Weekly Wisdom
Explore market perspectives from Stephanie Link, paired with thoughtful wealth insights from Hightower Signature Wealth.
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Weekly Wisdom: Banks Signal Continued Economic Strength
Banks Build on a Strong Second Quarter This week’s bank earnings provided another encouraging read on the U.S. economy. While results naturally moderated from an exceptionally strong second quarter, particularly in trading and investment banking, the underlying trends remained healthy. Revenue continued to grow, loan and deposit balances expanded, and several banks raised their profitability…
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Weekly Wisdom: AI Growth Continuing to Drive Investment
AI Buildout Continues to Accelerate Recent developments across chips, memory, and power reinforce the continued strength of the AI and data center buildout. AMD is increasing supply, Marvell is raising its revenue forecasts, and Micron’s customers are already looking to secure output for 2028.1 Together, these updates suggest that demand continues to grow faster than…
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Weekly Wisdom: AI Safety Takes Center Stage, But the AI Race Continues
Recent Security Incidents Calling for Slower AI Development Artificial intelligence has been at the center of market discussions this week, though not because of another breakthrough model. The conversation has recently shifted toward whether AI development is moving too quickly after a series of high-profile security incidents raised concerns about increasingly capable AI systems. The…
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Weekly Wisdom: SpaceX Innovating Through Space, Connections, and AI
SpaceX’s Growth Story Takes Center Stage Following an eventful and headline-grabbing IPO, SpaceX shares have begun to settle, allowing investors to focus on the company’s strong fundamentals and ambitious growth plans. The company has developed into an integrated infrastructure platform spanning space launch, global communications, and artificial intelligence. These businesses reinforce one another as reusable…
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Weekly Wisdom: Fed Meeting Recap – Higher Rates, Stronger Growth
The Fed Delivers a Rate Hike The Federal Reserve raised the federal funds target range by 25 basis points to 3.75%–4.00% at its September meeting, marking the first rate increase in more than three years.1 The decision was unanimous and largely anticipated by markets, but the more important message came from the Fed’s updated projections and…
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Weekly Wisdom: Powering AI Amid a Tightening Energy Market
Iran Conflict Further Constrains Global Energy Supply Tensions between the U.S. and Iran escalated again this week, increasing concerns about the availability of global oil and natural gas supplies. The U.S. military destroyed five Iranian tankers after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps attempted to strike a U.S. Navy warship with ballistic missiles. Tehran responded by…
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Weekly Wisdom: Cybersecurity – A Structural Beneficiary of the AI Revolution
AI Adoption Is Driving a New Era of Cybersecurity Demand Cybersecurity continues to stand out as one of the most compelling areas within technology, particularly as the rapid adoption of AI creates both new opportunities and new vulnerabilities for businesses. As companies deploy AI agents, expand cloud infrastructure, and connect more systems and data, the…
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Weekly Wisdom: Treasury Takes the Lead as Markets Navigate Global Risks
Treasury Increases Buybacks Just two weeks after announcing its buyback calendar at the quarterly August refunding, the US Treasury surprised markets by announcing it would at least double the size of its liquidity support buybacks for longer-dated Treasuries. Beginning September 9, Treasury will increase the maximum size from $2 billion per operation to at least…
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Weekly Wisdom: Resilient Consumer and Strong Retail Earnings
Retail Sales Headline Masks Continued Consumer Strength Recent headlines announced July retail sales falling -0.6% month over month, missing as estimates forecasted growth to be +0.1% for the month. However, this headline figure does not fully reflect the current condition of the consumer. The largest contributor to the drag in July came from non-store retailers,…
