The Week That Is

The earliest impacts of the war in Iran are already showing, but Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, says investors shouldn't let the early price action in oil and other markets shake their confidence in the market's ability to get through a period of uncertainty before resuming an upward trajectory. He also looks at the upward trajectory in the inflation rate, which he says will be the financial story of the week ahead, but also potentially for many consumers' financial lifetime, noting that if higher inflation becomes the norm, it dramatically changes the math for building a retirement-savings nestegg that can overcome longevity and purchasing-power risk. Marolia also discusses the SpaceX merger plans, and whether the biggest deal in corporate history will make the combined companies — both controlled by Elon Musk — worth buying when SpaceX goes through an IPO later this year.

With tensions escalating in the Middle East leading to fears of what could happen to oil prices and energy markets, Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, discusses how that potential "disruption" is one of several investors are facing now. Another is the recent selloff in software stocks, caused by fears that booming artificial-intelligence capabilities will diminish the future business potential in software and tech stocks. Marolia discusses how the disruptions add uncertainty and require investors to be patient, but he warns that investors being panicky and wanting to react to the troubles are more likely to damage their portfolios than the actual disruptions.

Disappointing results last week for gross domestic product were a temporary setback, caused in part by the effects of last fall's government shutdown, but Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital expects GDP to come roaring back over the next nine months, topping the 4% level and going beyond the mere snap-back from the shutdown impact. He suggests that will happen provided that the economy can overcome trade-policy uncertainties stemming from continued tariff changes, the latest created by the Supreme Court decision striking down the Trump Administration's ability to use an emergency-powers act to authorize them. Plus, Vijay talks about his experience fooling around on prediction markets and how that has led him to see that those markets — which most see as a different form of gambling — will have real-life impacts on investment theory and strategy in the very near future.

Having said often that he believes "software will eat the world," Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, discusses how last week's software sell-off isn't changing his view, and is putting some attractive companies on sale. Speaking of sales, he weighs in on the "Sell America" sentiment that is widespread in global markets right now, and what it is saying for the dollar, Treasury yields and equity markets. And when it comes to stock markets this year, in a surprise, it has been the Dow Jones Industrial Average — and not the Nasdaq Composite or the Standard & Poor's 500 — leading the way; he talks about what that means for the market moving forward.

With jobs and inflation data on tap for this week — and the stock market coming off a big downturn in software stocks — Vijay Marolia discusses investors' nerves and how some might be letting headlines get in the way of good long-term buying opportunities, particularly if the market keeps putting software on sale. Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital and and the founder of Dharma Investing, also discusses the ongoing battle between betting sites and prediction markets and whether young companies that advertise during the Super Bowl are showing a potential for future troubles.

Just as silver and gold reached record highs last week, volatility spiked after Kevin Warsh was announced as the nominee to become the next Federal Reserve chairman. Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, discusses what was behind the spike in volatility and why investors should ignore it, but he also looks at winners and losers among four Big Tech stocks that recently announced earnings and why he's looking past the quarterly numbers. Plus, Elon Musk is considering a deal that would merge his SpaceX with xAI, another of his companies, well before he was planning to launch SpaceX in a huge IPO. Marolia says the strange deal isn't so weird after all.

Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, enjoyed the "Game of Thrones" atmosphere he saw from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last week, and says the lesson from the event was to keep watching geopolitics without over-reacting to them by overhauling your portfolio. Further, in "The Week That Is," he discusses how the market is reacting to feelings rather than fundamentals in the current earnings season, and how it's still not too late — even after silver's new highs last week — for investors to reconsider their commodities holdings and strategies, whether that means finally adding them to a portfolio or rebalancing stakes that have gone up.

Earnings season started last week with the financial-services companies reporting big numbers, overcoming interest-rate and other concerns along the way. Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, looks at that big start and talks about what's next, including the two companies that he thinks are must-watch news for week two of earnings releases. He also discusses what he's looking for in companies from all industries to make sure they are staying on top of opportunities in the business world.

The jobs report and unemployment numbers dominated economic news last week, and Vijay Marolia — chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital — says that while numbers have stayed high, investors and observers should not worry as current levels represent full employment, particularly at a time when people can hold jobs in new and different ways. That should give the Federal Reserve room to cut rates, especially if it is willing to settle for inflation running closer to 3 percent -- as it has been for about a year -- rather than pushing to get to its historical target of 2 percent. Marolia says investors have to prepare and invest for higher inflation, especially in an environment where tariffs are fueling economic growth, because no matter what happens with the tariff case in the Supreme Court or the inflation numbers ahead, prices will not be coming down.

The arrest of Venezuelan president Nicholas Maduro over the weekend will have bigger economic and market impacts than most observers expect, according to Vijay Marolia, because it will change the supply of oil, and it will change prospects for the entire energy sector. Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, says the economic struggles in Venezuela are another sign that socialism -- for all of its perceived good -- is hard-pressed to succeed in a capitalist society.