark Global Investments [https://crossmarkglobal.com], says that she is expecting the market to suffer some late summer doldrums as seasonal economic impacts end and mid-term elections put their traditional damper on enthusiasm, but that there will be some support for the market near year's end, making for "a positive year, but nothing like we've seen in the last two years." She acknowledges that makes her forecast a bit more sour than many observers, but says she thinks the market is showing signs of rotating and broadening out, and that change will slow down stock gains. Also contributing to that will be continued economic uncertainty; Fernandez does not expect a recession, but noted that stagflation could be hard to avoid if inflation gets higher and stickier and the War in Iran continues past the end of this month. In the Market Call, Chuck Carlson, chief executive officer at Horizon Investment Services [https://horizoninvestment.com] — which publishes "The Best Dividend and Income Investments" newsletter — discusses the firm's analytical system, called Quadrix, for sizing up a wide range of factors, and notes that a lot of the stocks that have been leading the way have fundamentals that should allow them to keep going strong from here, regardless of the broad economic storm clouds that are making many investors nervous. Plus, Chuck answers a question from a listener who thinks his strategy of trying to make his baby grandson a millionaire in 65 years is "just showing off," because "Really, how much will a million dollars be worth then?"

Bridgeway's Pozharny: AI infrastructure boom 'will make builders poor and users rich'

Jacob Pozharny [https://bridgeway.com/perspectives/people/jacob-pozharny], portfolio manager for the Bridgeway Global Opportunities Fund [https://bridgeway.com] a market-neutral fund that looks at global macro factors — says that every infrastructure boom in history has led to massive capital expenditures, to the point of over-capacity, then demand destruction and a cycle that leaves users better off but hurts the companies that get caught in the mix. He cites railroads, telecommunications dot-com companies and more as examples and he says that "boring industries " will be the users of AI and the long-term winners, which will benefit small-cap and emerging-market names. Dryden Pence, chief investment officer at Pence Capital Management [https://pencecapital.com], says in the Market Call that he looks for "chokepoints of new technologies," places where consumption is creating demand imbalances that working to the long-term benefit of many of the market's biggest names Matt Zajechowski discusses research published by Lemon Law Experts [https://lemonlawexperts.com], which looked at over a million National Highway Traffic Safety Administration [https://nhtsa.gov] consumer complaints filed in the last decade and found six of the 10 worst-rated vehicles overall have been discontinued, but remain widely available on used lots [https://lemonlawexperts.com/the-cars-americans-complain-about-the-most]. He says higher car prices are forcing more lower-income consumers to consider cars that the public dislikes.

NDR's Kalish says solid fundamentals will keep overpowering global econ worries

Joe Kalish, chief global macro strategist at Ned Davis Research [https://ndr.com], says 2026 has had surprising narratives but unsurprisingly solid results, and he expects that to continue, without significant recession risk or big trouble ahead. Kalish discusses often overlooked economic numbers, like a financing gap where demands to fund capital expenditures outstrip available capital and the level of real gross value added for non-financial corporations (essentially, GDP for things other than financial companies), to explain how and why this economy looks healthier than the worrywarts think it is. He does outline his concerns, but thinks the economy can overpower most or all of them in fairly short order. David Trainer, founder and president at New Constructs [https://newconstructs.com], says that the new wave of huge initial public offerings like SpaceX and Anthropic puts index-fund investors in The Danger Zone, noting that indexes are considering changing rules to quickly accommodate the new stocks, which creates artificial demand that will further drive the prices of the stocks up. That creates potential for index investors to effectively be overpaying to get into the IPOs, and also leaves them vulnerable if the stocks fall off after the initial excitement. While the rules changes are up in the air, Trainer says the pressure to change rules and include fresh IPOs changes the landscape for the future. In "The Week That Is," Vijay Marolia [https://vijaymarolia.com], chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital [https://regalpointcapital.com], discusses the market's message to Broadcom, which exceeded earnings expectations but failed to raise future guidance on AI-driven revenues; he says the market is punishing "sandbagging," a practice of understating expectations so that they are easy to beat, but he says the big price drop created a buying opportunity for investors. He also discussed the heightened volatility around the positive jobs report, which he says is based on the fear of a hike in interest rates that he says long-term investors should not be too worried about. Plus, he examines Bitcoin, which has lost about one-quarter of its value in less than two months, which he says is testing traders faith, but which isn't making him nervous as a long-term buy-and-holder.