SUCCESS

Ivanna Hampton: Welcome to Investing Insights. I’m your host, Ivanna Hampton. New exchange-traded funds are sprouting up quickly. In 2025, more than 1,000 ETFs launched, and the crop included promising funds as well as those taking on unnecessary risks. The field could expand soon to include hundreds of riskier ETFs. As investment choices evolve, how can everyday investors spot what’s a good fit for their portfolio? Dan Sotiroff is the associate director of US passive strategies research for Morningstar.Thanks for joining me, Dan.Dan Sotiroff: Thanks for having me.Hampton: Give me a sense of how ETFs have evolved since State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust debuted back in the ’90s.Sotiroff: Sure. I think it’s fair to say they’ve evolved a lot, and that might be the understatement of the century. Like you referenced, the earliest ETFs—the first one actually from State Street was built around the S&P 500—but a lot of the early ETFs we saw were built around broad indexes. You had State Street come out with their S&P 400 Midcap ETF MDY: that’s still around today. They got into the Select SPDR ETFs, and we eventually saw Vanguard and iShares get into the same game, playing around with broad-market index ETFs, really. What we’ve seen over the years is we’ve started to see an evolution away from just equity. So, we started to see fixed-income ETFs come into the fold eventually in the 2000s. But the bigger thing we’ve seen since probably around the mid-2000s is that the underlying portfolios themselves have gotten narrower and narrower over time.Even when you look at just stock ETFs, we went from, let’s say, around 98, 99 having on average about 500 stocks in an ETF to now we’re looking more at maybe 100 to 120 stocks in an ETF portfolio among a lot of the ETFs that are out there. So, the exposure, the diversification, whatever you want to call it, has come down over time. That obviously changes the risk/reward profile a little bit, but at a high level, that’s kind of how they’ve developed in the decades since SPDR S&P 500 came out.Hampton: Let’s fast-forward to today. What trends are emerging from current launches, and what do you think of them?Sotiroff: I would put this in more of maybe the last seven to 10 years. What we’ve seen is that the complexity has really gone up through the roof. What I mean by that is a lot of newer ETFs are using derivatives in order to sort of alter the risk/reward of those stocks and bond ETFs that we had back in the ’90s and the 2000s. Some of that’s for good reasons; some of it for not-so-good reasons. In some cases, they may be writing covered calls to generate additional income beyond what a stock or bond portfolio can provide. In other cases, they may be using derivatives to provide some downside protection. Think of the buffer ETFs that have come out over the last couple of years. And then there’re others that are just levered and inverse exposures to an index or increasingly single stocks. Those also are using derivatives to gain that leverage or inverse exposure to them.There are really two big concerns you run into with that additional complexity. They’re very risky on their own, so they’re amping up the risk and return in the case of levered and inverse ETFs. The other thing you’ve got to be very aware of here is that the use case; how to use them and when to apply them is very difficult to understand. In some cases, the risk/reward profile is a little bit trickier to understand. You think of the buffer ETFs or the covered-call ETFs. They have their place in the right setting for the right clients at the appropriate time, but you really have to know how to use them, and you have to be aware of the risk and rewards. What are you giving up to get what this ETF is providing you with in the case of a covered call? You’re foregoing some capital appreciation for income today, as an example.And so that isn’t always obvious when you’re looking at these ETFs, you kind of just see the headline figure, and you think you buy it now, and that isn’t always the case. They should have some very specific guidelines on how to use them. And you need to be careful about how you use them and when you implement them.Hampton: You have to dig deeper.Sotiroff: You have to dig a little deeper. That’s a good way of putting it.Hampton: Some of the biggest ETFs track broad indexes, charge cheap fees, and that can make it tough for new ETFs to compete. What areas are ETF providers targeting to attract these investors?Sotiroff: Well, a reason a lot of these more complex ETFs are coming out, and it kind of gets down to the business case for a lot of these asset managers. You mentioned those really big index tracking ETFs, predominantly from Vanguard, iShares, State Street, to a lesser extent Charles Schwab, and a few others. You can’t really compete with them because they’ve sort of taken up the opportunity set already. They already have sort of a pretty good foothold on that stuff. They’ve built trust with clients over decades. They’re more or less winning the game, and the fees are already more or less zero at this point. So, you can’t really go in and compete by trying to offer something at a cheaper cost. It’s really, really difficult, if not impossible to compete with them.So, what you’re seeing is asset managers are getting a little bit more creative. One way they’re doing that is you’re seeing a lot more active managers get into ETFs. They’re bringing their actively managed strategies that were largely parked in just mutual funds up until the last few years, and they’re introducing those to ETFs. So, now the clients that were maybe holding the mutual fund can get a more tax-efficient experience through the ETF. The other thing, and we’ve talked about this several times, is we’re seeing a lot more bond ETFs come out right now. Bonds were an area that were just not very well picked over in the ETF world. So, we’re seeing a lot more bond ETFs come out, particularly a lot of actively managed bond ETFs. That’s another area that’s sort of evolving and where you see a lot of innovation taking place.The other things are sort of things I’ve kind of hinted at already. You’re seeing things like covered-call ETFs, where maybe you have a client who really needs income or really wants income, and they’re willing to give up some of that upside capital appreciation to get that. You can use a reasonably built covered-call ETF to kind of complement your portfolio and get some additional income. But then there’s other stuff I was alluding to too, like the levered and inverse ETFs. Those should really just be avoided by a lot of people. I think pretty much everybody; there really isn’t a great reason to hold them. There’s no good way to use them. They have a lot of problems with them, and it’s that sort of stuff. So, there’s this weird spectrum of like, yes, I can see the use case for some of this stuff in the right situation. And then there’s other stuff I think that people should just largely avoid.Hampton: You brought it up, so we’re going to go a bit deeper into it.Sotiroff: Sure, let’s do that.Hampton: Why do you think folks should proceed with caution when it comes to leverage and inverse single-stock ETFs?Sotiroff: The way I think about it is there’s just really no good holding period for these. The stated leverage on a lot of these only applies over the course of a day, and then it resets the following day. So, if you’re using it for that one-day period, you’re going to get the exposure more or less that is on the wrapper. The problem is you’re betting on one-day price moves, in which case anything can happen. In some cases, a lot of unexpected things can happen, and it can go the wrong way for you. If you’re holding them for longer periods, longer than a day, they have another problem that you run into, and we kind of refer to that as volatility decay. The basic way to describe that is that the nature of these ETFs applies to their downside as well as their upside. So, yes, you get the levered upside exposure, but the downside is also levered.And what happens over time is if the bet goes against you enough times, you end up digging yourself into a really deep hole, and the upside isn’t going to be big enough to overcome the hole that you’ve kind of dug yourself into. And so we see that play out on a lot of the levered and inverse ETFs. If you look at their growth over a long enough period of time, they almost always kind of just slowly decline to zero over time. And so that’s a problem that a lot of them run into. They’re definitely not long-term investments. You’re not going to get that leverage that you think you’re going to get over longer horizons. And then over that one-day period that the leverage applies, it’s very, very speculative, and a lot of things can happen. And odds are it’s probably going to go against you.Hampton: Oh, wow. Well, there’s another layer of costs that can shrink returns than just the expense ratio. Can you explain?Sotiroff: A lot of these ETFs—think of the levered and inverse stuff—but it applies to some other of these complex ETFs, is they’re using derivatives to ultimately get the exposure or tweak the exposure to stocks and bonds to produce the outcome that they want to produce. There are costs to those derivatives that aren’t always apparent. And particularly with some of the levered and inverse stuff, you’re using a swap contract to get that levered or inverse exposure. And there are additional costs to get that swap contract. And they’re not trivial costs. The costs vary based on the asset that you’re targeting, the specific terms of the agreement with the counterparty, and then interest rates and a few other factors. But there are additional costs there that are going to eat your return at the end of the day. Some of that stuff, it is disclosed, but you kind of have to dig through the documents. It’s not going to be upfront and obvious to anybody that’s buying these things.Hampton: Hundreds of these riskier types of ETFs are waiting in line for SEC approval. Any hints from the agency on how they’re likely to proceed?Sotiroff: Not yet. We’re still kind of in a little bit of a holding period right now. I think what you’re kind of hinting at here is that the SEC was asking for some comments about the introduction and approval process for a lot of the newer ETFs that have been coming out over, say, the last couple of months to a year or something like that. So, there’s obviously been a ton of ETFs that have been filed. I think we’re somewhere around a thousand, like seven months through the year or something like that. We had over a thousand last year. It’s gotten pretty wild, and I think that’s why they’re taking a step back, and they’re looking for some comments on how can we improve things and make things better. So, we’re kind of in a waiting period right now. We’re going to wait and see ultimately what they come out with hopefully in the next few weeks or so.Hampton: Among the recent launches, you consider a few of them to be bright spots. What are they and why are they worth the look?Sotiroff: The big ones, I think, are going back to active management. I think you’re seeing some legitimately good active managers start to get into the ETF space. And ultimately what your clients are getting there is more tax-efficient experience at the end of the day, provided that it’s being managed correctly within the ETF framework. Again, there’s a lot of new bond ETFs that have come out. That’s a big area where we’ve seen a lot of development and a lot of improvement. I think pretty much every asset manager, at least most of the big asset managers, now have an actively managed core bond ETF and an actively managed short or ultrashort bond ETF. Think of it as a cashlike substitute, if you want. Those have been some great areas, and obviously it’s become a lot more crowded. So, it’s a little bit more competitive than it was maybe five years ago.But those are great developments. A lot of cases, those are low-cost. They’re reasonably managed by some pretty big, prominent asset managers. So in a lot of cases—you obviously have to do your own due diligence and look through and make sure you know what you’re buying—but a lot of those I think can be good in the long run. Those are probably the big bright spots, I would say, when we see active management and then some of the fixed-income stuff we’ve seen come out over the last couple of years.Hampton: Is there anything investors should watch out for when it comes to actively managed ETFs?Sotiroff: You have to remember the ETF is just a vehicle, right? It’s just a way to get access to an investment at the end of the day. It’s a little more tax-efficient than a mutual fund, so it’s got that going for it. But a lot of the due diligence process and understanding the managers and the process and all that type of stuff, that still applies. You’re not off the hook just because you’re in an ETF. You still need to make sure you understand that. You still need to make sure the manager is following a sensible, repeatable, cost-effective process at the end of the day. It’s kind of the way I think about what we do in manager research. And that is going to hold up over the long run because it has those traits.So, none of that really changes all that much. You’re just getting a more tax-efficient vehicle. And in some cases, a little bit cheaper investment because the ETF generally has a little bit of a cost benefit over mutual funds, too.Hampton: What’s the takeaway for investors considering whether they should add new ETFs to their portfolio?Sotiroff: I would just be extremely cautious around a lot of the new stuff, particularly the stuff that’s based on derivatives. Make sure you really understand what’s going on there, you really understand the risk/reward profile you’re getting into, because you don’t want to end up with a bad experience at the end of the day. And I think the user experience of these things, in some cases, is very complicated. Like I was hinting at before, you really have to know what you’re doing. And if you don’t, just stay away.Again, it just goes back to basic building blocks. Stick to the low-cost, tried-and-true stock or bond ETFs, whether that’s active or passive. You really can’t go wrong with those at the end of the day. That has the economic underpinnings of what makes great long-term investments is sort of that capital growth and capital appreciation. Stocks and bonds do that great. You don’t really need to look beyond that. You can build a great portfolio with that type of stuff. So, stick to that and then branch out from there if you want to start looking at some newer stuff.Hampton: Well, Dan, as always, thank you for coming to the table.Sotiroff: You’re very welcome. Thank you.Hampton: That wraps up this week’s episode. Thanks for making this show part of your day. A couple of reminders: Give Investing Insights five stars on Apple Podcasts to help others find the work we’re producing for you, and subscribe to Morningstar’s YouTube channel to watch new videos from our team. Thanks to senior video producer Jake VanKersen and associate multimedia editor Jess Bebel. I’m Ivanna Hampton, editorial multimedia manager at Morningstar. Take care.

If you are looking into stem cell treatment abroad for children, you’re probably already drowning in research. Conversations with doctors, conversations with other parents, reading late into the night because you can’t sleep anyway.
It could be autism. Cerebral palsy. Or something else entirely. Whatever it is, the idea of flying your child to another country for medical care sounds both hopeful and terrifying.
There’s a lot to figure out. Logistics: flights, accommodation, which clinics are actually legitimate. The emotional weight of it. And all the practical stuff nobody warns you about until you’re already deep in it.
Whether you end up at Swiss Medica or another reputable clinic specializing in stem cell therapy for autistic children and pediatric conditions, your role as a prepared caregiver will shape your child’s entire journey. 
Why Proper Preparation Actually Matters
Traveling abroad for stem cell therapy is exhausting. Your child’s dealing with new surroundings, jet lag that’s no joke, an unfamiliar culture, plus the actual stress of medical procedures. It’s a lot on a young nervous system.
Kids who feel prepared and secure handle procedures better. Their emotional state will affect their recovery. Explain to them what’s coming, and keep to a routine. 
Medical Prep Before You Go
Your child’s medical foundation needs to be solid before you book those flights. 
The following is important:

Get comprehensive medical records from your home doctor, including blood work and imaging. 
Document allergies and medication sensitivities clearly.
Make sure your child’s medications will actually travel. Pack at least 30% extra just in case.
Get travel insurance that actually covers medical tourism and stem cell procedures.
Ask your home physician for a letter explaining your child’s condition and why this treatment makes sense.
Talk directly with the clinic you’ve chosen, Swiss Medica or another one, about their specific requirements. Reputable places will give you detailed questionnaires and might request additional testing before you arrive.

The Practical Logistics Stuff
International travel with a child who needs medical care means you will have to think about the following. 
Travel essentials:

Passports valid for at least six months past your travel dates
Insurance docs and emergency contact info
Medical records and any treatment agreements
Currency and credit cards, plus knowledge of local banking
Airport accessibility info if your child needs it

Comfort items for travel:

Favorite books, toys, comfort objects
Snacks they actually enjoy and can handle
Entertainment for the flight (download stuff beforehand)
Comfy, loose-fitting clothes
Meds and first aid supplies in your carry-on

The Emotional Side
Your kid’s feelings matter here; they really do affect how they handle everything and bounce back afterward.
Talk to them before appointments. Use language they actually get. Young kids just need the basics: “The doctors are helping your body heal.” That’s enough. Older kids will ask more questions, and they should. Answer them honestly.
Keep things normal. Video calls with family, their favorite show, whatever connects them back home. These things matter more than you think when everything feels off.
What to Expect at the Facility
When you arrive, orientation is key. Meet the medical team, ask all your questions, get clear on what each day looks like. Facilities like Swiss Medica make this straightforward, and they keep communication lines open with parents.
You need to understand the actual treatment protocol. How many sessions? What sensations might your kid feel? Any side effects? What’s allowed between treatments? Knowing this prevents surprises and builds confidence for your child.
Your Daily Routine During Treatment
Most treatments don’t take long, so you’ll have a lot of the day free. Structure helps everyone feel less anxious:

      Medical appointments at their scheduled times
      Real rest time after treatments
      Age-appropriate activities and recreation
      Good meals and staying hydrated
      Time outdoors if the medical team gives the okay

Connect with other families there. Most clinics help parents meet each other, which helps prevent isolation, and act as a support network for adults. 
The Journey Home and What Comes Next
Plan your return travel carefully. Your child might be exhausted after treatment, so give recovery time before flying if you can. Talk to your medical team about activity restrictions for the trip home.
Once you’re back, stay in contact with your clinic according to their follow-up schedule. Some recommend check-ins at specific intervals. Document your child’s progress, and set realistic expectations. You’re likely to see gradual improvement.
Putting It Together
Arranging stem cell treatment abroad for children can be exhausting and complicated. But if you do it right, you’re setting up the best possible foundation for a good experience and successful treatment.
This choice to pursue stem cell treatment abroad for children is deeply personal and could mean a better future for your family. 
Share Your Story
If you’re considering traveling abroad for stem cell therapy, share your experience in the comments. Your experience could help other families.  
The post Preparing Your Child for Stem Cell Treatment Abroad: A Travel and Comfort Checklist appeared first on Addicted 2 Success.

We would like to say gas prices are coming down. We would like to say oil prices are sliding. We would like to say there’s light at the end of the tunnel in the United States-Israel war against Iran.

But here’s the reality. Oil prices — and gasoline prices — are currently not driven by anything resembling economic forces. It’s all about the war in the Persian Gulf. And that war drags on in the form of angry rhetoric.

There are no negotiations going on to end the conflict, and Iran is attacking ships trying to enter or leave the Persian Gulf. The United States is providing naval escorts to move ships from the Gulf into the Indian Ocean.

Reuters called the situation “a conflict on autopilot.” And it’s a costly conflict.

Related: World’s quietest metal just dropped a huge bullish signal

The 45% hit to Americans’ wallets

Gasoline prices so far in 2026 are still up roughly 45% and up 10% since the July 4 holiday.

The average price over the first 20 days of this month are the highest ever for the first 20 days of August: an average $4.063 per gallon, according to AAA Fuel Prices data.

That beats August 2022, when the average over the first 20 days of the month was $4.029 a gallon.

You may remember 2022 and not with affection. Gas prices soared (along with inflation generally) as the world came out of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia invaded Ukraine. The U.S. peak came on June 14, 2022, at $5.0165 a gallon nationally.

Usually, gasoline prices are starting to fall. The summer driving season is starting to ebb as families finish off summer vacations. And, in the United States, demand falls into the fall.

Not this year.

AAA’s national average price on Aug. 20, 2026, was $4.1044, up 0.5% from Aug. 19. GasBuddy said its data put the Aug. 20 national average at about $4.093 a gallon, down slightly from the day before.

Prices vary by state with Indiana prices the lowest at $3.56 a gallon, followed by the bulk of southern states. The highest prices are in California, Hawaii, Washington (all above $5 a gallon), Nevada and Oregon.

What to know about gasoline and oil prices

There are three things to remember about this price picture.

The U.S. national average for gasoline has been above $4 a gallon for at least 30 days after the memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran, signed on June 17, gave way to more hostilities and the killing of three U.S. service members during a missile attack in Jordan.

Yet, prices are still lower than in May when AAA’s top price was $4.564 a gallon and GasBuddy’s was $4.567. Both services show little changes in their prices so far in August.

Diesel prices are soaring, reaching $5.50 a gallon nationally on Aug. 20, according to ValveRide Flow, which tracks truck fuel prices. California had the highest median price: about $6.99 a gallon.

Light sweet crude, the benchmark for U.S. oil closed at $86.83 per 42-gallon barrel, up 1.2%, per Wall Street Journal data. Brent, the global benchmark, settled at $93.78 a barrel, up 2.4%.

Why gas prices are stuck

The reasons for the high prices are as clear as they were after the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 27:

The Strait of Hormuz is still basically closed, even as President Donald Trump insists the U.S. Navy controls it. Some six ships passed through the strait on Aug. 18, Reuters reported. But on Aug. 19, with U.S. Navy escorts, some 15 to 20 tankers transited the strait, Axios reported. Why care about the strait? Before hostilities began, about 20% of the world’s crude oil passed through the strait with tankers transporting the oil to refineries around the world.

Two ships are anchored off Dubai in the Persian Gulf on July 31. AFP / Getty Images.AFP / Getty Images

Despite all the bombs dropped and missiles launched, the Iranian government has not sued for peace. In fact, Wall Street Journal reporting suggests the Iranian government seems to believe it can wait the Trump Administration out. And it’s preparing for more hostilities.

The United States isn’t making many overtures either. Late on Aug. 19, President Trump promised the “most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country” against Iran. (But he didn’t specify what that meant.) And he threatened severe financial penalties on any nation that helps Tehran evade sanctions, sending oil prices higher. The New York Times suggested that could mean countries like China, India, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey could be exposed to the administration’s wrath.

More Oil & Gas:

Goldman Sachs doubles down on oil price forecast for 2026

Drivers lose control over gas price squeeze

A big shift in the U.S. energy market is about to happen

How markets are behaving

Energy stocks in the United States were higher on Aug. 20, thanks to the news on the war that doesn’t seem to end.

The State Street Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE) was up 0.3% to $63.75. The ETF is up 43% this year. ExxonMobil (XOM) added 0.8% to $166.15. Conoco Phillips (COP) added 3.3% to $134.89.

Energy was just one of two Standard & Poor’s 500 sectors ahead on Aug. 20. The sector has been the top performer among the 11 S&P 500 sectors in 2026, up 41.6%. Technology is second, up 20%.

U.S. stocks overall slumped on Aug. 20 mostly because of rising interest rates. The S&P 500 was down 0.9% to 7,641. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) fell 1.3%, or 704 points to 52,759.

Related: Billionaire George Soros makes sevenfold move on AI chip stock in latest 13F

‘Outer Banks’ season 5, its final season, is live on Netflix, and so far, fans seem to be loving it judging by an IMDB record it just set.

Back in May, I covered Bank of America analyst Tal Liani’s initial Buy call on ServiceNow (NOW) with a $130 price target. 

His core argument was that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the strongest tailwind ServiceNow has ever seen, not an existential threat to its business. The stock hit that target. Liani came back with a higher one.

On Aug. 19, Liani raised his price target to $150 from $130 while maintaining his Buy rating, according to a note shared with TheStreet.

His reasoning this time centers on three things:

Broad-based software multiple expansion;

Improving growth at select infrastructure names;

Easing concerns that AI would disrupt enterprise software businesses. 

Crucially, his fundamental estimates on ServiceNow itself haven’t changed. The re-rating is about sentiment catching up to reality.

That’s an important distinction. Liani isn’t saying the business got better. He’s simply saying the market was wrong to penalize it as much as it did, and is beginning to correct that mistake.

Also Read: ServiceNow Inc. Latest News and Stories

Why the AI disruption fear around ServiceNow was always overstated

The narrative that weighed on enterprise software stocks earlier in 2026 went something like this: if AI agents can automate workflows, why would companies pay for platforms like ServiceNow to manage those workflows? 

It’s a surface-level argument that sounds plausible until you look at what ServiceNow actually reported in Q2 2026.

More Bank of America:

BofA’s $1.18T cloud forecast puts 3 chip stocks in focus

BofA sees more upside in Seagate’s AI storage trade

Bank of America spots ServiceNow’s overlooked AI advantage

ServiceNow’s AI annual contract value (ACV) crossed $1 billion during the quarter, according to its Q2 fiscal 2026 earnings statement. Agentic deployments of ServiceNow AI increased ninefold in just nine months, CEO Bill McDermott said in the same statement. 

The $29 billion in remaining performance obligations (RPO) grew 21% year-over-year, reflecting longer customer commitments and expanding partner demand.

Related: ServiceNow’s quiet $1B cybersecurity boom

My read is consistent with what I wrote back in May. ServiceNow isn’t being disrupted by AI. It’s becoming the governance layer that makes AI deployable at enterprise scale. 

The AI Control Tower, the partnerships with Nvidia, Microsoft, Anthropic, and AWS — these aren’t defensive moves. This is clear evidence that the biggest AI spenders are running their deployments through ServiceNow’s platform.

McDermott’s framing was simple in the company statement, too.

With our AI Control Tower as the market standard, agentic deployments of ServiceNow AI increased ninefold in just nine months.

ServiceNow Q2 numbers that validate Liani’s original thesis

ServiceNow reported Q2 2026 results on July 22 that beat Wall Street expectations across every meaningful metric.

Key ServiceNow Q2 highlights:

Subscription revenues of $3.877 billion, up 24.5% year-over-year (YoY)

Total revenues of $3.987 billion, up 24% YoY

EPS of $0.90, above estimates of $0.86, MarketBeat reports

RPO of $29.0 billion, up 21% YoY

Current RPO of $13.20 billion, representing near-term contracted revenueSource: ServiceNow Second Quarter 2026 Results

The company raised its full-year 2026 subscription revenue guidance to $15.76-$15.78 billion, implying approximately 21% constant-currency growth, according to the same statement. 

Non-GAAP operating margin is projected at 31.5% for the full year, with non-GAAP subscription gross margin at 81%.

I’ve previously reported that ServiceNow‘s management targets approximately 100 basis points of operating margin and free cash flow margin expansion in 2027, with free cash flow margins projected between 35% and 37%. 

Those numbers don’t scream business under AI-disruption pressure. In fact, they describe a business compounding efficiently while growing its AI revenue to scale.

Bank of America raised ServiceNow’s stock price target to $150 from $130.Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The partnership ecosystem that keeps widening the moat

When I look at ServiceNow, what strikes me most about recent activity is the breadth of partnerships being signed. Second is how quickly the enterprise AI ecosystem is consolidating around its platform.

Anthropic joined as the first design partner for ServiceNow Action Fabric, connecting Claude directly to ServiceNow workflows. AWS Marketplace transactions surpassed $1 billion. NVIDIA deepened collaboration to extend agentic AI governance from desktops to data centers.

Microsoft integrated ServiceNow AI specialists into the Agent 365 ecosystem. Nearly all 50 U.S. states are now using the ServiceNow AI Platform for citizen services, achieving up to a 66% reduction in service desk costs, according to ServiceNow.

Related: ServiceNow CEO admits there’s a solution to AI’s biggest problem

That’s a company embedding itself deeper into the AI infrastructure stack from multiple directions simultaneously.

Tech Mahindra also announced an expanded multi-year partnership with ServiceNow on Aug. 20 specifically to accelerate enterprise AI from pilot deployments to production scale. 

The timing isn’t coincidental. It’s another data point suggesting that large technology services firms see ServiceNow as the connective tissue for enterprise AI deployment.

Why the stock’s underperformance creates the opportunity Liani is flagging

NOW shares are down 15.34% year-to-date and 27.16% over the past year, according to Yahoo Finance. The S&P 500 returned 11.84% and 19.70% over those same periods.

That underperformance is the setup Liani is pointing at. A company growing subscription revenue at 24.5% YoY, crossing $1 billion in AI ACV, holding $29 billion in RPO, and trading at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 29.15 times is priced more conservatively than its growth profile suggests it should be, according to Yahoo Finance valuation data.

Related: Bank of America sees ‘great convergence’ across America’s two economies

The market spent months pricing ServiceNow as if AI would hollow out its business. The Q2 results showed the opposite. Liani’s revised $150 target reflects a view that the re-rating from that misconception is still in its early innings.

From where I sit, having tracked this name since May, the fundamental story hasn’t changed. What’s changing is the market’s willingness to believe it.

Related: Bank of America’s latest Nvidia alert is a must-read for worried investors

There’s a simple way to make a perfectly good investment portfolio feel like a failure: Compare it to something that did better.

Maybe the S&P 500 gained 20% while your portfolio was up 13%. Or international stocks suddenly took off while most of your money was invested in the U.S. Perhaps a friend tells you how much money he made owning a handful of technology stocks. Suddenly, earning 13% doesn’t feel so great.

This is benchmarking, and Wes Moss, a fiduciary financial advisor and host of Ask an Advisor on the Clark Howard Podcast, says it can be an especially dangerous mistake for retirement investors.

“Benchmarking is a dangerous retirement mistake because it feeds the phenomenon of always seeing something greener on the other side of the investment fence,” Wes says.

The problem isn’t looking at a benchmark. Benchmarks can be useful tools. The problem starts when you use someone else’s performance, or the performance of an index that doesn’t resemble your portfolio, to decide whether you’re succeeding.

Your Portfolio Isn’t the S&P 500

The S&P 500 is probably the benchmark investors hear about most often. And if you own a diversified portfolio, there will inevitably be years when you underperform it. That doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve done anything wrong.

Imagine you’re approaching or already in retirement and have 60% of your portfolio invested in stocks and 40% in bonds. If the stock market has a huge year, you’re going to trail the S&P 500. Of course you will. The S&P 500 is essentially 100% stocks. Your portfolio isn’t.

Those bonds that held back your returns during the boom are there specifically to reduce volatility and provide stability when stocks fall. Comparing the two portfolios based only on their returns ignores why they’re constructed differently in the first place.

It’s like criticizing a minivan because it can’t keep up with a sports car. Speed wasn’t the reason you bought it.

There’s Always Something Doing Better

Even if you’re 100% invested in stocks, benchmarking can get you into trouble. At almost any moment, you can find an investment that has recently performed better than yours. Maybe it’s large U.S. companies. Then it’s small caps. Then international stocks. Then technology. Then value stocks. Then some individual company everyone seems to be talking about.

Look at 2026 so far. Through mid-August, the S&P 500 is up about 12%. That’s a good year by any normal standard. But small-cap stocks are up nearly 22% and emerging markets stocks are up more than 20%. So an investor who spent the last several years moving money toward the S&P 500 because it kept beating everything else is now watching two other asset classes beat it.

Our asset class returns quilt shows how routinely this happens. It ranks eight major asset classes from best to worst each year, going back decades. Whatever finishes on top one year is rarely on top the next.

Something will always do better than your portfolio. That’s not a flaw in diversification. It’s practically the definition of diversification.

If you spread your money among different types of investments, you know in advance that you won’t have all your money in the year’s best-performing investment. You also won’t have all of it in the year’s worst. The trouble comes when investors look at what’s winning and decide they need more of it.

Benchmarking Can Turn Into Performance Chasing

This is where an innocent comparison can become an expensive investing habit. You notice that the S&P 500 has beaten your portfolio for several years, so you move more money into the S&P 500. Then international stocks begin outperforming, and you wonder whether you should own more of those. Technology stocks soar, and your diversified index funds start to seem boring. This is the investment hopping Wes warns about.

“Instead of asking whether your portfolio is funding your personal retirement goals, benchmarking pulls you into a toxic loop of comparing your returns to arbitrary market indexes or hotter sectors you think you’re missing,” Wes says.

That comparison can create “a pattern of investment hopping that rarely turns out well.” The reason is simple. You’re usually reacting to what has already happened.

The investment you’re tempted to buy is attractive precisely because it has performed so well recently. Meanwhile, the investment you’re tempted to abandon may look unattractive because it has recently underperformed. You’re effectively looking in the rearview mirror and using it to decide where to go next.

What’s the Right Benchmark?

For most investors, the most important benchmark has nothing to do with the market. It’s whether your portfolio is doing what you need it to do.

Suppose your retirement plan assumes you need an average long-term return of 6% to support your spending without running out of money. Your diversified portfolio is producing returns consistent with that plan while taking a level of risk you’re comfortable with. Does it really matter that the S&P 500 did better last year? It might be interesting, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you should change anything.

A portfolio earning 6% when your plan needs 6% is doing its job. And a portfolio earning 12% while carrying far more risk than your plan calls for has taken on an exposure you never needed, which is something you’ll only find out about in a bad year. Your plan tells you whether you’re on track. An index tells you what a group of stocks did.

Don’t Let Someone Else’s Returns Ruin Your Plan

Investing would be considerably easier if we never knew how anyone else was doing. But that’s not the world we live in.

We see the stock market’s performance every day. We hear about the stocks that soared, not the ones that quietly lost half their value. Friends tell us about their winners. Financial headlines constantly remind us which investments are “crushing the market.” All of that makes it remarkably easy to feel like you’re falling behind.

But investing isn’t a competition to earn the highest possible return every year. Higher potential returns generally come with higher risk, and the portfolio that’s appropriate for someone else may be completely inappropriate for you.

Final Thoughts

Before changing your portfolio because something else is outperforming it, ask yourself two questions:

Is my portfolio appropriately diversified for my goals and risk tolerance?

And is it on track to provide the money I’ll need?

If the answer to both is yes, you may not have an investing problem at all — you may simply be looking at the wrong benchmark.

The goal isn’t to own whatever is winning right now. It’s to build a diversified portfolio with an appropriate level of risk that gives you a good chance of reaching your financial goals, and then have the discipline to stick with it when something else inevitably looks greener on the other side of the fence.
The post Are You Making This Common Investing Mistake? (Benchmarking) appeared first on Clark Howard.

After a second quarter of positive growth, Target is executing a turnaround strategy focused on merchandising, guest experience, tech acceleration, and store operations.

Scammers use many strategies to get victims to part ways with their money, and Social Security recipients are a common target.
Fake Social Security statement emails have become more common, with the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Office of the Inspector General warning of a “significant increase” in government imposter emails earlier this year. Knowing the common red flags can help you avoid becoming a victim.

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How the fake Social Security Statement email works
Some scammers send messages impersonating the SSA and claim that you can view or download your recent statement. The email contains a red flag right away because Social Security would never send an unsolicited link or download button that gives access to your statement.
The link will often lead to a fraudulent website that looks legitimate and asks for your login information. Then, once a victim provides that information, a scammer can get into their actual Social Security account and redirect benefits. It can also lead to identity theft, which can translate into additional losses if the scammer takes out credit lines under your name.
Scammers can find real government employees’ names and create fake documents to appear legitimate. While you can also check the sender’s email address for a slight misspelling or the wrong URL in the email, the best thing you can do is avoid clicking the link.

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The safe way to check your Social Security Statement
Instead of following the steps suggested by the potential scammer, head over to the SSA’s website and sign into your personal “my Social Security” account to review records and account information. That way, you go straight to the source instead of clicking what is very likely to be a fraudulent link in a scammer’s email.
Phishing isn’t limited to Social Security. Scammers will present themselves as other agencies and companies when attempting to steal your information. That’s why the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) advises against clicking links or downloading attachments in unexpected messages.
Phishing also isn’t the only Social Security scam. Threats of arrest, claims that your Social Security number will be suspended, demands for immediate payment (especially through an alternative method like crypto or gift cards) or pressure to provide personal information are common scammer tactics.
What to do if you clicked the link
You should report the scam to the SSA regardless of whether you clicked the link or not. If you clicked the link but did not enter any of your personal information, you should update your security software and run a scan for malware.
If you clicked the link and entered any personal or financial information, you must move quickly. Change compromised passwords and follow the FTC’s identity theft recovery process if sensitive identity information was exposed. You should also freeze your credit so a scammer cannot take out loans and credit lines under your name.
Be sure to monitor your financial statements and Social Security records to ensure there is no suspicious activity. While clicking does not guarantee your information has been stolen, it’s good to be cautious and know how to pinpoint scammers before you become a victim.

Menswear retailers have been recovering over the last six years since the Covid-19 pandemic, led by Men’s Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank owner Tailored Brands, which plans to open 20 stores by the end of 2026 and another 30 in 2027.

Tailored Brands had closed over 400 stores when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 2026, but the retail operator has changed course with expansion. Smaller chains like Peter Manning New York plan to grow as well, despite filing for bankruptcy.

Men’s fashion apparel retail chain Peter Manning New York filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to reorganize its business as it faces a lawsuit filed by a supplier, alleging unpaid invoices.

The debtor operates its Peter Manning Fit Shops at 933 Broadway in New York’s Flatiron district and at 1413 Wisconsin Ave. NW in Washington, D.C. The men’s apparel chain plans to open a third location in Boston in September 2026, a customer service representative for the retailer told TheStreet.

Peter Manning New York also operates an e-commerce platform on its petermanningnyc.com website.

In addition to the New York, Washington, D.C., and Boston locations, Peter Manning LLC holds a lease on a warehouse at 4014 1st Ave., in Brooklyn, N.Y., according to the debtor’s petition.

Peter Manning New York files for bankruptcy protection seeking to reorganize its business.Antonio_Diaz / Getty Images

Peter Manning files bankruptcy

The New York-based specialty men’s clothing chain filed its Subchapter V petition in the U.S. bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on Aug. 19, listing about $138,000 in assets and about $3.1 million in debts.

Peter Manning New York’s largest creditors include its landlord 933 Broadway LLC, owed over $783,000; vendor Kam Caine Hong Kong Ltd., owed over $276,000; Shopify, owed over $247,000; 19-20 Bush Terminal Owner LP, owed over $230,000; and Lever Style Ltd., the supplier that filed a lawsuit against the debtor, owed about $150,000.

Lever Style files lawsuit

Lever Style filed a complaint against Peter Manning New York and the company’s owner and CEO Jeff Hansen in June 2023, alleging that retailer and Hansen owed the plaintiff over $1.14 million in unpaid invoices.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, is still pending.

Debtor issues personal guarantee

Lever Style manufactured and delivered Peter Manning apparel from May 2018 through September 2022, but the retailer began having difficulties making payments on invoices, according to the complaint. To convince the supplier to continue fulfilling purchase orders, the CEO issued a personal guarantee of delinquent balances and any future balances owed to Lever.

Peter Manning on or around Feb. 22, 2023, stopped paying invoices related to its purchase orders, prompting Lever Style to demand payment of the outstanding balance from Hansen, according to the complaint.

The Peter Manning CEO allegedly refused to make payment in full on the outstanding balance, which resulted in Lever Style filing a breach of contract lawsuit demanding that Hansen pay the $1.14 million owed.

Offers its own clothes size system

The men’s apparel chain was founded in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 2013, focusing on manufacturing high-quality clothes with a proper fit. Having difficulty finding an acceptable fit for typical small, medium, and large sizes, the company launched its own proprietary size system.

The size system consists of four sizes, ranging from Size 1: 5 feet, 1-inch and 105 to 120 pounds, to Size 4: 5 feet, 7-inches to 5 feet, 10 inches and 145 to 160 pounds.

The company also offers “broad cuts” from 2X: 5 feet, 2 inches to 5 feet, 6 inches and 130 to 155 pounds, to 4XL: 5 feet, 6 inches to 5 feet, 10 inches and 180 to 205 pounds.

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Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Minneapolis” may be a real contender for a Best Rock Song Grammy nomination — a field the rocker knows very well.