Seafarer's Foster: Emerging markets odds 'are tilted in your favor' now
Release Date: 05/15/2025
Money Life with Chuck Jaffe
Veteran market-timer Brad Lamensdorf, manager of the and of a new market-neutral hedge fund, says that the market's outsized gain of the last few years has set it up for a long period of sideways and heavy volatility while high valuations settle into something more reasonable. He's not calling for a recession — and he thinks there will be plenty of opportunities for savvy stock-picking — but he says the market will be much less comfortable for investors than it has been over the last few years. Jordan Rizzuto, managing partner at — which assesses market and economic strength to...
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Alan McKnight, chief investment officer at , says that there is opportunity for investors to "eek out a mid-single-digit type of return this year," provided that they can stomach high levels of volatility along the way. Specifically, McKnight says that he expects domestic stock markets to be the leader in the second half of the year, most notably in comparison to international developed markets, which have been a bright spot thus far in 2025. McKnight expects the performance of foreign stocks to fade, while mid-cap domestic stocks pick up sharply. McKnight also expects the Federal Reserve to...
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Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at , says that for all of the concerns that tariffs have created for the economy, the situation playing out in the courts now has put a cap on how much can be done that reduces the chance of recession. Jacobsen says that the bond market is signalling potential concerns now while the stock market is suggesting that "everything is fine," and he notes that both messages can be correct amid uncertainty around inflation, government debt levels and more. Jacobsen also discusses the sentiment numbers, which suggest that consumers are miserable, but he says that...
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Jim Thorne, economist and chief market strategist at , says the target he was setting for the stock market entering 2025 holds, and that means 7,000 on the Standard & Poor's 500 "is doable this year, and I think we will rally nicely into the mid-term elections." Thorne believes the economy can avoid a recession, which will slowly help to turn the soft data as consumers and investors regain confidence, which — coupled with interest rate cuts which he says are overdue — will keep the United States markets not only moving up but the best place to invest in the world. John Cole Scott,...
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John Lekas, president and senior portfolio manager at Leader , says that focusing on the numbers rather than the headlines shows a market that has the potential to gain 5 to 10 percent before year's end, with solid gains in the bond market as well, particularly in collateralized mortgage obligations. Lekas says he's not worried about inflation remaining sticky because stocks often perform well during inflationary times; he thinks the dollar will get 10 percent weaker over the course of the year — and notes that the dollar is his primary worry — but he notes that the dollar's change is not...
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, professor of economics at Boston University and the founder of — which helps investors bring economics into their financial planning decisions — says investors who have spent decades thinking the stock market rebounds from every dip and decline could be in for a different story with a coming recession, and he thinks they should be trying to lock in their standard of living rather than focusing on historic rates of return. To that end, he says he has cut his personal equity exposure from 60 percent of the portfolio to 20-25 percent. "I do see only downside risk from what's going on,"...
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John Petrides, portfolio manager at , says that today's heightened volatility should have investors spreading their bets, "because the world is so unsettled right now that it's hard to have conviction to lean into one position, one asset class or one investment all on one side of the boat at one time." He says the market has ridden out a storm but isn't settled, and investors will want to extend their international investments to get good values, but will want to capitalize on premiums currently available in bonds, will want to diversify geopolitical risk with gold and will want to be...
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Jack Janasiewicz, senior vice president and portfolio strategist at , says the market is in the middle of "one big range trade, and we're probably a lot closer to being at the top of the range rather than the bottom," which means there is more likely room to move down from here rather than to post big gains. Janasiewicz says the the slowing economy needs more time to work through the hard data, which will take time, and will likely lead to a volatile market within the current range. Janasiewicz says the market must also deal with short-term concerns over the weakening dollar, but says he think...
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, chief strategist at , says that investors appear divorced from fundamentals, buying dips, chasing rallies and generally hoping for a lot of things to go right as the market climbs "a huge wall of worry" and mostly ignores that earnings growth forecasts of 12 percent entering the year are now being predicted at about 7 percent. Sosnick expects interest rate cuts later this year, but notes that they will be made from a position of economic weakness, and he also thinks the stock market is much more likely to re-test its April lows — right after tariff policies were announced — than to set...
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Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at , says that investors watching headlines about the economy, the weakening dollar and more need to realize that policy shifts and global changes play out over long stretches of time, so that investors should react in small, modest ways. For Zaccarelli, that has included adding gold to the portfolio as a dollar diversifier and reducing risk while waiting to see how the economy unfolds and creates chances to be opportunistic buyers in areas like small-cap stocks and more. Rachel Perez discusses a survey done by which looks at Americans' obsession...
info_outlineAndrew Foster, chief investment officer at Seafarer Capital Partners — manager of the Seafarer Overseas Growth Fund — says emerging markets are poised to thrive in an environment where the dollar is weakening against not only foreign currencies but gold, Bitcoin and "a bag of Doritos." Foster says that the fundamentals are improving for emerging markets, which are showing the potential for a second consecutive year of 12 percent growth in earnings despite tariff and trade concerns. He says stronger stock profits combined with currencies getting stronger against the dollar is "a good setup" for investors looking to diversify a portfolio. Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, also talks international investing, going abroad — though to developed markets rather than emerging markets — with his pick for the ETF of the Week. Plus, Chuck talks about how investors might want to adjust portfolio fits — and follow the advice from recent guests — now that the market has bounced back and crossed into positive territory for the year, reversing the big drops that occurred when tariff policies were first announced.