The S&P 500 settled a whirlwind July moderately lower but maintained healthy year-to-date gains. Just one month into the second half, some of our key market themes cited in LPL’s Midyear Outlook 2026 wasted no time making themselves known.

Key themes emerge: Geopolitical conflicts and energy supply concerns return to the front burner, while artificial intelligence (AI) hyperscaler earnings results offer a mix of skepticism and optimism.

Our view for H2: Nonetheless, we continue to expect a supportive backdrop for stocks over the balance of 2026. Expect earnings to remain the primary driver of stock market gains, supported by h

Sometimes our Investment Manager Research team is asked whether we are biased for or against boutique investment managers as compared to larger-scale managers. In a word, no. Generally speaking, bias is a four-letter (“bad”) word. We aim to be open-minded and apply our selection process consistently across manager types.

What Is a Boutique Manager and Why Are We Talking About Them?

A boutique manager is loosely defined as a smaller, specialty, or custom-focused investment manager offering investment products or services. The term is borrowed from the retail industry, where a boutique store typically offers unique

Despite earnings broadly exceeding expectations, equity markets have experienced increased volatility in July. Policy has once again been the biggest driver of market action. And this time it is a familiar headline, with the Middle East, the Strait of Hormuz, and oil prices taking center stage. Less than a month ago, following the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), market participants increasingly priced in the likelihood of a final agreement that would fully reopen the Strait. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil prices dropped back to levels not seen since the war began.

Unfortunately, that scenario has not played o

In my May 19, 2026, article, “Why Most Portfolio Manager Mistakes Seem Smart at the Time”, I explored a difficult reality of manager evaluation: the biggest mistakes often seem smart in the moment, while the earliest evidence of trouble remains hidden from traditional performance metrics. Building on that idea, this article examines where those warning signs tend to surface first — a place that often surprises advisors who spend much of their manager-selection process focused on screens, data, and performance reports.

Performance screens can be useful tools. They summarize outcomes, they can enable comparability