The Week That Is

Last week saw the trillion-dollar giants reporting earnings and the market was impressed with the results from Alphabet (Google) and disappointed with numbers from Meta Platforms (Facebook), and Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, is in line with those reactions but is looking past the quarterly numbers for what the market's response is suggesting about each company longer term. He also talks about the disappointing end for Spirit Airlines, and how the 34-year-old carrier might have avoided its fate, and he talks about Jane Street, the little-known Wall Street market maker that made headlines when it was revealed that its average compensation per employee last year was roughly $2.7 million, more than seven times higher than the average staffer at Wall Street blueblood Goldman Sachs. Vijay discusses how Jane Street came out of nowhere and what it is doing to become an increasingly large force in markets.

After a week in which Nvidia and Intel powered the stock market back to near record levels, Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, says the rally in one of those stocks feels temporary while the other can roll on, and says that the difference points out how investors should re-evaluate the way they see "tech stocks," because different industries lumped broadly within technology have very different valuation pictures. He also discusses Apple and Netflix — both changing leadership but continuing massive stock buybacks — and companies like Micron that he thinks can keep leading, and finishes "The Week That Is" discussing Fed chair nominee Kevin Warsh and the inflation issue he's facing if he gets the job.

After the stock market rebounded to record-high levels after a peace treaty announcement last week, Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital and the founder of Dharma Investing LLC, looks at how the market is responding to the flip-flop in new that the waterway is closed again, awaiting peace talks, and discusses whether investors should expect the market to take off once there is clarity on the war. With earnings season off to a hot start, Vijay talks about what he is expecting from some popular consumer, energy and financial stocks and whether earnings will be strong enough to power the market higher or weaker than guidance and, therefore, problematic. Plus, he looks at the business pivots of Netflix and Allbirds, two companies moving in very different directions.

With consumer sentiment at record lows -- but consumer confidence improving ever so slightly -- in March, Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, discusses why feelings make headlines but fundamentals make for better investment prospects. That's why he's leaning into some of the market's most beaten down sectors, most notably the private-credit market, which has been hammered by market concerns over software companies losing the war against artificial intelligence issues. Marolia talks about how investors can pursue private-credit yields without being sucked into the industry's troubles, and also covers how the Federal Reserve is torn between its dual mandate and what that likely portends for the economy.

Volatility in the oil markets has changed investment opportunities, and Vijay Marolia says he has responded in several ways, from going long on oil futures using a popular ETF to shorting airline stocks. Marolia, the chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, talks about the benefits and pitfalls to hunkering down and trying to avoid the market until headlines settles, but also talks about the exciting investment opportunities opening up in space and space-related technologies, including his latest take on the SpaceX IPO initial public offering that is expected to value the company at $2 trillion this summer.

The market is fully focused on the most current of current events — the war in Iran and the rapidly changing market sentiments in the battle between artificial intelligence and software — and Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, says investors should back away from the headlines and keep a sharper watch on the economic numbers that will determine how the market responds once there is more clarity in the Middle East. Those factors — the job market, inflation and interest rates — have the potential to take the market's focus off of the earnings numbers that drove the market's gains in 2025.

With an earnings report akin to Nvidia's but recent stock performance getting hammered like Microsoft, Vijay Marolia makes the case that Micron Technologies is being buffeted by a feelings-over-facts market, and that investors are missing one of the most compelling stories on the street. Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, puts Micron through his five-lens process to show why market sentiment is missing the real picture. War in Iran has chanegd the picture on oil prices, and despite the frustrations of consumers, Marolia says that consumers and investors should heed the words of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who said last week that he expected 50 days of discomfort to be the price for long-term geo-political advances. Plus, with artificial intelligence changing even faster than industry observers can adapt, Marolia has a cautionary tone about avoiding being sucked into the next "great AI story" and instead focusing on the picks-and-shovel infrastructure companies that are the cornerstones to innovation.

War in Iran has driven oil prices above $100 per barrel and Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, expects them to stay there for the foreseeable future, though he notes that the short-term is barely foreseeable given all of the current headline risks. His investment play into the oil uncertainty is with tanker companies, rather than oil producers, noting that they are making money while they sit, loaded, waiting for the Strait of Hormuz to open, and they will benefit from pent-up demand as the situation resolves. One stock that has not seen its current headline risk get resolved is Microsoft, which has struggled as the market worries that artificial intelligence will damage the software business; that just makes Microsoft a better value now, Marolia says. The market itself has not become a bargain yet, and with nervous investors on the edge of selling and trading, Marolia says there could be more short-term pain, but investors should avoid increasing that pain by freaking out about the headline risk.

The earliest impacts of the war in Iran are already showing, but Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, says investors shouldn't let the early price action in oil and other markets shake their confidence in the market's ability to get through a period of uncertainty before resuming an upward trajectory. He also looks at the upward trajectory in the inflation rate, which he says will be the financial story of the week ahead, but also potentially for many consumers' financial lifetime, noting that if higher inflation becomes the norm, it dramatically changes the math for building a retirement-savings nestegg that can overcome longevity and purchasing-power risk. Marolia also discusses the SpaceX merger plans, and whether the biggest deal in corporate history will make the combined companies — both controlled by Elon Musk — worth buying when SpaceX goes through an IPO later this year.

 With tensions escalating in the Middle East leading to fears of what could happen to oil prices and energy markets, Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, discusses how that potential "disruption" is one of several investors are facing now. Another is the recent selloff in software stocks, caused by fears that booming artificial-intelligence capabilities will diminish the future business potential in software and tech stocks. Marolia discusses how the disruptions add uncertainty and require investors to be patient, but he warns that investors being panicky and wanting to react to the troubles are more likely to damage their portfolios than the actual disruptions.

Disappointing results last week for gross domestic product were a temporary setback, caused in part by the effects of last fall's government shutdown, but Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital expects GDP to come roaring back over the next nine months, topping the 4% level and going beyond the mere snap-back from the shutdown impact. He suggests that will happen provided that the economy can overcome trade-policy uncertainties stemming from continued tariff changes, the latest created by the Supreme Court decision striking down the Trump Administration's ability to use an emergency-powers act to authorize them. Plus, Vijay talks about his experience fooling around on prediction markets and how that has led him to see that those markets — which most see as a different form of gambling — will have real-life impacts on investment theory and strategy in the very near future.

Having said often that he believes "software will eat the world," Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, discusses how last week's software sell-off isn't changing his view, and is putting some attractive companies on sale. Speaking of sales, he weighs in on the "Sell America" sentiment that is widespread in global markets right now, and what it is saying for the dollar, Treasury yields and equity markets. And when it comes to stock markets this year, in a surprise, it has been the Dow Jones Industrial Average — and not the Nasdaq Composite or the Standard & Poor's 500 — leading the way; he talks about what that means for the market moving forward.

With jobs and inflation data on tap for this week — and the stock market coming off a big downturn in software stocks — Vijay Marolia discusses investors' nerves and how some might be letting headlines get in the way of good long-term buying opportunities, particularly if the market keeps putting software on sale. Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital and and the founder of Dharma Investing, also discusses the ongoing battle between betting sites and prediction markets and whether young companies that advertise during the Super Bowl are showing a potential for future troubles.

Just as silver and gold reached record highs last week, volatility spiked after Kevin Warsh was announced as the nominee to become the next Federal Reserve chairman. Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, discusses what was behind the spike in volatility and why investors should ignore it, but he also looks at winners and losers among four Big Tech stocks that recently announced earnings and why he's looking past the quarterly numbers. Plus, Elon Musk is considering a deal that would merge his SpaceX with  xAI, another of his companies, well before he was planning to launch SpaceX in a huge IPO. Marolia says the strange deal isn't so weird after all.

Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, enjoyed the "Game of Thrones" atmosphere he saw from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last week, and says the lesson from the event was to keep watching geopolitics without over-reacting to them by overhauling your portfolio. Further, in "The Week That Is," he discusses how the market is reacting to feelings rather than fundamentals in the current earnings season, and how it's still not too late — even after silver's new highs last week — for investors to reconsider their commodities holdings and strategies, whether that means finally adding them to a portfolio or rebalancing stakes that have gone up.

Earnings season started last week with the financial-services companies reporting big numbers, overcoming interest-rate and other concerns along the way. Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, looks at that big start and talks about what's next, including the two companies that he thinks are must-watch news for week two of earnings releases. He also discusses what he's looking for in companies from all industries to make sure they are staying on top of opportunities in the business world.

The jobs report and unemployment numbers dominated economic news last week, and Vijay Marolia — chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital — says that while numbers have stayed high, investors and observers should not worry as current levels represent full employment, particularly at a time when people can hold jobs in new and different ways. That should give the Federal Reserve room to cut rates, especially if it is willing to settle for inflation running closer to 3 percent -- as it has been for about a year -- rather than pushing to get to its historical target of 2 percent. Marolia says investors have to prepare and invest for higher inflation, especially in an environment where tariffs are fueling economic growth, because no matter what happens with the tariff case in the Supreme Court or the inflation numbers ahead, prices will not be coming down.

The arrest of Venezuelan president Nicholas Maduro over the weekend will have bigger economic and market impacts than most observers expect, according to Vijay Marolia, because it will change the supply of oil, and it will change prospects for the entire energy sector. Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, says the economic struggles in Venezuela are another sign that socialism -- for all of its perceived good -- is hard-pressed to succeed in a capitalist society.

Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, says that while artificial intelligence dominated the media landscape for moving the market in 2025,monetary policy was a bigger story for investors, particularly for those who profited from huge gains in gold, silver and precious metals.  "Commodities told the story of 2025," Marolia says, and while he expects A.I. to continue to be a big story for both the news media and the markets, he said investors should be paying more attention to precious metals in 2026. Marolia discusses his expectations for the year ahead; he's expecting increased merger and acquisition activity, improvement for value stocks and small companies, a rebound in cryptocurrency and more.

Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, says that investors got proof about how all technology evolutions don't make for great tech stocks, as he looks at one well-known name that filed for bankruptcy last week while another big name posted record profits. He also dives back into the bidding war over content, not just with the latest in the battle over Warner Brothers Discovery, but with how the deal for TikTok is proving that content — and its market value — keeps changing. Plus, with the holidays on tap, Vijay discusses how he thinks investors can help their finances with a simple move that puts away some of their holiday shopping monies into the companies they are shopping with.

Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, takes another look at "this, that and the other thing" for markets this week, looking first at the fallout from the Warner Brothers Discovery merger saga, and how its resolution has bigger implications for deals that are likely to come up as industries react to current conditions. Then, he's onto the breather that markets took after a post-rate cut rally last week, and whether that suggests that investors will show weariness this week, perhaps discouraging Santa Claus from bringing a rally this year. Finally, Vijay digs into the talk of an initial public offering from Elon Musk's Space X — potentially the biggest IPO in history — and how it's important to separate emotions around the man from feelings about his company, as you decide if the entire business is the launch of an investment rocket or a rich man's folly.

Start each week by getting the skinny from Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital. Each episode features his takeaway from the last week, his upshot for the week ahead and his projection for something to keep an eye on moving forward. Hosted by Chuck Jaffe of "Money Life with Chuck Jaffe," it's a fun, fast-paced, frenetic journey that this week focuses on the Netflix-Warner Brothers Discovery deal, how precious metals will respond to a rate cut and move forward and what parents should consider about the new Trump Accounts saving for children.