(New York)

It has been for around a decade that value stocks have been getting hammered by growth stocks. The rut has been so bad that many have given up on the discipline altogether. But recently, something has been changing. Momentum stocks, long the darling of this bull market, have started to lag their value-oriented peers. This change started last week and is continuing today, and follows the worst month for value stocks in at least 20 years (this past August).

FINSUM: This is an encouraging sign, but certainly is not enough to say “value stocks are back!”.

(New York)

There is a new digital custodian in the industry who is promising 90% cost savings to RIAs on their technology and custodial costs. That new company is called Altruist, and is a commission-free custody service that intends to compete with the big players in the space at their own game. “Our goal is for everyone to really pay almost nothing”, says founder Jason Wenk, continuing “How much has really changed over the last 10 years? The change is way overdue. It’s not like this is some epiphany for us”. The new Altruist platform will launch in October and be very easy to integrate with the existing platforms from major competitors.

FINSUM: Technology costs are eating up a huge chunk of revenue across the industry, so anyone that can lower them and still provide stellar service will have a competitive edge.

(New York)

For the last half decade or so, financial advisors across the industry have been on an endless search for the next frontier of advice that will insulate their business from cheap, digital competitors. This has led to a wide array of new services, but one that is increasingly pervasive is college counseling. Many advisors are now taking a much more active role in college planning for the children of clients. This includes everything from figuring out how to shelter certain assets from financial aid forms (e.g. insurance products) to actually proofreading applications and helping children choose majors and study abroad programs. Demand for the service has been rising since the cost of tuition has exploded, meaning it represents a much larger financial burden than ever before.

FINSUM: Some of this seems to make a lot of sense (e.g. making financial plans to pay for college and help with financial aid forms), but having financial advisors help kids choose majors seems a little odd. That said, this seems like a good growth area for the business.

(San Francisco)

The headline looks a little bearish, granted, but it honestly may be true. The stars seem to be aligning for some big price losses in Apple’ stock. The company is set to unveil the iPhone 11 today, and it is hard to remember a time when there has been less excitement. For many reasons, including this being Apple’s last 4G phone, this model year looks to be a dud, and customer demand for it looks commensurately weak. Accordingly, the replacement cycle is likely to be poor. However, market expectations don’t seem to reflect all this, which means the stock is set up for big disappointment. Even Wall Street equity research divisions are now significantly lowering price targets for the stock.

FINSUM: The smartphone market is growing increasingly commoditized and dull and it is affecting Apple too. The company has done an admirable job diversifying, but 2020 is looking bleak for Apple.

(New York)

One of the biggest banks on Wall Street has just made a bold call on gold. Citi says that the precious metal is likely to shoot to $2,000 or more within the next 24 months. The bank argues that a dovish cutting cycle by the Fed will be a catalyst for price gains, which will be supported by a weakening economy and worries over the trade war. According to Citi, “We expect spot gold prices to trade stronger for longer . . . posting new cyclical highs at some point in the next year or two”. Standard Chartered, another big bank, also made the interesting comment that “It does seem that gold’s status within the portfolio has been reignited”.

FINSUM: The most interesting comment here is about gold’s role in a portfolio. For many years it seemed that investors had forgotten about gold’s role in diversification, but it finally seems to have made a comeback.