Money Life with Chuck Jaffe

Bob Doll, chief investment officer at Crossmark Global Investments, returns with his annual forecasts for the stock market, the economy, the financial industry and more in the year ahead. He notes that the consensus for 2024 is a soft landing, but he thinks the lagged impact of everything that cause recessions -- massively higher interest rates, retail inventory levels rising, savings rates coming down and more -- will finally lead to a mild recession in the middle of this year. Doll also thinks that stocks could finish the year in the red. Also on the show, Tom Lydon of Vettafi turns to an actively managed short-term bond fund for his ETF of the Week, and Mike Bailey, director of research at FBB Capital Partners, talks "beat and raise investing" in the Market Call.

Lindsey Bell, chief strategist at 248 Ventures -- formerly chief markets strategist at Ally Invest -- is optimistic that the stock market can avoid big troubles in 2024, and is looking for a "return to normal,' in terms of the market's breadth of movers and returns. still, she includes technology stocks -- typically considered an aggressive play -- as part of the defensive plans that investors should be making for the year ahead. She also talks about the norms she expects to see maintained in international investing and more. Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at BankRate.com talks about his forecast for all types of interest rates in 2024, and while the rate picture is different from the market situation, he too is looking for more of a return to traditional expectations. In the Market Call, Leah Bennett, president of Westwood Wealth Management, talks stocks.

Veteran technical analyst Martin Pring of Pring Research is "very optimistic over the next 12 months" because the stock market's bounce since October "looks like the beginning of a bull market," with expanding breadth and economic indicators turning up to where indicators are bullish for stocks and bonds now. Pring makes an educated guess that the market could run up to 5,400 on the Standard & Poor's 500, but notes that if the indicators change -- which he would expect after the election next fall -- the bull market could end quickly. In The Big Interview, Alex McGrath, chief investment officer at NorthEnd Private Wealth, says that while the market has been rebounding, it hasn't ecaped concerns about a recession and about the future financial health of the consumer, so he's rotating into defensive positions and looking to be opportunistic in 2024. Also on the show, Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst for S&P Dow Jones Indices discusses how companies got more cautious late in 2023 about committing to dividend increases. Plus, Nancy Prial of Essex Investment Management and the 1290 Essex Small Cap Growth Fund talks small-cap stocks in the Market Call.

Wei Li, global chief investment strategist at BlackRock, makes it clear that she doesn't feel her firm's outlook for 2024 is "optimistic." Amid significant macroeconomic risks, Li says there are selective opportunities for investors who are willing to take the chance to put money to work, particularly in parts of the market that remain reasonable values -- notably artificial intelligence and big tenchology, which she expects to continue their strong performance from 2023 -- while avoiding parts of the market that are "priced for perfection" after the market's rally late in 2023. Also on the show, David Trainer at New Constructs puts Carvana back in "The Danger Zone," noting that the company remains a "zombie stock" -- one he expects could go to zero -- despite a strong bounceback in performance in 2023. In the Market Call, Simon Lack, managing partner at SL Advisors -- which oversees the American Energy Independence Index -- talks energy stocks, particularly midstream energy infrastructure stocks and the chance they represent to generate consistent gains now.

Veteran Wall Street observer Bob Doll, chief investment officer at Crossmark Global Investments, has been making 10 forecasts for the New Year for decades, but 2023 was one of the most difficult times he has ever had reading the tea leaves for the market and economy. He explains why as he looks back at his forecasts from a year ago and reviews what he got right and wrong and how conditions have changed; he will return to the show next week with his forecasts and predictions for 2024. Meanwhile, John Cole Scott, president of Closed-End Fund Advisors, is looking forward, doing his annual forecast for the year ahead in closed-end funds, highlighted by his expectation that closed-end funds to outperform the general equity markets,In the Market Call, Raymond Bridges of the Bridges Capital Tactical ETF talks about being "aggressively cautious" in today's market conditions.

Rob Arnott, chairman and chief executive officer at Research Affiliates sees a recession as likely for late 2024, but expects the entire year to be dominated by domestic and geopolitics that create significant "left tail risk," the most extreme potential downside performance. It will be, he says, "a year of living dangerously," but he views current conditions "as a wonderful opportunity" to lean into value investing strategies. Also on the show, Tom Lydon, vice chairman at VettaFi makes a call on currencies and Japan with his ETF of the Week, and Mark Yusko, chief investment officer at Morgan Creek Capital Management, talks about ETF investment strategies in the Market Call.

John Barr, portfolio manager for the Needham Growth and Needham Aggressive Growth funds, says that despite the market's recent rally, there are plenty of smaller growth companies that represent good values with strong growth companies, though he also suggests that some of the large companies -- particularly in economy-driving industries like artificial intelligence and data storage -- have room to run too, which is why he's "not worried" about what the market will dish up this year. Also on the show, Manny Weintraub, principal at Cannell & Spears, discusses "super great stocks that are not going to kill you" in the Market Call, and Chuck reveals the 2023 results for his long-running "change experiment," where he saves everything under a $10 bill that comes his way in cash.

Bob Fraser, co-founder and chief financial officer at Aspen Funds, says the market has gotten excited and ahead of itself, so that it could spend the early part of the year mostly at a standstill, but he also doesn't see much downside risk, with neither a recession nor a crash in the offing. Ultimately, Fraser thinks the market will end the year up, though not as much as it gained in the year we just completed. Also on the show, subscription expert Robbie Kellman Baxter talks about how companies take steps to get consumers hooked and to make it hard for them to wriggle off of the regular payment cycle, and she offers tips for protecting yourself from subscription overload, plus Chuck makes his market and economic forecasts for the year ahead.

Long-time technical analyst Gene Peroni of Peroni Portfolio Advisors and Advisors Asset Management says that -- while many people look at the market's returns in January and expect them to dictate the year -- he believes the current rally is setting the stage for 2024, showing the market's resilience. He is re-setting support levels to the market's July summer highs, and he thinks that it will keep bouncing back, making the market outlook for the year ahead pretty solid. Also on the show, John Cole Scott, president of Closed-End Fund Advisors, looks back at how the closed-end fund industry bounced back from the challenges of a terrible year in 2022, and how his forecasts from a year ago -- including his five funds for 2023 -- have played out. Plus, Chuck goes over his financial to-do list for the new year, 15 items that all savers, consumers and investors could take on to gain better control of their finances and to make more of their money.

Veteran money-manager Louis Navellier, president of Navellier & Associates, says he hasn't seen "a real blow-out year since '99; I think we're overdue for one of those kind of years." He says that the market currently is grossly undervalued relative to interest rates and he says that small cap stocks could go up "100 percent or more," but he is also calling for a strong year for big stocks, oil and energy companies and he says the Magnificent Seven stocks are likely to keep rolling. Also on the show, Tom Lydon of VettaFi turns to small-cap -- but a specialized small-company fund that focuses on dividend payers while trying to mute volatility -- as his ETF of the Week, and James Royal discusses a recent Bankrate.com survey showing that more than half of Americans sought out financial advice in 2023, though they didn't all turn to good sources to get it.