AGNC Investment Corp. (AGNCM)

High Dividend Opportunities targets an 8–10% portfolio yield, prioritizing sustainable cashflow to replace income in retirement without selling shares. Will Barton shares why they emphasize diversification, favoring CEFs and preferreds, and adapting allocations based on macro conditions, with a current focus on tangible assets like real estate and energy.

U.S. equity markets advanced this week as investors parsed a deluge of headlines, including a major Supreme Court tariff ruling, escalating Middle East tensions, soft economic data, and hawkish Fed-speak. The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to restrict the President's authority to impose broader tariffs under the IEEPA framework, a widely expected move that was quickly countered by the White House. Investors also shrugged off renewed tensions between the U.S. and Iran, which sent oil prices to seven-month highs. The S&P 500 advanced 1.1% - its best weekly gains since early January.

U.S. equity markets diverged sharply as cooling labor data revived Fed rate-cut expectations, accelerating a value rotation and pressuring growth amid scrutiny and an unwind of the dollar debasement trade. With the January BLS payrolls report delayed, investors instead reacted to softer-than-expected JOLTS, ADP, Challenger, and initial claims data, interrupting a stretch of resilient economic releases and tempering risk sentiment. Meanwhile, the busiest week of corporate earnings season raised questions around where long-term value from booming AI spending ultimately accrues, both within the AI ecosystem and across the broader economy.

Key Themes To Watch This REIT Earnings Season

AGNC Investment Corp. (AGNC) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Ahead of the Fed meeting, U.S. equity markets declined modestly this week as investors navigated a fresh bout of global rate volatility amid headline churn out of Davos and Japan. Markets drew relief from de-escalation in the Greenland saga, as the White House backed away from military and tariff threats after agreeing to a NATO framework enabling expanded U.S. influence. Speculation ramped up around the next Fed Chair, with BlackRock's Rick Rieder suddenly viewed as the betting favorite, a candidate that markets view as a pragmatic and more centrist alternative.

U.S. equity markets posted mixed performance this past week as investors weighed a resilient slate of economic data against renewed tensions between the White House and the Fed. Investor reaction was surprisingly muted to news that the DOJ opened an investigation into Fed Chair Powell, but markets did reflect increased odds that the FOMC opts to dig in its heels. Encouragingly, benign consumer inflation data kept the broader disinflation narrative intact, while signs of a recovery in the long-sluggish housing sector suggested that affordability dynamics are finally improving.

U.S. equity markets stumbled to close out the year, while long-term interest rates swelled toward four-month highs, as investors digested resilient economic data and locked in gains from 2025 leaders. The tranquil holiday season was jolted by dramatic geopolitical developments over the weekend, after a U.S. military operation captured and extradited Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro. The stunningly bold strike furthered an ongoing hemispheric realignment, and at minimum, shifted control of the world's largest known oil reserves away from China and Russia toward the United States.

U.S. equity markets climbed to fresh record highs in the Christmas-shortened trading week, buoyed by surprisingly solid GDP data, positive holiday spending trends, and a pullback in global interest rates. The delayed GDP report released this week showed a modest reacceleration in U.S. economic growth in the third-quarter to the strongest pace in two years alongside a cooler-than-expected inflation reading. Precious metals stole the show. Gold, silver, and platinum extended a historic rally fueled by a combination of easing rates, central-bank buying, end-market demand, and investor appetite for hard assets.

U.S. equity markets posted mixed performance as surprisingly cool inflation data and soft employment data were tempered by a hawkish pushback from Fed officials and skeptics clinging to inflation fears. The critical CPI report showed inflation easing to four-year lows, a heavily criticized report that may, ironically, be the most accurate inflation reading in several years due to collection limitations. The report "zeroed out" shelter inflation due to incomplete collection, combined with an antiquated and lagged sampling methodology, effectively "correcting" its data by removing the most persistent source of distortion.

America: In debt we trust. The Bank of Mom & Dad is seeing growing adoption. We discuss a pattern that's been evolving for decades.

REITs endured a brutal three-plus-year stretch since March 2022, underperforming the S&P 500 by an unprecedented 70 percentage points, far worse than the Global Financial Crisis. Extreme underperformance has left REITs historically cheap despite solid property-level fundamentals, but this valuation discount carries a cost: elevated capital costs, suppressed transaction activity, and limited external growth opportunities. Depressed public-market valuations have triggered a pronounced “REIT exodus,” with 40 REITs acquired, liquidated, or seeking sales since 2022, while new REIT formation has collapsed to a fraction of norms.

U.S. equity markets posted mixed performance after an unusually divided Federal Reserve delivered a third-straight rate cut, but signaled a likely "pause" in the easing cycle. Perhaps the last rate cut under the "Powell Fed," the FOMC voted 9-3 to lower the federal funds rate to 3.75%, with two votes to keep rates unchanged. Markets saw hawkish undertones in the updated Economic Projections and commentary from Chair Powell, which emphasized lingering uncertainty around the inflation outlook and lack of conviction in softening labor markets.

U.S. equity markets climbed to the cusp of fresh record-highs as another soft slate of employment data and modest PCE inflation data helped solidify the case for another rate cut. ADP provided the most evident signs of cooling labor markets, posting job losses in three of the past six months and a cooldown in wage growth to four-year lows. The PCE report showed corresponding disinflation in discretionary services categories, offsetting modest upward pressures on goods prices, resulting in the first monthly deceleration in core inflation since April.

U.S. equity markets staged a broad rally in the holiday-shortened week, while benchmark interest rates dipped to the cusp of multi-year lows, as investors leaned into December rate cut expectations. Reports that Kevin Hassett- a close Trump ally- has emerged as the frontrunner to succeed Fed Chair Powell in 2026 further sharpened expectations for a more explicitly dovish policy approach. The "Hasset trade" revived appetite for long-duration and rate-sensitive equity sectors, as investors priced in a lower terminal-rate environment and a steeper path of 2026 policy accommodation.

U.S. equity markets dipped in a volatile week, while benchmark interest rates pulled back from one-month highs, as renewed anxiety over stretched AI-driven valuations collided with mounting monetary policy uncertainty. Public commentary from Fed officials revealed an unusually fractured committee, with a divide that was deepened further by a mixed slate of employment data via the long-delayed September payrolls report. Payrolls data showed that the U.S. economy added 119k jobs in September- better than estimates- but prior months were revised lower and the unemployment rate rose to four-year highs.