Money Life with Chuck Jaffe

Alaina Anderson, co-portfolio manager at the William Blair International Leaders Fund, says that when the Federal Reserve starts cutting interest rates -- which she expects in the second half of the year -- which should soften up the U.S. dollar, a situation that would make foreign stocks more attractive. She notes that she particularly likes Japan right now, and is guarded on China, where both performance and geopolitical issues are creating genuine worries. In The NAVigator, Cory Johnson of Pender Capital -- which runs the Pender Capital Real Estate Credit Fund, a closed-end debt interval fund -- says that the alarming headlines about commercial real estate have created "an abundance of very interesting opportunities" for private credit lenders like his firm, which is seeing "the most attractive risk-adjusted yields we have seen since the financial crisis [of 2009]." Max Wasserman, senior portfolio manager at Miramar Capital, discusses dividend-growth investing -- and the importance of asset-allocation decisions in building concentrated portfolios for individual investors -- in the Market Call, and Chuck answers a listener's question about how to deal with all of the great investment ideas that come out of the show and how to decide which ones might be worth a spot in the portfolio.

Nick Sargen, senior economic advisor at Fort Washington Investment Advisors, says the market is not pricing in geopolitical risks adequately, so while things look good for the U.S. economy, the domestic stock market could be more vulnerable to global financial events that could trigger a downturn. Sargen also discusses why economists are worse than weathermen when it comes to forecasting future storms. Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, looks at a young, granular actively managed fund that focuses on the supply chain for his ETF of the Week. In the Money Life Market Call, Dave Sekera, chief U.S. market strategist at Morningstar, says it is time to start looking at contrarian plays in real estate, energy and utilities, and to consider backing away from big technology.

Mike Buckius, chief executive officer at Gateway Investment Advisers, says that the concentration at the top of the market and the rate cycle and the Federal Reserve's delays in cutting rates have made it that investors should manage risks, because valuations have gotten frothy and drawdowns "throw investors off of their long-term plans." He says that the market's bounce-back to record highs makes it feel like stocks are due for 'a pause and consolidation,' which is the kind of time when Gateway's index-option strategy -- using options to generate income that protects against downturns -- tends to work best, and he discusses the firm's new ETF which focuses on the quality factor. Plus, Steve Coughran, chief financial officer at MoneyPickle.com, is here for "The Financial Crunch," discussing whether there is ever a time for investors and savers to act panicky, and how you work with an adviser to build emotional discipline and to never let the market get the best of you. In the Market Call, Scott Bennett of Invest With Rules, brings together trend-following, watching the movements of big money and risk management to decide which stocks and ETFs to invest in now.

The optimists and the pessimists will be served today on Money Life, as two interviews look at the same market but come to wildly different conclusions. Carley Garner, senior commodity strategist at DeCarley Trading, says in the "Talking Technicals" segment that she "sees some really big red flags waving," and that it will get rocky as the market backs away from being "extremely over-extended." She expects the market to take a turn for the worse, though she thinks election-year conditions may prop the market up and minimize the potential damage. Meanwhile, at the end of the show in the Big interview, Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer of Independent Advisor Alliance, says a pullback would be "completely normal," but he expects stocks to overcome a bumpy ride to finish the year up from here provided the economy can sidestep a recession. Also on the show, financial journalist Liz Weston of NerdWallet.com discusses her recent decision to retire and how she made a decision that proved difficult despite years of preparing for it, plus Mark Higgins discusses his new book, "Investing in U.S. Financial History: Understanding the Past to Forecast the Future."

Arjun Jayaraman, portfolio manager at Causeway Capital Management, says that valuations abroad are better than what investors are seeing domestically -- noting that international small cap stocks are trading at a discount of 10 times compared to domestic large-cap companies -- but made it clear he favors Japan and India while worrying that geopolitical issues are making it difficult to invest in China despite compelling valuations that have it among the cheapest nations in the world. Plus, Kyle Guske, investment analyst at New Constructs, puts Reddit's upcoming initial public offering into the Danger Zone, Chuck discusses the bad banking pitch wrapped in a flag by a new bank trying to capitalize on political disagreement, and Bryan Wong, co-manager of Osterweis Emerging Opportunity, talks small-cap stocks in the Market Call.

Everett Millman, precious metals specialist at Gainesville Coins, says that the gold market is surprised by how strongly the price of gold has held above the $2,000 level this year despite "rather tepid demand for physical cold in North America in Europe." Millman notes that there is a geopolitical premium on gold right now, which combined with the election year and concerns over inflation and interest rates has helped prices hold current levels, and he expects it to trade sideways until there is more clarity on monetary policy, although he otes that longer-term, he can see a case for gold reaching $3,000 an ounce by the end of the decade. Matt Kaufman, head of ETFs at Calamos Investments, discusses the current sweet spot in closed-end funds and why that prompted the firm to open a new ETF of closed-end funds. Plus, in the Market Call, Allen Bond, head of research at Jensen Investment Management talks about buying quality stocks at reasonable prices.

Nanette Abuhoff Jacobson, multi-asset strategist at Wellington Management -- the global investment strategist for the Hartford Funds -- says that she prefers equities to bonds right now, despite fixed income delivering its best returns in years, noting that she particularly likes dividend paying stocks, both in the U.S. and in Europe. Jacobson also likes Japan, but she dislikes emerging markets and is particularly wary of China right now. Todd Rosenbluth at VettaFi likes the looks of a relatively new actively managed ETF from T. Rowe Price that invests in small and mid-cap companies as his "ETF of the Week." Greg McBride discusses a new study from Bankrate.com showing that 36% of Americans have more credit-card debt than emergency savings and, in the Market Call, Tobias Carlisle of the Acquirers Funds talks about his brand of deep-value investing.

Meb Faber, chief executive and chief investment officer at Cambria Investments, says value investing is poised for success, not just in the United States -- where the market has been dominated by a few high-priced big names -- but globally, and particularly in emerging markets where the technology names that almost never trade at discounts here are bargain-priced now. In a wide-ranging interview, Faber discusses how the market's run has highlighted the disfunction of some conventional indexes, the parts of the market that excite him -- and that Cambria Funds has released new issues to cover -- and more. In "The Financial Crunch," Brent Thurman, chief executive officer at Money Pickle, dispels some common misconceptions about financial planning that are being spread in television commercials by a big national firm. Plus, in the Money Life Market Call, Eric Boughton, chief analyst at Matisse Capital, talks about buying the big discounts currently available in closed-end funds.

Michael Kahn, senior market analyst at Lowry Research Corp., says that there are plenty of minor, nagging concerns about the market, but the major trend is up "and until there is evidence such as falling breadth or deteriorating volume" and more, investors should ride the trend higher. Kahn notes that the Magnificent Seven -- which have led the market higher -- have gone up so much that any bad news for them "could be a real problem" that would drag the index down, but there are other opportunities worth pursuing as part of the current rally. The show also features two conversations concerning couples and their relationships with money, with The Book Interview featuring Scott Rick, author, "Tightwads and Spendthrifts: Navigating the Money Minefield in Real Relationships," before Chuck digs into the annual Debt and Divorce Study from Debt.com with Howard Dvorkin. In the Market Call, Dave Gilreath, chief investment officer at Innovative Portfolios, talks dividend-paying stocks, and how the best of them today are not in some of the sectors that income investors have typically favored.

Bill Davis, portfolio manager at Stance Capital -- which managed the Hennessy Stance ESG ETF -- says companies in the bottom two-thirds of the Standard & Poor's 500 are poised to out perform moving forward as the stock market moves back towards normalcy with more stocks sharing in the solid economic underpinnings and the Magnificent Seven stocks and other giants having reduced role in the market's growth. Likewise, Charlie Ripley, senior investment strategist at Allianz Investment Management, says the resilient economy in the United States is pointing towards a soft-or no-landing situation where more stocks should benefit from inflation normalizing. That's also what has economists being more optimistic, as the February Outlook Survey from the National Association for Business Economics, released today, shows that a majority of economists expect inflation to hit the Federal Reserve's target level of 2 percent next year; Ryan Sweet, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, discusses the survey. Plus David Trainer, president of New Constructs, puts Revvity Inc. -- a company with what he says are massively overstated street earnings -- in the Danger Zone.