This Week’s Takeaways:
- Value has outperformed growth by 14 percentage points since early November, and analysts expect this to continue.
- Because Social Security stops inflation-adjusting earnings after age 60, continuing to work and earn higher wages later in your career can replace lower earlier years in the 35-year formula and unexpectedly boost your benefit—and any spousal or survivor benefits tied to it.
- After a surge in delistings in late 2025 as sellers balked at lower prices, many of those homes are now reappearing in early 2026, quietly lifting inventory and improving buyers’ negotiating leverage as the spring market approaches.
- Professor Siegel argues that the economy remains fundamentally solid despite headline noise, that markets may be overreacting to inflation and Fed leadership fears, and that the real opportunity lies in companies using AI to boost productivity rather than in last cycle’s high-flying tech winners.
- Things to Do This Weekend in Boston
Wall Street’s Rotation Into Value Has a Dot-Com Warning to It by Bloomberg
Large value has outperformed large growth by 14 percentage points since early November driven by the three-month slump in US tech stocks. Some analysts expect this to continue since it’s been a long time coming and they’re worried that the era of Big Tech dominance is ending.
The Social Security Quirk That Can Boost Your Payout After 60 by Barron’s
A little-known aspect of how Social Security calculates your benefit means that earnings after age 60 aren’t indexed for inflation, which at first sounds like a negative but actually can raise your average indexed monthly earnings and thus your benefit amount if wages continue rising. Continuing to work and earn high wages past age 60 can boost your Primary Insurance Amount — the figure used to determine your monthly Social Security payout — because those later, non-indexed earnings can replace lower earlier years in your top 35 years of earnings. That effect is especially significant for people with shorter work histories or gaps in earlier earnings, and it also increases benefits for spouses and survivors tied to your record.
In late 2025 the share of U.S. homes being delisted reached a decade high as many sellers pulled their properties off the market after failing to get their desired price, especially in softer markets like Texas and Florida. Those homes are now coming back as relistings in early 2026, with nationwide relistings up significantly year-over-year, which effectively boosts housing inventory as spring selling season begins. For buyers, these relistings can signal opportunities—properties that didn’t sell before may now come with more realistic pricing and greater negotiating leverage.
Warsh An Excellent Choice for Fed Chair by Professor Jeremy J. Siegel
Professor Jeremy J. Siegel welcomes Trump’s pick of Kevin Warsh as the next Federal Reserve chair, arguing that Warsh’s independence and inflation credibility are positive for both bonds and the dollar and that markets have overreacted to hawkish fears. Despite modest inflation noise, growth in the U.S. economy remains solid and labor market conditions show neither overheating nor stress, creating an environment where modest rate cuts could help small and mid-sized businesses. Equity markets are seeing sharp dispersion, with a rotation away from some high-flying tech names toward firms that use AI to boost productivity, supporting a constructive medium-term outlook despite tariff risks and lingering headline noise.
