Money Life with Chuck Jaffe Chuck Jaffe

Dedicated value investor John Buckingham, editor of The Prudent Speculator and principal portfolio manager at Kovitz Investment Group, says that the long run of the Magnificent Seven has not made it impossible for value investors to hold some of them, noting that while the very hottest don't meet the definition of value, other tech giants like Alphabet and Meta Platforms are trading at levels that shouldn't scare the bargain hunters away. He discusses his buying and trimming strategy in the Market Call. Ebony Reed and Louise Story, co-authors of "Fifteen Cents on the Dollar: How Americans Made the Black-White Wealth Gap" discuss how Americans view wealth — and often confuse it for income — and how that it will take well over a century, barring legislative progress, to make any significant progress that levels the wealth field for all Americans. Plus, Rob Williams, managing director of financial planning at Charles Schwab discusses the firm's eighth annual Modern Wealth Survey, which showed that More than 60% of Americans feel they are in a better position to achieve their financial goals than the generations that came before them.

When Chuck turned 62 last week, he became eligible to claim Social Security benefits, and while he always expected to wait as long as possible before collecting, his own health history, his recent marriage and the passing of some friends of similar ages prompted him to revisit the entire Social Security claiming decision, because deciding when to claim benefits — and how much to let them grow or how to handle them if you take them early — may be the single most important financial decision most Americans ever make, with their financial well-being for the rest of their lives at stake. Nathaniel Popper, author of "The Trolls of Wall Street: How the Outcasts and Insurgents Are Hacking The Markets," discusses his new book and how the traders of meme stocks and the denizens of message boards have gotten better and smarter and have been learning from their mistakes in ways that older generations never really did, and how investing is a different game to the many young people who are getting into it earlier than ever before. Plus, David Trainer, founder and president at New Constructs flips things around this week, and puts a brand-name investment bank into the "Attractive Zone," noting that while many companies overstate earnings, this one has gone the other way, making it a bargain now.

Ron Sanchez, chief investment officer at Fiduciary Trust Company International, says that as the market settles into long-term grown and moderating inflation, it's a good environment for financial markets to broaden out, where he expects more normal relationships between domestic and international stocks and large-company and small-cap stocks. "The market is never about seven stocks or 10 stocks," Sanchez says, which is "a healthy reminder as we look ahead to make sure your portfolio is diversified ... and not to get too narrow." Speaking of diversification, in the Market Call, Kevin Rendino, chief executive officer at 180 Degree Capital talks about investing in micro-cap and small-cap stocks through the lens of an activist investor. And speaking of activist investors, The NAVigator segment features Rob Shaker, portfolio manager at Shaker Financial Services — who follows what he calls a "discount-capture" investment style in closed-end funds — discussing the moves that fund companies have made to enhance yields, narrow discounts and discourage activist investors, and describes them all as neutral or positive for investors, so long as they understand the impacts on income streams and total return. 

Tom McIntyre, president of McIntyre, Freedman & Flynn, says that "this obsession with Fed policy is misplaced," noting that government spending has helped prop up the economy and hidden weakness in the economy. He's concerned about "overall slippage" in the economy; as an investor who factors the news into his investment choices, McIntyre is staying away from retailers and most financial names, but is gravitating toward utilities and energy producers, as well as companies that are part of the artificial intelligence space without necessarily being the big players. Speaking of the Fed, JoAnne Bianco, investment strategist at BondBloxx, says that she sees real resilience in the U.S. economy, which is why it has rolled along while market expectations moved from multiple rate cuts this year to where it now expects just a single rate reduction. In this environment -- where Bianco is not expecting a significant uptick in defaults caused by high rates -- she likes credit the most among fixed-income opportunities.  Plus, Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi picks a hedged-equity fund investing in Japan as his ETF of the Week.

Natalie Trevithick, head of investment grade corporate bonds at Payden & Rygel, says that companies prepared for the high-interest rate environment in advance, in ways that have allowed the bond market to avoid the rise in defaults that typically hits during rate hikes, but that also contributed to stronger economic growth, which has allowed inflation to be sticky without a lot of pain to the economy. It's part of why the inverted yield curve hasn't indicated a recession yet, and Trevithick thinks the Fed should be able to pull off a soft landing for the economy if it starts cutting late this year or potentially in 2025. Cassandra Happe discusses WalletHub's just-released 2024 Social Media Shopping Survey, which found that most consumers say social media is contributing to their bad spending habits and mistakes. JoAnne Feeney, partner and portfolio manager at Advisors Capital Management, brings her top-down approach to the Market Call.

Scott Helfstein, head of investment strategy at Global X ETFs, says that he has no problem with higher-than-planned inflation levels so long as nominal economic growth is there. "Investors don't really profit off of Federal Reserve changes," he says, "they profit off of growth in the economy, and that's what we should be focused on." Gene Peroni, founder of Peroni Portfolio Advisors, says that "The market is sensing something quite significantly positive on the horizon, based on its trends." He expects economic strength and rising earnings to keep growing for roughly nine months or more, and says that downturns and setbacks will remain buying opportunities for now. Plus, Sam Burns, chief strategist at Mill Street Research, brings his earnings-expectation driven style of investing to the Market Call.