Low-volatility stocks look cheap, AI may be helping hiring, and banks are turning higher rates into a tailwind.
The Trump administration is taking stakes in chip, defense, quantum, and rare earth companies that align with policy priorities. These “National Champion” stocks could see long-term competitive advantages that aren’t immediately apparent.
Lower income households are getting a raise, increasing capex estimates signal confidence, and small businesses are catching up in their use of AI.
Jim Lydotes flips the timer on a retail energy deal, thinner consumer cushions, and how index rebalancing shows why investors should look beneath the market surface.
Dividend yield reflects what a company paid; price-to-book what it owns. Neither captures what it can do next.
Jim Lydotes flips the timer on 1) packaging companies’ pricing power, 2) consolidation in utilities, 3) Voya’s Grassroots Research on college recruitment in the AI era.
Jim Lydotes flips the timer on 1) small cap capex, 2) Voya’s Grassroots Research® on cyber spending, 3) an interesting setup for specialty chemicals.
In more concentrated markets, portfolios are often shaped more by benchmarks than by conviction—requiring a more deliberate, analytics-driven approach to managing risk.
After years of volatility and uncertainty, markets appear to be entering a phase where dependable cash flows, income, and predictability are increasingly valued as assets in their own right. These companies are historically cheap, increasingly scarce, and, in our view, ripe for meaningful relative revaluation.
Screening for high levels of excess capital is a good starting point for finding winners—but persistent stock picking comes from fundamental analysis to identify companies that best use their dry powder.