HighTower Podcast: Collective Wisdom

With the trade and tariff battles between the United States and China showing no signs of abating and threatening to continue well into 2020 and the election year, Collective Wisdom today revisits a recent chat between Joseph Klein of HighTower's investment strategy team and Jake Falcon of Falcon Wealth Advisors in which they talk about how trade concerns translate to what they are doing -- and not doing -- and planning for client portfolios now and until political tensions are resolved.

David Bahnsen of The Bahnsen Group discusses the intersection of politics and personal finance, noting that investors may not want to talk politics but they need to factor current events and the political climate into their investment choices. Bahnsen notes that  investors can create portfolio problems when they choose to invest based more on their political leanings than on a dispassionate view of how current events can and will impact the market, but he noted that trying to ignore politics altogether while investing can be costly in its own ways.

Mike PeQueen of HighTower Las Vegas said that investors are facing a melt-up situation, with the stock market drifting upwards despite bad-news headlines. He noted that whenever the market is showing mixed signals, the bad ones get more media coverage, so he pointed out the market's tailwinds of strong jobs reports, low unemployment, record-low mortgage rates and reasonable gas prices as reasons why there is not likely to be a recession 'now or in 2020.' He did acknowledge that the negative indicators are worth heeding, but noted that investors must 'muddle through' the noise to achieve the market's potential.

Matt Harris, head of investment strategy at HighTower Wealth Management, says that there is a variance between how people are feeling due to economic, market and political headlines and how they are acting, which shows up in the price actions measured by technical analysis. Harris says that indicators like breadth, the spread of companies rising and falling and more are not typical of a market top or indicating a price drop over the next few months.

Richard Flahive, private wealth advisor at Hightower Westchester, and Ray Baraldi, senior financial advisor with Sarian Strategic Partners discuss the role that real assets plan in a portfolio during volatile market times in this rebroadcast of a discussion from last summer.

Richard Sapertein, chief investment officer, Treasury Partners -- a HighTower advisory firm -- gave Collective Wisdom host Chuck Jaffe a surprising take on how bond investors should act in the face of negative interest rates on international treasury securities and falling interest rates at home. Saperstein said that as the negative global rate environment 'marches onto U.S. shores,' investors should actually extend maturities on the fixed-income instruments they are using, even though that could put them on the short end of the inverted yield curve. Saperstein explains that and more in this bonus Collective Wisdom podcast.  

In this re-broadcast of a discussion from earlier this year, Michael Sheldon of RDM Financial Group and Peter Lang from Hightower Westchester discuss the ways that investors can celebrate and make use of the differences between active and passive investments and the role that both can play in building a diversified portfolio.

Jake Falcon of Falcon Wealth Advisors and Joseph Klein, senior investment analyst with the investment strategy team at HighTower Advisors, both expect to see sector rotation from the market during the fourth quarter of 2019, as investors continue to see a bond market and stock market that are sending different messages, with the bond market forecasting a recession while the stock market hints that the long rally can continue. Both Falcon and Klein expect that the rally can continue, but said they anticipate changes as to the sectors and investment types that are driving future increases.

Following up last week;s discussion of the trade war and tariff concerns between the United States and China, Joseph Klein, senior investment analyst with HighTower's investment strategy team, and Jake Falcon of Falcon Wealth Advisors, discussed their big concerns for the market, noting that the nation's evolving health-care coverage concerns lead the way. Klein said the downside risk in the biotech, pharmaceutical and managed-care industries has him leaning towards health-care technology and equipment stocks in a situation that could extend through next year's election. Falcon, also concerned with health care, noted that he has concern over technology stocks entangled in privacy issues, but also noted that he's turning a common concern -- reduced income from falling interest rates -- into a positive by diversifying and changing income portfolios now.

Following up last week;s discussion of the trade war and tariff concerns between the United States and China, Joseph Klein, senior investment analyst with HighTower's investment strategy team, and Jake Falcon of Falcon Wealth Advisors, discussed their big concerns for the market, noting that the nation's evolving health-care coverage concerns lead the way. Klein said the downside risk in the biotech, pharmaceutical and managed-care industries has him leaning towards health-care technology and equipment stocks in a situation that could extend through next year's election. Falcon, also concerned with health care, noted that he has concern over technology stocks entangled in privacy issues, but also noted that he's turning a common concern -- reduced income from falling interest rates -- into a positive by diversifying and changing income portfolios now.