Fourth quarter earnings season unofficially kicks off this week with a dozen banks and asset managers in the S&P 500 slated to report. Results will come from some big names, including JPMorgan Chase (JPM) on Tuesday; Bank of America (BAC), Wells Fargo (WFC) and Citigroup (C) on Wednesday; and Blackrock (BLK), Goldman Sachs (GS), and Morgan Stanley (MS) on Thursday. After these and the rest of the results are in, we believe there could be a continuation of an impressive streak of quarters with double-digit earnings growth, expanding profit margins despite tariffs, and another quarter of strong earnings growth from the technology sector and

In LPL’s Outlook 2026: The Policy Engine, released last month, we highlighted several sectors that are currently rated neutral (essentially guidance to be at a market weight) that LPL Research believes may be poised for strong performance in 2026. LPL Research maintains a positive view of communication services as 2026 begins (the top-performing sector of 2024 and 2025) and continues to monitor technical analysis signals for any potential worrisome signs that suggest that sector may be getting fatigued after leading this bull market since October 2022.

Here are three sectors our Strategic and Tactical Asset Allocation Commi

As investors stepped away from the tape to hang their final holiday decorations, pack their bags to visit loved ones, and prepare for the New Year, markets fell quiet over the last two weeks of 2025. Amid the heavily thinned trading, the Bureau of Economic Analysis revised their print for third quarter economic growth on December 23, which cruised past estimates and indicated the resilient U.S. economy expanded at its fastest pace in two years. While the headline result is a positive sign — and helped lift the S&P 500 to a record high above 6,900 following the release — another notable data point was potentially overlooked &md

Key Points:

• Roughly 50% of Venezuela's exports head to the U.S., making this Latin American economy heavily dependent on healthy trade relations with the U.S.
• China only receives 10% of total Venezuelan exports. The remaining top five export partners are Spain (9%), Brazil (6%) and Turkey (5%). 1
• One of the founding members of OPEC, Venezuela is a key player in global supply of crude oil with an economy uniquely exposed to oil markets. Over 77% of Venezuelan exports are petroleum products.2
• As it relates to market impacts, Venezuela produces only 1 million barrels per day (bpd), so short-term supply shocks from the conflict sh