Fisher Investments

This week's financial priorities focus on the Fed's July meeting minutes (Wednesday), July housing market data (Tuesday), and rising financial fraud concerns. While investors seek clues about potential rate hikes and worry about housing weakness, broader market drivers remain strong and much negative sentiment is already priced in.

This Week in Review covers July's cooling CPI data (3.4% YoY), the midterm election cycle and its historically positive market implications, and broad-based Q2 earnings growth driven by more than just AI investments. The episode emphasizes staying disciplined through political uncertainty and recognizing earnings strength across multiple sectors and geographies.

Ken Fisher argues that including foreign stocks in an investment portfolio provides better diversification and lower volatility than owning only U.S. stocks, despite recent U.S. market outperformance. He contends that historically, U.S. and non-U.S. stocks deliver similar long-term returns, with performance leadership alternating between regions over 10-15 year cycles.

This week's episode discusses key economic indicators including US inflation, UK GDP growth, and the Reserve Bank of Australia's interest rate policy. The outlook suggests inflation fears may be overstated, with a resilient UK economy and a cautious watch on Australian rate hikes.

This week's market review highlights new S&P 500 and global stock record highs driven by easing AI concerns and lower oil prices, mixed July employment data showing payroll decline but unemployment improvement, and coordinated US-Japan yen intervention to stabilize currency markets.

Equity markets are increasingly ignoring Iran war risks as investors recognize the conflict's economic impacts remain contained. While initial geopolitical tensions caused oil price spikes and market volatility, the on-again-off-again nature of the conflict now generates muted market reactions as the global economic implications appear limited.

Ken Fisher outlines his stock selection process, which involves identifying stock types likely to perform well, filtering out non-conforming companies, and evaluating fundamental business strengths like market share and cost efficiency. He emphasizes that investors should develop a consistent personal process aligned with their temperament to avoid panic-driven mistakes during market volatility.

Ken Fisher argues that investors should not worry about central bank interest rate hikes because widespread concerns about them are already priced into stock markets. He contends that focusing on what everyone else worries about is pointless since the market has already accounted for these concerns.

This weekly market briefing covers three key economic indicators: US jobs data showing a slowdown in hiring gains, the US trade deficit which widened in May but may signal economic strength, and Q2 earnings reports where healthcare is underperforming due to weakness in biotech and pharma sectors.

This Week in Review covers three major economic developments: the Fed held rates steady at 3.5-3.75% with a split decision, US Q2 GDP grew at 1.5% annualized (slower than Q1), and eurozone Q2 GDP exceeded expectations at 1.8% annualized. The analysis emphasizes that stocks are forward-looking and don't require robust GDP growth, and that positive yield curves support continued market gains despite economic headwinds.

Ken Fisher argues that investors should not worry about widely-discussed central bank concerns like interest rate hikes because such widely-known issues are already priced into stock markets. Instead, he recommends focusing on overlooked factors that other investors are not discussing.

Ken Fisher expresses optimism about European stocks because expectations are unusually low across all regions, making it easier for actual economic performance to exceed those pessimistic forecasts and drive stock returns. He notes that European economies are already performing better than expected, though perhaps not as well as he initially hoped.

Ken Fisher explains that inflation outpacing wage growth follows a predictable historical pattern where central bank money creation drives inflation, wages initially lag behind, and then catch up over time before the cycle repeats. He argues this dynamic has persisted indefinitely and will continue in the future.

This week's financial markets focus on three major events: the Federal Reserve's July monetary policy meeting where rate decisions are uncertain amid inflation and labor market concerns, the release of US Q2 GDP data which will likely show whether business investment momentum continued, and eurozone inflation data that may reflect energy price spikes from Middle East tensions.

This week in review covers three major market developments: recent volatility in stocks and cryptocurrencies driven by geopolitical tensions and AI fears, new tariff announcements from President Trump on Canadian goods and other sectors, and SpaceX's upcoming earnings report alongside insider lockup expirations that could create share supply pressure.

Andy Burnham has secured over 80% support from Labour Party members to become the next UK Prime Minister. Despite inheriting challenges from Starmer's tenure and facing internal party divisions, the lack of required elections until 2029 and low market expectations position this as potentially positive for markets.

Ken Fisher distinguishes between market froth and true euphoria in tech markets, arguing that high valuations of established AI companies like SpaceX don't constitute euphoria by themselves. True euphoria is marked by a specific telltale sign: the creation of new entities specifically designed to capitalize on the froth, rather than established companies that may be overpriced.

Ken Fisher addresses four investor questions covering AI's role in financial advice, the inflation-wage lag cycle, US dollar dynamics, and his stock selection methodology. He emphasizes that AI is a useful tool like any information source, explains why inflation outpacing wages is a normal cyclical pattern, and describes his approach to finding stocks that perform slightly better than their peer group.

This week's market briefing covers Q2 2026 earnings season with strong projected growth across most sectors, the ECB's interest rate decision amid inflation concerns from the Iran conflict, and new information about Trump accounts for eligible children under 18.

This week in review covers three major developments: escalating US-Iran tensions and oil price increases, June's better-than-expected inflation data showing a 3.5% year-over-year deceleration, and Andy Bernham becoming the UK's next prime minister. The analysis emphasizes market resilience and forward-looking pricing despite near-term volatility.