The bulk of market attention will be focused on the ongoing fourth-quarter earnings season. On the economic front, we'll be closely watching the ISM non-manufacturing index and the JOLTS job openings report. Last, but certainly not least, we're approaching yet another deadline in Washington as the current short-term government funding bill expires on Friday, February 8.

The future of retail is here and it's arrived in the form of Amazon Go, the company's first checkout free convenience store in Seattle that opened its doors last week. AND... we're excited about it. It ties back to our longer-term theme on e-commerce. We continue to have high conviction that opportunities around the theme extend beyond just owning pure-play online shopping or e-commerce companies.

We continue to believe that the combination of rising crude oil production in the US, rising imports of crude oil from Canada, and accelerating efforts to add renewable energy resources and increasing energy efficiency and conservation in the US will combine to make North America energy independent – perhaps as soon as this year.

We continue to have a constructive view of the midstream energy and master limited partnership sector. The need for ongoing expansion of energy pipelines, processing facilities and related infrastructure in the US to support rising oil and natural gas production remains. As a result, MLPs have started 2018 with better performance than we saw for most of 2017, similar to the trends in the broader energy sector.

We're heading into the busiest week of fourth-quarter earnings season. It's also a busy week for economic news. We'll be focusing on the core PCE inflation report, which is the Fed's preferred inflation metric. Last, but not least, the ISM manufacturing index helps to us gauge the cyclical strength of the economy.

Over the last two months we have been adding emerging market exposure to our global portfolios. CIO now has positive views across emerging market equities, bonds and currencies, a rare occurrence. Why are we optimistic on the emerging world's outlook?

Each week, we preview events that we believe will significantly impact financial markets. In the coming week, we will be focusing our attention on the following: fourth quarter earnings season and economic releases (durable goods (December) and home sales / prices (December).

With the drama of passing tax reform now behind us, it's tempting to shift our attention to the next political spectacle. But before we move on to the next exciting political development, we should take an opportunity to take stock of the actual impact of the new tax reform law, which is the most significant change to the US tax code in more than three decades.

To paraphrase Winston Churchill, diversification is the worst investment strategy… except for all the others. We discuss some of the most common frustrations that diversified investors face, and why diversification is worth it anyway.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will have a profound impact on the municipal market.