Smart Investor: Market-Leading Dividend Stocks, Bull or Bear on the Outlook, Should You Buy REITs?

This week’s highlights:

• Weekly Market Update: Growth and Tech Stocks Edge Higher As the Market Treads Water
• The Dividend Stocks Outpacing the Market in 2025
• Bull or Bear? Here’s How the Outlook for Stocks Stacks Up
• Fed on Inflation Watch, but Rate Cuts Still Ahead
• US Exceptionalism, AI, Resilient Economy Will Keep Lifting Stocks, Says Parnassus’ Ahlsten
• Why Stock Investors Should Take a Closer Look at REITs
• Cutting Solar Stock Valuations as Senate GOP Tax Proposal Proves Worse Than Expected
• The Regulatory Tides Bolstering Stablecoins

Markets seem to be a bit in limbo these days. Stocks are up on the year, but without much enthusiasm. For the second straight week, the broader market ended pretty much where it began. As Sarah Hansen reports, market strategists see bullish and bearish forces more or less in balance for now. But which way might they tilt? Check out her story here.

Case in point: Federal Reserve policy. This past week, the Fed kept interest rates steady, and though they continue to pencil in two rate cuts this year, officials see considerable uncertainty in the outlook. Morningstar’s senior US economist Preston Caldwell digs into the latest from the central bank and offers his take on what might be ahead.

Meanwhile, Leslie Norton found a more bullish voice in Todd Ahlsten, chief investment officer at Parnassus. Alhsten sees multiple reasons to be optimistic for US stocks in the long term, and he offers some of his current favorites.

The backdrop for the market’s sideways churn is an exceptionally high level of policy uncertainty in Washington. In addition to the significant lack of clarity on trade, there’s the outcome of the GOP tax bill and what it means for the deficit and economy. This past week, solar stocks took a huge hit when the Senate version of the bill turned out to be more aggressive than expected in reducing government support for the industry.

By contrast, crypto is looking more like a favored son in Washington. Analyst Jasmin Sethi looks at the Senate’s passage of the Genius Act, which is bolstering the outlook for stablecoins.

Meanwhile, data analysis software company Palantir has seen its stock surge this year, as it seems on track to get more business from the Trump administration. But as Leslie Norton reports, some observers caution that Palantir carries reputational risk around potential privacy issues in how its products get used.

Back to the stock market more broadly, Morningstar Indexes strategist Dan Lefkovitz notes that real estate investment trusts have been underperforming for the better part of five years. Check out what Lefkovitz has to say about how REITs work or don’t work in a portfolio, and whether there is a contrarian play in the sector.

Lastly, this week, Bella Albrecht takes a close look at the outperformance of dividend stocks so far in 2025.