Crossmark's Fernandez: Santa's coming, but may not bring much joy into '27

Victoria Fernandez, chief market strategist at Crossmark Global Investments, says she expects the post-midterm market to live up to history — meaning it will be up a year from now — but not without bumps and heightened volatility along the way. She expects continued rotation away from the Mag 7 stocks, and thinks that will lead to a Santa Claus rally near year's end, though she notes that Santa's bag may be light this year. One issue she flags is that there will be less stimulus in 2027, not just because of the election results but because 2026 had a lot of stimulus; that reduction may slow the economy enough that the Federal Reserve can avoid major rate cuts, allowing the market to take a gentle pullback, which she thinks would be a good thing before it regathers strength as the rotation plays out.

Nate Miles, head of retirement at Allspring Global Investments, discusses the firm's 2026 Retirement Study, which found that target-date funds and other default choices in retirement plans are more effective and popular with younger workers, but that savers want more control and the chance to generate more income as they approach retirement age. Upon retirement, savers' use of target-date funds drops dramatically, reflecting more nuanced needs that one-size solutions don't fit as comfortably.

Plus, after an election season in which consumers' phones were bombarded with mostly unwanted political messages, Brad Herrmann, chief executive officer at Text-Em-All — a mass-messaging and two-way SMS platform — discusses common texting myths and ways to make the most of technology while avoiding the worst, noting that while consumers want to avoid spam they don't want to miss the latest news from their child's school system. He explains why mass texting and spam aren't the same thing, how to recognize legitimate messages from unfamiliar numbers and when to send STOP messages versus ignoring unsolicited texts completely and more.