Money and stock data with a calculator and magnifying glass, conveying financial market analysis.

Hazy Shade of Winter

By Eric Parnell “Look around, Leaves are brown, And the sky is a hazy shade of winter” –Hazy Shade of Winter, Simon & Garfunkel, 1966 Look around.  It seems as though the market sun is shining bright at first glance.  The U.S. stock market as measured by the S&P 500 is trading within a heady three days rally range of …

Stock market trading screens with colorful charts and tabulated data; S&P 500 logo in the top-right corner.

A Moving Target

By Evan Coffey & Kate Templeton Consider an investor who did what the textbook asks and took diversification seriously. He or she owns large companies and small ones, American stocks and foreign stocks, and fixed income as a traditional ballast. The client’s portfolio has grown at a pace that would have satisfied them in almost any other period. Yet even …

Balanced scale with a glowing AI chip and rising financial graphs on the left, a stack of cash on the right, over a sunset city skyline (caption: 'AI Doomerism').

AI Doomerism

In this week’s GVA Market Insights, our Asset Management team explores: AI Doomerism Hits Markets: Warnings from AI insiders and Dario Amodei’s call to slow frontier development rattled AI stocks and pushed the 10 year Treasury above 5%. Is it Time to Buy Treasuries? With the Shiller CAPE near its 1999 peak and long yields above 5%, bonds offer the …

Split-screen portrait of two men in suits for a Gatekeeper event, promoting 'The Subtle Change' by GVA Asset Management/Great Valley Advisor Group.

The Subtle Change

By Eric Hough In 2008, Warren Buffett made his famous charitable wager against Ted Seides that hedge funds and active management would underperform Jack Bogle’s passive S&P 500 index. The ending is well known, the passive index won by roughly 500bps annualized. I still remember thinking in the early 2010s, what would happen if one day the market woke up, …

Banner ad featuring Earth from space with blue geometric shapes; headline: It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine).

It’s the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)

By Eric Parnell “Team by team reporters, baffled, trumped, tethered, cropped Look at that low playing, fine, then” –It’s the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine), R.E.M., 1987 Coming in a hurry with the Furies breathing down your neck.  Last week, I submitted an article discussing the potentially overlooked downside risks confronting investors as …

Trader on the phone at a multi-monitor trading desk displaying stock charts in a modern office at work.

Trouble

By Eric Parnell “Trouble, Trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble, Trouble been doggin’ my soul Since the day I was born Worry, Worry, worry, worry, worry, Worry just will not seem to leave, My mind alone” –Trouble, Ray LaMontagne, 2003 Trouble is building on the horizon for capital markets.  Now I should preface everything that comes after with the following caveats.  The …

Close-up of a person wearing glasses with blue digital data projected on the lenses, overlaid with the headline 'A Fracturing AI Trade' and GVA Asset Management branding.

A Fractured AI Trade

By Evan Coffey It’s worth asking what a good quarter is actually worth right now when assessing the AI trade. Nvidia reported earnings that handily beat expectations, results strong enough to make technology the only S&P 500 sector to close higher that day, up 3.16%. By that measure, a good quarter still moves markets. But that strength hasn’t been showing …

Marketing banner with 'Markets & Minds' title and GVA logo over a blue stock-market chart with a world map backdrop and slogan 'The Comfort of Doing Something'.

The Comfort of Doing Something

By Evan Coffey & Kate Templeton When financial markets misbehave, policymakers tend to take action. That reflex has played out twice over the last month, once in currencies and once in fixed income. Both times the response looked decisive. Both times, too, markets rallied briefly on the news before giving much of it back within days, or in the bond market’s …

Banner image: stock chart with blue and green lines, title 'The Tortoise and the Hare', and Gatekeeper/GVA Asset Management logos.

The Tortoise and the Hare

By Eric Parnell “Your friend is heavy, But he was ready And never stopped for a while, And while you were sleeping, He went on keeping the final line in his mind. It’s all right, it’s all right, it’s all right” –Tortoise and the Hare, The Moody Blues, 1970 The hare attracts all of the attention.  Swift, fast, nimble, agile, and …

Colorful pie chart infographic on a dark background showing asset allocation with labeled segments and connecting icons.

Asset Allocation in 2026: “Survey Says”

By Eric Hough In my best Steve Harvey voice: “We surveyed two hundred advisors on the optimal 2026 portfolio allocation for high-net-worth clients, and the top answer is on the board” Survey Says: There is no number one answer! There is no consensus and no single model dominates! Ok, I confess, I didn’t poll any advisors.  However, there has been …