EEM

The Leuthold Group's Jim Paulsen builds part of his bullish case on diverging confidence levels between Wall Street and Main Street.

We provide a check in our 10 charts to watch in 2020: both keeping score and addressing the "Where to next?" question.Among the key takeaways, we see global growth rebounding into 2021, with emerging markets set to surprise.We see underappreciated and underpriced upside inflation risks (especially given our bullish base case for commodities).Constructive on global equities, but more so ex-US (also bearish US dollar), and more so in value versus growth.Chinese equities could end up an underdog outperformer.

Household equity allocations (as a % of household assets) are near the high end of their historical range. An analysis of corporate capital structures in terms of equity and debt, and how it changed over time. Why fiscal policy is a key variable to consider within any tactical investment framework, at this particularly juncture.

Despite a growing economic and technological decoupling between China and the West, the financial divide is actually shrinking.China's bond market - now the second largest in the world - has seen increased foreign participation, especially in its government bond market, where foreign ownership now exceeds 9%, up from a negligible level just a few years ago.The unknowns of the post-COVID-19 landscape demand greater attention to portfolio construction, and investors may wish to consider alternative paths to a more efficient portfolio and a diversified stream of returns.

On CNBC's "Fast Money Final Trade," James McDonald said he is all in the January 2021 expiration calls in ProShares Ultra VIX Short Term Futures ETF (NYSE: UVXY). He thinks the volatility is the only place to be.

Cathie Wood’s Ark Investment Management is well known for its wildly optimistic price target for Tesla Inc., its money-spinning bet on Bitcoin and the 81% return of its main fund this year. It’s less well known that almost none of its analysts has a finance background.