Smart Investor: Top-Large Growth Funds, Tariffs, the Economy and the Experts on the 2025 Outlook 

​Want to stay informed with market insights and investing ideas from Morningstar? Sign up for my weekly Smart Investor newsletter here.This week’s highlights:After a soggy start to the year, stocks and bonds bounced back strongly in the past week. As Sarah Hansen reports, the catalyst for the twin rallies was the December Consumer Price Index report, which showed core inflation coming in on the softer side of expectations. Against this backdrop, the Morningstar US Market Index gained 3.1% on the week, while bond yields fell back from their highest levels in over a year. But long-term yields remain materially higher than just a few months ago.Was the CPI report really that good? On the one hand, the Federal Reserve is still expected to pause its rate cuts. But Morningstar chief economist Preston Caldwell saw a lot to like under the hood. But the CPI report doesn’t address concerns that the new presidential administration and Republican Congress will enact policies that could worsen inflation pressures. This week, we updated our guide for investors to the next Trump administration, which looks at what could affect your portfolio.In addition, Caldwell takes a deep dive into the potential impact Trump’s proposed tariffs could have on the US economy. As he explains, it depends heavily on which countries are targeted.Speaking of outlooks, Christine Benz is back with her annual check into what some of Wall Street’s biggest money managers are expecting from bonds and stocks in 2025. The big takeaway: It might be time to downshift your expectations for longer-term returns. Meanwhile, this past week saw earnings season kick off with the big banks out with fourth quarter results that investors, for the most part, cheered. Check out our what our analysts thought of JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Citi and Bank of America.Lastly, we have our weekly fund screens of the best performers across key stock and bond fund categories. This time around, we look at the top-performing large-growth stock funds, and there’s a clear winner. Hint: It’s a well-known Boston-based fund company.Okay, that wasn’t really the last item. It’s actually a surprise column from John Rekenthaler, who came out of retirement to pen a must-read about how to interpret the stock market’s post-election rally through the eyes of the late Ben Graham. Don’t miss it. Be sure to visit our Markets page for our latest coverage and live stock market updates, along with our weekly calendar of key upcoming data and events.The author or authors do not own shares in any securities mentioned in this article.
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