Charts of the Week: March 2-6

Thanks for reading this week’s Charts of the Week. This week’s charts focus on the current oil situation, inflation, macro data, and how real assets may help during periods of elevated inflation. We’ll keep publishing Charts of the Week every Monday. To view this week’s Charts of the Week, click here: Charts of the Week: Mar. …

Chatbots Drive Business Growth

By Blake Anderson, CFA®, Associate Portfolio Manager Investors received concrete proof points that LLMs and chatbots are beginning to act as business generators, not just efficiency imperatives. What began as an internal productivity story is steadily evolving into a top-line growth narrative. Instead of merely reducing costs, AI interfaces are increasingly shaping customer discovery, influencing …

The Fed Has a Big Problem on Their Hands

The February payroll report was an ugly one, and a bit of a mess. The economy lost 92,000 jobs in February, whereas forecasters projected a gain of 55,000.  We saw significant revisions for the last two months as well: December payrolls were revised down by 65,000, from +48,000 to -17,000. January payrolls were revised down …

Back to the Real World

A resounding, and sometimes frustrating, feature of markets is that leadership change is inevitable over any period of time studied. The “A.I. Trade” has been prevalent for the past couple of years, absent some blips here and there (DeepSeek, Liberation Day, etc). In some ways, the A.I. trade has started turning upon itself – previous …

Markets Coming Back to Our Rate View and How to Invest

If you haven’t read it already, in yesterday’s insightful blog, Carson’s Chief Macro Strategist Sonu Varghese provided an update on inflation expectations given the expanding (for now) conflict in the Middle East. For the basic takeaway, just look at the title: The Inflation Outlook Doesn’t Look Good. Now that’s not 2022 “doesn’t look good.” But …

We’ve Got a Lot of Problems (Ep. 177)

Oil spikes. Gas jumps above $3. Inflation expectations shift in a matter of days. Suddenly the market isn’t debating disinflation or AI productivity. It’s asking whether we’re entering a new inflation shock. In Episode 177 of Facts vs. Feelings, Ryan Detrick, Chief Market Strategist at Carson Group, and Sonu Varghese, Chief Macro Strategist at Carson …

The Inflation Outlook Doesn’t Look Good

War tends to be inflationary, period. Especially one in the Middle East that drives up oil prices. Since Friday, WTI crude prices have risen over 10% to $76/barrel, while Brent prices rose over 15% to $83/barrel. That doesn’t sound like a lot given the magnitude of hostilities in the region, but as Ryan wrote in …

Charts of the Week: Feb. 23-27

Thanks for reading this week’s Charts of the Week. This week’s charts focus on the current housing situation, inflation, macro data, and a great chart of how stocks do after major events! We’ll keep publishing Charts of the Week every Monday. To view this week’s Charts of the Week, click here: Charts of the Week: Feb. …

10 Things Everyone Needs To Know About The US/Iran Conflict

The Chinese word for ‘crisis’ has two symbols. One is ‘danger,’ and the other is ‘opportunity.’   On Saturday, the US and Israel struck Iran in a large-scale attack that included the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top leadership. There are more questions than answers right now, but in the …

Will AI Lead to a Productivity Boom AND an Economic and Market Crash?

Last week, Citrini Research and Lotus Technology Management’s Alap Shah published a piece on AI that went viral, titled: “The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis.” The piece is a thought experiment that highlighted some potential consequences of rapid AI development (even if not base case) that the conventional view might be missing. They wrote a memo …

Nvidia’s Record Results

By Blake Anderson, CFA®, Associate Portfolio Manager The Numbers Nvidia’s latest quarterly results exceeded both the company’s and investors’ expectations. The company posted quarterly revenue of $68.1 billion, which exceeded the $65.0 billion of revenue the company guided for. This $3.1 billion beat compared to their guidance marks the company’s largest-ever beat, exceeding last quarter’s …