Confluence Podcasts

New home sales have been trending higher lately, even with mortgage rates rising rapidly in recent months. Confluence Chief Market Strategist Bill O'Grady joins the podcast to explain why and discuss whether it's worthwhile to mine this trend for investment opportunities.

For almost eight decades now, investors have faced a risk that the world's great powers could come into conflict and unleash devastating nuclear war. Confluence Market Strategist Patrick Fearon-Hernandez discusses China's new efforts to build up its nuclear arsenal and why this will likely produce not only risks but also opportunities. 

The yield curve is inverted, and recession is in the forecast. Recent history suggests investment managers facing these circumstances nearly always recommend longer-term bonds within the fixed income space, but Confluence Investment Management says this time is different. Confluence Chief Market Strategist Bill O'Grady joins the podcast to explain why.

A recent agreement brokered by China represents a warming of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Confluence Chief Market Strategist Bill O'Grady says this event is noteworthy on several levels. For one thing, it alters the international diplomacy gameboard, and investors may want to keep a close eye on how oil prices react.

Gains in the U.S. labor market by Black Americans have easily outdistanced gains by white workers, at least by one measure, and those gains continue even as the Federal Reserve persists in raising interest rates. Confluence Staff Economist Thomas Wash discusses the history of minority employment in the U.S., what to make of the latest numbers, and whether they present an accurate reading of the economy that the Fed can bank on as it considers future rate decisions. 

Access to information has a lot of benefits: it translates to power in the business world and can give investors a leg up. The same rule applies on a grander scale in the world of international relations. Confluence Market Strategist Patrick Fearon-Hernandez discusses how access to information is a tool the US is using to influence world events and why this is an important subject for investors.

The next big challenge for the banking sector may be tied to commercial real estate. Confluence Market Strategist Patrick Fearon-Hernandez joins this week's podcast to explain why and prepare investors.

Northern Ireland has been a thorn in the side of relations between Great Britain and the European Union for some time. But a recent agreement creates hope that a breakthrough is within sight, with potentially positive ramifications for the British pound and British stocks. Confluence Staff Economist Thomas Wash joins the podcast to give us some background on the long conflict and bring us up-to-date.

Turmoil in the financial sector has complicated life for the Federal Reserve. Already facing the challenge of fine-tuning its rate policy between fighting inflation and over-tightening, the Fed may now be compelled to focus, to a greater extent, on protecting the banking system and the economy. It does seem like a tall order. Confluence Chief Market Strategist Bill O'Grady explores possible resolutions and the potential impact on investors.

China appears to be emerging every day as a greater military threat to the US. We may be looking at a deepening arms race that not only elevates US security concerns but also creates new boundaries for investors. Confluence Market Strategist Patrick Fearon-Hernandez outlines China's military progress in just the past two years, and the numbers are sobering.