What To Expect From The Stock Market In 2026 Stansberry Research

On January 2, 2020, I made the most prescient call of my 15-year career at Stansberry Research... At the time, stocks were regularly hitting new all-time highs, and many investors were convinced nothing could stop the mega-bull market. That made it a great time to ponder the unthinkable... like something stopping the bull dead in its tracks. To help me get in the right frame of mind, I read President Herbert Hoover's diary of the Great Depression. I didn't sleep well the next few nights.

You see, nearly a century ago, on the eve of the world's greatest financial calamity, investors were ignoring disturbing economic realities. As I put the pieces together and started thinking about the current situation, it suddenly became plain-as-day obvious that investors were once again making the same terrible mistake. I published my thoughts and findings in the first Digest of 2020. Little did I know, the next "unthinkable" event was just a few weeks away... On February 11, 2020, the World Health Organization ("WHO") officially named the disease that would become a worldwide nemesis "COVID-19." Three weeks later, on March 13, the Trump administration declared a national emergency. At Morgan Stanley, we lead with exceptional ideas.

Across all our businesses, we offer keen insight on today's most critical issues. Learn from our industry leaders about how to manage your wealth and help meet your personal financial goals. At Morgan Stanley, we lead with exceptional ideas. Across all our businesses, we offer keen insight on today's most critical issues. From volatility and geopolitics to economic trends and investment outlooks, stay informed on the key developments shaping today's markets. At Morgan Stanley, we lead with exceptional ideas.

Across all our businesses, we offer keen insight on today's most critical issues. Reading through dozens of 100-page investment outlooks to identify common themes for the year ahead is a daunting task. Fortunately, there are some great tools available to summarize research reports sift through all the different points of view. Below are four major themes common in most of the 2026 investment outlooks. After reviewing 18 reports, four themes emerged again and again in the 2026 outlooks. Several firms referred to what is happening in AI as an infrastructure revolution.

Fears of another tech bubble are understandable, but the current AI boom is fundamentally different from the dot-com era. Analysis from Barclays and Morgan Stanley point to the fact that today’s leaders are highly profitable, cash-generative companies, unlike their speculative, often profitless, counterparts from the dot-com bubble. Hyperscaler capital expenditures are expected to continue, with increased investment in sourcing energy to meet growing demand. The data centers required to train and run advanced AI models are incredibly power-intensive. Goldman forecasts indicate that power demand from data centers is set to grow by more than 175% by 2030 compared to 2023 levels, creating a massive, long-term investment theme in energy and utilities infrastructure. Fidelity semiconductor analyst Jonathan Tseng addressed the doubters nervous about ROI on the huge infrastructure spend:

“So far, AI models continue to improve and productisation is proceeding rapidly. If that works, then everything else will work. Trying to claim that you conclusively know that AI doesn’t deliver value based on old data and old models is like looking at the Wright Flyer and deciding that mass air travel will never... Every time Joe publishes a story, you’ll get an alert straight to your inbox! By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

It's December 1, and we're firmly enmeshed in the most exciting part of any given year. No, I'm not referring to the holiday season, even if your local radio stations have all flipped over to Christmas formatting. I'm talking about stock forecast season, when the top strategists on Wall Street unveil their S&P 500 targets for the year ahead. The Street's heaviest hitters have been on it, with a handful publishing their 2026 outlooks before Thanksgiving, giving market enthusiasts everywhere something to chew on over the holiday weekend. AFTER AN EXTRAORDINARY AND SURPRISING YEAR that saw the S&P 500 record double-digit gains and corporate profits outpace expectations, what comes next? Do equity markets have more room for growth?

Are stock valuations too high? What, if anything, could derail economic growth and the market’s resilience? “From energy grids and data centers to defense systems and digital platforms, power is driving the global economy — and shaping the outlook for 2026.” Chris Hyzy, Chief Investment Officer for Merrill and Bank of America Private Bank, believes the U.S. economy and financial markets are powering up for a new level of potential growth. “From energy grids and data centers to defense systems and digital platforms, power is driving the global economy — and shaping the outlook for 2026,” he says.

Below, find answers from the Chief Investment Office (CIO) and BofA Global Research to four top-of-mind questions about the potential risks and opportunities ahead. Plus, test your knowledge of current market dynamics. For additional useful insights and lively conversation, watch the Outlook 2026 webcast “Powering up: What could drive the next era of growth?” “The U.S. economy is firing on all cylinders,” says Joe Quinlan, head of Market Strategy for the CIO, who cites six reasons equity prices could potentially keep advancing: We are bullish on stocks with a 7,000 target on the S&P 500 Index (SPX)(SP500) assuming an 18% effective corporate tax rate is enacted.

Our target represents For decades, game-changing technologies and innovations have played a big role in sending the benchmark S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC), growth-fueled Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC), and mature stock-driven Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI) to... The arrival and mainstream proliferation of the internet in the mid-1990s is a perfect example of an innovation that completely altered the growth trajectory for American businesses, as well as paved the way for... The internet tore down information barriers that had existed between Wall Street and Main Street for more than a century, and it opened up countless new channels for businesses to market their products and... Since the dot-com hype hit Wall Street, investors have witnessed several next-big-thing technologies and innovations come and go. Examples include genome decoding, nanotechnology, 3D printing, blockchain technology, and the metaverse, among others.

But rarely are investors graced with more than one game-changing trend or innovation at the same time. In 2025, there are three! The concern for Wall Street and investors is that all three of these hyped trends are showing signs of breaking down. We may witness stock market history in 2026, with the potential bursting of three bubbles simultaneously.

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